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Do You Hate When Adults Ask You What You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
Has anyone ever asked you what you want to be when you grow up? Do you appreciate when adults ask the question and consider it a sign that they are interested in your life, hopes and dreams? Or are you annoyed, filled with dread and wish you could run and hide? How do you respond to these queries? Do you dive in and discuss your future plans honestly? Or do you give a pat answer to get the grown-up off your back? If there were a way to magically make this question disappear forever, would you wish it away? In “Stop Asking Kids What They Want to Be When They Grow Up,” Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, writes:
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A psychology experiment unexpectedly discovered a man who can’t cooperate because of brain damage
When someone’s especially cooperative, don’t thank their easy-going nature, but give credit to their brain. A team of New York University psychologists hypothesized that cooperation depends on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DPC), an area of the brain in the frontal lobe involved in regulation control and goal pursuit; after all, cooperation often requires reigning in one’s naughty impulses to take everything for themselves. To test their theory, the researchers conducted an experiment involving participants with brain damage to the DPC—and discovered someone who would not cooperate at all.
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People With Happy Spouses May Live Longer
Having a happy spouse can lead to a longer marriage, and now study results show that it’s associated with a longer life, too.
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New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring racial bias in perception of size and strength, pathways linking testosterone and aggression, and reactivation of previous experiences.
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Three tips for giving a great research talk
Last month, Leah visited Neil’s university to give a colloquium talk about her neuroscience research. She spoke about things that Neil, a social behavior researcher, doesn’t know much about—brain parts with fancy names such as the “ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.” But he was fully engaged with her talk—and didn’t spend any time scrolling through his Twitter feed (promise!)—because she took the time to explain that what she was really trying to figure out was why teenagers learn differently than adults. Leah communicated the topic in a way that could resonate with a broad scientific audience and enrich Neil’s understanding of his own work.
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A smarter way to think about willpower
Since World War II, obesity rates in the United States have skyrocketed, our net national savings rate has plummeted, and American adults and kids alike have allocated a rapidly rising proportion of their free time to staring at electrons dancing on screens. What’s happened to our country since the Greatest Generation? Are these secular trends symptoms of an epidemic decline in self-control? Do we need to make American self-control great again? Americans generally see themselves as kind, fair and honest people. In contrast, in a self-report questionnaire completed by more than 80,000 American adults, self-control ranked lowest among 24 strengths of character.
