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After the Storms, A Different Opinion on Climate Change
Hurricanes and other traumatic weather events may have the power to shift people’s instincts about the need for policies that address the threats of climate change, a study indicates.
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Can You Detect Your Partner’s Feelings Without Seeing His Or Her Face?
The Huffington Post: Younger adults are more adept at reading emotion in their partner's face than older adults. But when the partner isn't present, older and younger adults are equally able to detect their significant others' moods. Or so suggests a new study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany. "When judging others' emotions in real life, people do not exclusively rely on emotional expressions," said lead researcher Antje Rauers in a press release.
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Study: Deep down, we love our parents’ music
Pacific Standard: Pretty much everyone has a soft spot for particular pop songs from the past, however cheesy they may seem today. These tunes, which trigger positive memories and produce warm feelings, tend to be hits from our adolescence and early adulthood. You never forget what was playing when you enjoyed your first kiss. But here’s a surprise: We respond with similar pleasure to the much older songs that served as background music to our parents’ first kiss. And possibly their parents’ as well. Newly published research suggests musical nostalgia is a multigenerational phenomenon.
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Study Says Yelling Is As Hurtful as Hitting
The Wall Street Journal: Parents who yell at their adolescent children for misbehaving can cause some of the same problems as hitting them would, including increased risk of depression and aggressive behavior, according to a new study. A good, warm relationship with Mom and Dad doesn't protect teens from the negative effects of parents' yelling, cursing or lobbing insults, such as calling teens "lazy" or "stupid," the study found. Conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan, the study was published Wednesday on the journal Child Development's website. ...
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How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy
The New Yorker: No one joins Facebook to be sad and lonely. But a new study from the University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross argues that that’s exactly how it makes us feel. Over two weeks, Kross and his colleagues sent text messages to eighty-two Ann Arbor residents five times per day. The researchers wanted to know a few things: how their subjects felt overall, how worried and lonely they were, how much they had used Facebook, and how often they had had direct interaction with others since the previous text message.
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An Honest Wage: Dollars, Hours and Ethics
In the nation’s capital this month, Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed legislation that would have forced large retailers to pay more than the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. Gray was under pressure from Wal-Mart, which threatened not to expand operations in Washington if the so-called “living wage” bill were passed. Passionate debate on the issue has dominated the local news for months. This debate took me back to when I was a young man, working in a thread factory for $1.60 an hour. That was the minimum wage at the time, just raised from $1.40 the year before. I was a student, living on nothing, so I didn’t need a living wage.
