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Social Psychology A Chilly Reception
The Wall Street Journal: When we don't see what we expect to see in the face of a conversation partner, the situation starts to feel chilly—literally. In one experiment, a female researcher greeted 40 undergraduates either in a chatty, informal way or in a professional, remote fashion. She continued to act in the chosen mode as she guided each participant through a task involving describing photos. As the two talked, the experimenter either subtly mimicked the partner's expressions and mannerisms or strenuously avoided any imitation. Later, the participants were asked, among other things, how cold they thought the room was. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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Allowing the Mind to Wander Aids Creativity
Scientific American: History is rich with 'eureka' moments: scientists from Archimedes to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein are said to have had flashes of inspiration while thinking about other things. But the mechanisms behind this psychological phenomenon have remained unclear. A study now suggests that simply taking a break does not bring on inspiration -- rather, creativity is fostered by tasks that allow the mind to wander. The discovery was made by a team led by Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler, psychologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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When to Punish, and When to Rehabilitate
The New York Times: The Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on when, if ever, it is appropriate to sentence juvenile offenders to life without parole. The arguments this spring showed the complexity of drawing the lines between child and adult, and between justice and cruelty. When minors commit violent crimes, should they be treated differently from adults? Is prison effective as a punishment and deterrent for juveniles, or does it harden a young person who might otherwise recover? Read the whole story: The New York Times
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Embattled Childhood: The Real Trauma in PTSD
In 2009, a regiment of Danish soldiers, the Guard Hussars, was deployed for a six-month tour in Afghanistan’s arid Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold. They were stationed along with British soldiers—270 in all—at a forward operating base called Armadillo. Although none of the Guard Hussars was killed during the tour of duty, they nevertheless experienced many horrors of battle. A commander was seriously injured by a roadside bomb, and a night patrol ended in a firefight that killed and dismembered several Taliban combatants.
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How Baby Names Can Help Marketers Predict the Next Big Thing
TIME: Few parents would admit to naming their baby after a hurricane. But unconsciously that might be exactly what many of us are doing — or at least appropriating the sounds of a name that, if the storm grows large enough, is uttered over and over on the news and in the course of casual conversation. According to Wharton marketing professors Jonah Berger and Eric Bradlow, that unintended impact of such natural disasters can tell marketers a lot about how the sights and sounds that we’re exposed to every day can impact our choices and, in turn, influence the consumer goods, music, movies and even baby names that become popular.
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When Good People Behave Badly
The Huffington Post: I'm sitting on a plane to Washington, D.C., thinking about unethical behavior. (Insert your own politician joke here.) No, it's not my impending proximity to Congress that has me pondering such matters. Rather, it's that I'm headed to give a keynote address at the annual meeting of Compliance Week, a magazine/website dedicated to corporate governance, risk management, and compliance. That, plus I was just reading about Dan Ariely's new book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. What do I plan to talk about in discussing the psychology of fraud and unethical behavior?
