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Steven Pinker: Can Numbers Show Us That Progress Is Inevitable?
It might seem like the world is getting worse and worse. But psychologist Steven Pinker says that across the board, data suggests we've made a lot of progress. The question is — will it continue? About Steven Pinker Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and the Johnstone Family Professor in the Harvard Department of Psychology. His research covers everything from visual cognition and psycholinguistics to social relations. He is the author of several books, including his most recent: Enlightenment Now: the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
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People Pick Gifts That Will “Wow” Rather Than Satisfy Recipients
Gift givers tend to focus on the “big reveal,” choosing the gift that will surprise and delight the recipient in the moment over the one that will bring long-term satisfaction.
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Moral Outrage Can Backfire When It Goes Viral
Moral outrage feels good. If you see a social media post that you view as racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive, a stinging reply can be an irresistible temptation. But if too many people take the bait, all that criticism can come across as piling on, which creates sympathy for the original transgressor.
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Getting Kids to Eat More Vegetables
If you want a child to eat more vegetables, it might help to use plates illustrated with pictures of vegetables. Researchers tested 235 preschoolers in day care centers. At lunchtime, they gave half the children a segmented plate with pictures of fruits and vegetables in the compartments. They explained that the pictures indicated where the foods were to be placed. The other half used plain white plates. After three days, they switched plates — the first group got the plain plates, the second those with illustrations. The children served themselves from serving bowls and ate as much as they wanted.
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You 2.0: Dream Jobs
Why do you work? Popular wisdom says your answer depends on what your job is. But psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski at Yale University finds it may have more to do with how we think about our work. Across a diverse array of jobs — from secretaries to custodians to computer programmers — Wrzesniewski finds people are about equally split in whether they say they have a "job," a "career," or a "calling." This week on Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam talks with Wrzesniewski about how we find meaning and purpose at work. This episode is part of our "You 2.0" summer series. Each story looks at how we can improve the decisions we make, from the mundane to the momentous.
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Can the Psychological Technique of ‘Pre-Conformity’ Help Change Our Harmful Behaviors?
Psychologists have found a simple trick to reduce meat consumption in restaurants. Tell a customer that other people are increasingly choosing the menu's meatless options, and the customer becomes more likely to order a vegetarian meal. It's a simple but effective intervention that relies on peer pressure and social influence to convince people to rethink their longstanding habits, says Gregg Sparkman, a Ph.D. student in psychology at Stanford University who led the experiment. Essentially, Sparkman's findings show that you can change a person's behavior by highlighting other people's success in changing their behaviors.
