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You Choose, They Lose: The Psychology of Income Inequality
Pacific Standard: Paper or plastic? PC or Mac? Do you want fries with that? American culture is all about making choices. And two scholars report that mulling over our options affects how we think about economic inequality. “When the concept of choice was highlighted,” they write, “people (taking part in a series of experiments) were less disturbed by statistics demonstrating wealth inequality, less likely to believe that societal factors contribute to the success of the wealthy, less willing to endorse redistributing educational resources more equally between the rich and the poor, and less willing to endorse increased taxes on the rich.” Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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Thinking About Choice Diminishes Concern for Wealth Inequality
Against the backdrop of a worldwide recession, wealth inequality has become a prominent theme in discussions about politics and the economy. In some ways, Americans seem to advocate a more equal distribution of wealth. In surveys and public opinion polls, for example, the majority of Americans supports having a strong middle class. But, when it comes to specific policies, they often vote against measures that would narrow the gap between those with the highest and lowest incomes.
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Class discrimination harms health of poor
United Press International: Discrimination and the stigma attached to poverty may contribute to physiologic changes associated with poorer health, U.S. researchers suggest. Lead author Dr. Thomas Fuller-Rowell of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar, said although the link between poverty and poor health has been long known, this study considered the impact of class discrimination. The study involved 252 17-year-olds from upstate New York enrolled in a long-running Cornell University study on rural poverty. All were white but the study did not look at the effect of race.
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You Know You Want One: Personal Robots Are Coming, But Not Ready For You Yet
NPR: Meet Jake. At 500 pounds, he stands 4 feet 4 four inches tall, with a spine that stretches another foot. He has white urethane skin, a flat head sporting an array of camera lenses, and a laser scanner in his throat. And he may be coming to a home near you. Jake is a PR2, which stands for "personal robot," and the brainchild of Willow Garage, a robotics company in Menlo Park, Calif. Founded in 2006, the company is considered one of the most exciting, influential players in the world of personal robotics. Willow Garage has given away 11 of these PR2 robots — each worth $400,000 — to research institutions.
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Study Offers Possible Explanation for the Huge Gender Gap in Science and Math
Slate: Schools have tried for years to encourage girls to explore careers in math and science, yet a stubborn gender gap in the STEM fields persists. But new research might have an explanation: The messages we take in about our gender—like the old refrain that girls aren’t as good as boys at science–can influence the way we perform. Believing you have innate qualities that make you good or bad at something—called “entity theories”— can change the way you handle a difficult task, psychologists have theorized.
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How To Save Energy by Driving Less
The Wall Street Journal: What would it take to get people to drive less? It could be as simple as having them keep a record of the car trips they don’t take, a study found. In the study, students at the University of Virginia who kept track online of the car trips they avoided ended up driving less than those who didn’t keep a record, researchers found. What’s more, students who also received feedback on both the money they saved on gas and the pollution they prevented by not using their cars reduced time behind the wheel even more. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
