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The Destructive Influence of Imaginary Peers
The New York Times: We humans irrationally think we’re rational. We think that we decide how to behave by weighing the pros and cons. In reality, the strongest influence on our decisions is the example of the people around us — even, oddly enough, when they are imaginary. Like most universities, Northern Illinois University in DeKalb has a problem with heavy drinking. In the 1980s, the school was trying to cut down on student use of alcohol with the usual strategies. One campaign warned teenagers of the consequences of heavy drinking.
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The Teenage Brain: How Do We Measure Maturity?
Holden Caulfield is the archetypal American teenager. Or at least he was, way back in the 20th century. His misadventures, narrated in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, may seem quaint by today’s standards, yet the 17-year-old reveals many of the worrisome traits that we still associate with adolescence. He acts and speaks impulsively, then regrets his actions. He is unfocused, a poor student who gets himself expelled from school. He gets into fights, drinks way too much, solicits a prostitute and gets beat up by her pimp in his seedy hotel room. The best life plan he can come up with is moving west to live as a deaf-mute. He ends up narrating his lonely story from a psychiatric bed.
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Your Phone vs. Your Heart
The New York Times: CAN you remember the last time you were in a public space in America and didn’t notice that half the people around you were bent over a digital screen, thumbing a connection to somewhere else? Most of us are well aware of the convenience that instant electronic access provides. Less has been said about the costs. Research that my colleagues and I have just completed, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, suggests that one measurable toll may be on our biological capacity to connect with other people. Our ingrained habits change us.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science and Clinical Psychological Science, journals of the Association for Psychological Science. Gendered Races: Implications for Interracial Marriage, Leadership Selection, and Athletic Participation Adam D. Galinsky, Erika V. Hall, and Amy J. C. Cuddy Researchers have documented the effects of racial and gender stereotypes, but few studies have examined how these stereotypes interact. In the first of six studies, researchers had a group of participants rate the masculinity and femininity of several traits and then had a separate group assign those traits to different races.
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Why is math so hard for so many?
The Washington Post: If you are someone who has long struggled with math, read on to find out why that might be so. This was written by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” ... In a recent article in “Current Directions in Psychological Science,” David Geary (2013) reviews evidence that one cause of the problem may be a fundamental deficit in the representation of numerosity. Geary describes three possible sources of a problem in children’s appreciation of number. Read the whole story: The Washington Post
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Damned Spot: Guilt, Scrubbing, and More Guilt
The Huffington Post: Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most complex characters, and by far the bard's most obsessive. Immorally ambitious, she prods her husband to murder Scotland's king, and then deludes herself into believing that "a little water will clear us of this deed." But for all of her repeated hand washing, the ritual cannot cleanse her of her consuming guilt, and by Act V the stubborn blood stains have driven the illegitimate queen to madness and suicide. ... And they were, clearly. As Dar reports in a forthcoming article in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, hand washing did salve guilt about past misdeeds, and reduce willingness to help another person.
