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Awakening Your Inner Materialist
I don’t see myself as especially materialistic, and you probably don’t see yourself that way either. The fact is, I don’t know anyone who actually takes pride in acquiring more and more stuff, and many of my friends decry the commercialization of the holiday season. That’s a good thing, because all the evidence says that people who are preoccupied with possessions are not very happy people. Consumerism is linked to anxiety, lousy relationships, and poor mental and physical health. But let’s not get too self-righteous quite yet. We may not derive our core sense of self-worth from what we buy and own, but does that mean we’re immune to all the cues in our consumer culture?
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Employee misconduct unsettles companies
The Times of India: People often judge a 'group' mind differently from that of a 'member' which has led to the cropping up of issues like decision-making, blame and moral judgment in companies, political groups and organizations, according to a new study. The more people judge a group to have a mind, which includes the ability to think, intend or plan, the less they judge a member of that group to have his or her own aptitude to think, intent or plan, and vice versa. This is the so-called 'trade off' in the way people view the group versus the way they view individuals in the group. Read the whole story: The Times of India
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For Creative People, Cheating Comes More Easily
NPR: Five months after the implosion of Enron, Feb. 12, 2002, the company's chief executive, Ken Lay, finally stood in front of Congress and the world, and placed his hand on a Bible. At that point everyone had questions for Lay. It was clear by then that Enron was the product of a spectacular ethical failure, that there had been massive cheating and lying. The real question was: How many people had been dishonest? Who was in on it? Everyone wanted to know, and Lay, after his swearing in, said he badly wanted to explain things. There was just one problem: His lawyer insisted that he plead the Fifth. And so the public got no answers that day.
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The Challenges of Debunking ESP
The Wall Street Journal: Earlier this year, a major psychology journal published a paper suggesting that there was some evidence for “pre-cognition,” a form of ESP. Stuart Ritchie, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh, is part of a team that tried, but failed, to replicate those results. Here, he tells the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Tom Bartlett about the difficulties he’s had getting the results published. Several journals told the team they wouldn’t publish a study that did no more than disprove a previous study. (This is an example of what researchers call “publication bias” — positive results get published, negative ones don’t.
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What to Expect from Retailers This Holiday Season
U.S. News & World Report: So far, most signs point to a very merry holiday season for retailers and shoppers alike. Early numbers from the National Retail Federation (NRF) show that shoppers spent almost $400 apiece on Black Friday weekend, up from $365 last year. Surveys also indicate that the spending will continue through December; the NRF expects overall holiday sales to increase 2.8 percent over last year. That doesn't necessarily mean that people feel more optimistic about their financial lives—many don't—but they're finding a way to shop anyway.
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Ser bilingüe es saludable
Yahoo Argentina: Hay gente que juega al Sudoku o hace crucigramas para mantener en estado sus neuronas. Otra que memoriza poemas que luego recita como quien repite una rutina de ejercicios aeróbicos para que los kilos no se acumulen, y que lo hace para ejercitar su cerebro. Y también hay un gran número de personas que prefiere aprender un segundo idioma, y no solo para acceder a un mejor puesto de trabajo o poder comunicarse al viajar al extranjero, sino para mantener en línea su mente. La ciencia ha descubierto los beneficios que aporta el estudio de otra lengua a la hora de aceitar la memoria.
