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Estimating Risk
BBC: How good at you at estimating risk? Claudia Hammond talks to Wolfgang Gaissmaier about his analysis of the increase in fatal car accidents in the USA following the 9/11 attacks Watch here: BBC
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The Marketplace in Your Brain
The Chronicle of Higher Education: In 2003, amid the coastal greenery of the Winnetu Oceanside Resort, on Martha's Vineyard, a group of about 20 scholars gathered to kick-start a new discipline. They fell, broadly, into two groups: neuroscientists and economists. What they came to talk about was a collaboration between the two fields, which a few researchers had started to call "neuroeconomics." Insights about brain anatomy, combined with economic models of neurons in action, could produce new insights into how people make decisions about money and life. A photo taken during one of those sun-dappled days captures the group posed and smiling around a giant chess set on the resort lawn.
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Being selfish really does make us happy (as long as we can avoid feeling guilty)
The Daily Mail: Being selfish really does make us happier, researchers have found - so long as we can avoid feeling guilty. Although we are taught the benefits of kindness and altruism, it seems we are happiest when simply told to pursue our own self-interest. Researchers found the key to contentment is feeling we have no choice but to be selfish. In contrast, the study, carried out by psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania, found that those who actively choose a selfish path usually have to battle with guilt.
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Can Marriage Save Single Mothers From Poverty?
NPR: Newly released census figures show a long-standing and glaring contrast: A third of families headed by single mothers are in poverty, and they are four times more likely than married-couple families to be poor. The disparity is on the rise, and as the number of single mothers grows, analysts are debating if more marriages could mean less poverty. For many conservatives, the answer is simple: Promote marriages as a balm for poverty. Last week, the Heritage Foundation issued a report called "Marriage: America's Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty." In his run for the Republican presidential ticket, Rick Santorum proclaimed three simple steps to stay out of poverty: "Work.
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Calling Miss Congeniality – Do Attractive People Have Attractive Traits and Values?
We’ve all been warned not to “judge a book by its cover,” but inevitably we do it anyway. It’s difficult to resist the temptation of assuming that a person’s outward appearance reflects something meaningful about his or her inner personality. Indeed, research shows that people tend to perceive attractive adults as more social, successful, and well-adjusted than less attractive adults, a phenomenon that’s been termed the “what is beautiful is good” stereotype. But could that really be true? Are physically attractive people really just as attractive on the inside as they are on the outside?
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Are You Bored… or Boring?
Women's Health: Take a break from your hectic schedule, stop running around like a crazy lady, look up from your iPhone, and you might realize something unexpected: You’re bored. Surprised? That’s because the way we understand boredom is off-base, according to a new paper in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. “We often think of boredom in terms of a lack of things to do,” says Mark Fenske, Ph.D., coauthor of the paper and professor at the University of Guelph.
