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Rose-Colored Words, but Gray Outcomes
The New York Times: When all the words you hear about the economy are bullish, you may want to run in the other direction. This counterintuitive finding — that positive visions of the future precede downturns — appears to be the case both for people and the economy as a whole. This bad news for unbridled optimism was laid out in a paper published in Psychological Science online in February. The study looked at the relationship between economic malaise and language in newspaper articles and presidential addresses. The finding was stark: Optimistic language was a predictor of poor performance.
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Under the Skin: How Childhood Adversity Takes Its Toll
Most of us have fond memories of our childhood homes, so it’s hard to imagine the lives of less fortunate kids. But far too many youngsters spend their earliest years in homes that are ravaged by poverty and neglect. Many of these children are physically and emotionally abused by parents who are at their wits’ end, who quarrel and drink and sometimes disappear or turn to crime. These parents’ demons take over the home, leaving little room for nurturance and love. Life is doubly unfair for these neglected and abused kids, because they are also much more likely to continue suffering as adults.
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A Thousand Words: Writing from Photographs
The New Yorker: I can’t remember exactly when I stopped carrying a notebook. Sometime in the past year, I gave up writing hurried descriptions of people on the subway, copying the names of artists from museum walls and the titles of books in stores, and scribbling down bits of phrases overheard at restaurants and cafés. It’s not that my memory improved but, instead, that I started archiving these events and ideas with my phone, as photographs. Now, if I want to research the painter whose portraits I admired at the museum, I don’t have to read through page after page of my chicken scratch trying to find her name.
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Socialization technique helps in academic achievement, trial study finds
The Washington Post: A popular teaching technique to help elementary students develop emotional and social skills also leads to academic achievement, according to a study released Thursday. In a randomized, controlled trial that examined the technique known as Responsive Classroom, researchers found that children in classrooms where the technique was fully used scored significantly higher in math and reading tests than students in classrooms where it wasn’t applied. Sara Rimm-Kaufman, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia, said the results are important during a period of increased emphasis on academic results.
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When Incentives Are Too Enticing
Inc: Management research about incentive pay often focuses on whether or not the tactic works to increase productivity. But what if the promise of a bonus or some other reward works too well? New neuroscience research from a team of American and European researchers shows that the excitement of a reward might excite people to the point they are unable to adequately complete the task at hand. The study was detailed recently on the Association for Psychological Science's Minds for Business blog. Read the whole story: Inc.
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Messy Rooms
Science Update: Past research has shown that being in a neat, clean environment can make people adopt higher moral standards. University of Minnesota psychologist Kathleen Vohs decided to take a closer look. Her team compared the behavior of people in tidy rooms versus cluttered ones. After spending time in one or the other, people were given a choice of a healthy snack or a treat, and a chance to donate to charity. And what we found is that the people on the tidy room, the clean room, they were more likely to choose the apple over the chocolate bar, and they donated more money to charity. Read the whole story: Science Update
