-
The Anatomy of Everyday Hatred
The Huffington Post: It's hard to outdo Medea for raw hatred. Thrown over by her husband Jason for another woman, the mythic sorceress takes revenge by poisoning her rival and, just for good measure, her rival's father. Then, just to make sure that Jason comprehends the enormity of her wrath, she murders their two sons in cold blood. Now that's hate -- and probably a lot of other emotions as well, including jealousy and humiliation and anger and disgust. Scientists and poets have long been fascinated by intense, negative emotions such as Medea's, but surprisingly there is no overarching theory of hatred. Who hates whom, and why? What do we mean when we say, I hate?
-
When To Say Yes To The Messy Desk
Forbes: Albert Einstein famously quipped, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” While the Nobel laureate was obviously advocating for the benefits of cluttered desks, he likely had no idea that his question would inspire researchers decades later…and that those researchers would eventually give him an answer. In a recently study published in Psychological Science, a team of researchers headed by Kathleen Vohs found that working at a tidy (Einstein would say empty) desk influences people to be more conventional, more generous and to make healthier choices.
-
A Sense Of Purpose May Help You Stave Off Death
Fast Company's Co. Design: Having a sense of purpose isn't just good for business. It's good for your health, too. According to a new study in Psychological Science, a greater sense of purpose is associated with longer life spans. Researchers from Carleton University in Canada and the University of Rochester examined data from Midlife in the United States, a national longitudinal study funded by the National Institute on Aging. As part of the study, 6,000 participants between the ages of 20 and 75 self-reported information about their purpose in life. During the 14-year follow-up period to the study, 569 of the participants died. Read the whole story: Fast Company's Co. Design
-
Dads Who Share the Load Bolster Daughters’ Aspirations
Fathers who help with household chores are more likely to raise daughters who aspire to less traditional, and potentially higher paying, careers, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study findings indicate that how parents share dishes, laundry and other domestic duties plays a key role in shaping the gender attitudes and aspirations of their children, especially daughters. While mothers’ gender and work equality beliefs were key factors in predicting kids’ attitudes toward gender, the strongest predictor of daughters’ own professional ambitions was their fathers’ approach to household chores.
-
Remembering, as an Extreme Sport
The New York Times: SAN DIEGO – The last match of the tournament had all the elements of a classic showdown, pitting style versus stealth, quickness versus deliberation, and the world’s foremost card virtuoso against its premier numbers wizard. If not quite Ali-Frazier or Williams-Sharapova, the duel was all the audience of about 100 could ask for. They had come to the first Extreme Memory Tournament, or XMT, to see a fast-paced, digitally enhanced memory contest, and that’s what they got.
-
Heavily Decorated Classrooms Disrupt Attention and Learning In Young Children
Researchers hope some new findings may eventually generate guidelines to help teachers optimally design classrooms.
