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Why do we feel schadenfreude?
CNN: When other people suffer misfortunes, we feel sorry for them. Or do we? More than we probably want to admit, we sometimes are secretly pleased. Does a Red Sox fan feel happy to see a Yankee fan miserable over a humiliating loss? Would a Democrat ever tire of watching replays of Mitt Romney's Etch A Sketch moments? Do you find yourself consuming the tabloid news, riveted by coverage of disasters in the gossip columns? ... Social neuroscientists Mina Cikara, Matthew Botvinick, and Susan Fiske in a study published in Psychological Science provided more corroborating evidence for schadenfreude using sports fans rather than political junkies. Read the whole story: CNN
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Falsifying memories
The Guardian: As a Ph.D. student, the young Elizabeth Loftus wasn't captivated by calculus: "I used to sit in the back of the seminars, kind of bored, writing letters to my Uncle Joe, or hemming skirts or whatever". The only girl enrolled on Stanford's mathematical psychology graduate program, she was voted the least likely to succeed in psychology by her peers, but she went on to become one of the most highly cited psychologists of all time – and also one of the most controversial. Here's my profile of her, in the current issue of Nature. In the 1970s, Loftus published a series of influential studies about the fallibility of eyewitness testimony.
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“Precisely right. No doubt. Trust me.”
As a general rule, we tend to value confidence in other people, especially in the “experts” who help us with important decisions in life. Who wants a financial advisor who hesitates in his judgments, or a physician who waffles on every diagnosis and prescription? I want my lawyer to look me in the eye and speak with certainty about the law, and I look for consistency and self-assurance in politicians and leaders. Our decisions in these realms can have profound consequences, so we don’t want to take our cues from the wishy-washy. Fortunately, these experts are all people, and people offer us cues.
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Watch Your Language
Sometimes, the best way to foster staff cohesion is the simple step of choosing the right words. Psychological scientists Hazel Rose Markus and Alana Conner point this out in their new books, Clash!: 8 Cultural Conflicts That Make Us Who We Are (2013, Hudson Street Press). In a chapter on workplace cultures, they cite research showing how organizations can nurture interdependence by simply watching their language. Stanford psychologist Lee Ross and his colleagues, for example, randomly assigned Israeli pilots and American college students to play a game that named either the Wall Street Game or the Community Game.
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Mobbing schlägt dauerhaft auf die Gesundheit (Bullying has long-term consequences for health)
Die Welt: Wer in seiner Kindheit von Gleichaltrigen gemobbt wurde, hat nach einer neuen Studie oft auch noch als Erwachsener mit den Folgewirkungen zu kämpfen. Nach der am Montag vom US-Fachmagazin "Psychological Science" veröffentlichten Untersuchung können schwere Krankheiten, Unstetigkeit im Berufsleben und reduzierte Sozialkontakte die Langzeitfolgen der Mobbing-Erfahrungen sein. Für die großangelegte Studie untersuchten die Psychologen die Lebenserfahrungen von 1420 Teilnehmern – zunächst, als sie im Alter zwischen neun und 16 Jahren waren und später im Erwachsenenalter zwischen 24 und 26 Jahren. Read the whole story: Die Welt
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Middle-age—The Sweet Spot for Fiscal Leadership
Many of the most influential financial decision makers in our society—from business to politics— happen to be those in middle-age. The average age of Fortune 500 chief executive officers and chief financial officers is around the mid-fifties. Historically, the average appointment age of Federal Reserve Chairs and National Economic Council Directors is also in the 50s. The number is not an artifact of averaging; all current members of the Council of Economic Advisors and half of the National Economic Council members are fifty-something. Is there some sort of peak of financial reason in the 50s? Recent research in economics, psychology, and neuroscience suggests that there may be. Gregory R.
