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How Americans Think About Wealth
OK, so I confess I woke myself up at 3:45 AM to watch the royal wedding, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Who doesn’t like a good fairy tale? But in order to savor the spectacle, I had to temporarily suppress my discomfort in the face of such opulence. Behind the fairy tale is some of the most obscene wealth inequality in the world. And it’s not just England. Wealth inequality is at historic highs in the U.S. as well—with some estimates suggesting that 1 percent of Americans control nearly half the nation’s wealth. Or to put it in starker terms, the bottom 20 percent of Americans hold a measly one-tenth of 1 percent of everything—real estate, stocks, bonds, art, anything of value.
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Sex and Politics: Are Powerful Men Really More Likely to Cheat?
TIME: Bill Clinton. Newt Gingrich. Eliot Spitzer. Mark Sanford. Politicians who've been caught with their pants down tend to have one thing in common and it's not political philosophy or party. Overwhelmingly, the philanderers are men. But a new study suggests that the reasons they stray may have more to do with the power they wield than with their, um, masculinity. "The likelihood [of infidelity] increases the more powerful someone is," says study author Joris Lammers, an assistant professor of psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. The research was published in Psychological Science.
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Vitamin Poppers May Make Less Healthful Choices
Scientific American: It can be tough to keep up with dietary trends. Like eating eggs: good for you or bad? But one thing is certain. Taking a multivitamin is a healthy choice. Isn’t it? Not necessarily. Because researchers have found that people who take dietary supplements may make less healthful choices. The work appears in the journal Psychological Science. [Wen-Bin Chiou and Chao-Chin Yang, Ironic Effects of Dietary Supplementation: Illusory Invulnerability Created by Taking Dietary Supplements Licenses Health-risk Behaviors, link to come] Read the whole story: Scientific American
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Test Flags Babies With Autism, But Also Feeds False Alarms
NPR: Pediatricians can use a five-minute questionnaire to identify many 1-year-olds with autism, according to a new study in Journal of Pediatrics. But the screening test also flags a whole lot of babies who aren't autistic. Even so, the result provides "an exciting proof of concept," says Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, in a statement. NIMH helped pay for the study. Read the whole story: NPR
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Ansteckende Erinnerungen
Süddeutsche Zeitung: Erinnerungen erscheinen dem Menschen mitunter so unverrückbar, als wären sie in Stein gemeißelt. Doch Erinnerungen leben. Sie verändern sich, wenn Menschen sie mit anderen teilen. Und manchmal sterben sie, weil jemand stirbt, der sie mit einem Lebenden teilt. Zu dieser Erkenntnis kam die Psychologin Suparna Rajaram vor einigen Jahren. Damals entdeckte sie den Mechanismus der ansteckenden Erinnerung an einem Pärchen: Einer der Partner litt an einer schweren Demenz - und mit dem Gedächtnisverlust des einen verlor auch der andere Partner seine Erinnerungen.
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The Science of Short Fuses: Joe Palca, Flora Lichtman, ‘Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us’ at Politics & Prose
The Express: This just in: People can be irritating. But did you know that there are scientific reasons that we get annoyed? In "Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us" ($26, Wiley), NPR science correspondents Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman explain why everyday things can drive you into a homicidal rage. Custom phone numbers that have too many letters, for instance. (No, 1-800-MATTRESS. You don't leave the last "s" off for "savings." You leave it off because you are OUT OF NUMBERS.) Ahead of the authors' talk Sunday at Politics and Prose, we asked Lichtman to shed some light on a few bugaboos that drive us up the wall.
