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Sometimes ‘poor little rich kids’ really are poor little rich kids
Reuters: The “affluenza” defense of Ethan Couch, a 16-year-old Texas boy who killed four pedestrians while driving drunk, has received a great deal of ridicule, much of it justified. That said, it would be foolish to allow an absurd effort to minimize one teenager’s responsibility for a horrific tragedy to obscure growing evidence that we have a significant and growing crisis on our hands. The children of the affluent are becoming increasingly troubled, reckless, and self-destructive. Perhaps we needn’t feel sorry for these “poor little rich kids.” But if we don’t do something about their problems, they will become everyone’s problems. ...
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Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate
The New York Times: NORMALLY, I would have finished this column weeks ago. But I kept putting it off because my New Year’s resolution is to procrastinate more. I guess I owe you an explanation. Sooner or later. We think of procrastination as a curse. Over 80 percent of college students are plagued by procrastination, requiring epic all-nighters to finish papers and prepare for tests. Roughly 20 percent of adults report being chronic procrastinators. We can only guess how much higher the estimate would be if more of them got around to filling out the survey.
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No Evidence of Seasonal Differences in Depressive Symptoms
A large-scale survey of U.S. adults provides no evidence that levels of depressive symptoms vary from season to season, according to new research published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings are inconsistent with the notion of seasonal depression as a commonly occurring disorder. “In conversations with colleagues, the belief in the association of seasonal changes with depression is more-or-less taken as a given and the same belief is widespread in our culture,” says Steven LoBello, a professor of psychology at Auburn University at Montgomery and senior author on the new study.
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Scientists say sorry, but speed reading doesn’t work
Business Insider: I'll be the first to admit it: My life would be a whole lot easier if I could speed read. Instead of spending an hour poring over a dense scientific paper I'm writing about, I'd spend just a few minutes and understand everything perfectly. Unfortunately, while there are plenty of businesses out there claiming they could teach me to do just that, a new study suggests those claims are basically bogus. For the study, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, researchers present a series of takedowns of different arguments put forth by proponents of speed reading. Read the whole story: Business Insider
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Episode 677: The Experiment Experiment
NPR: A few years back, a famous psychologist published a series of studies that found people could predict the future — not all the time, but more often than if they were guessing by chance alone. The paper left psychologists with two options. "Either we have to conclude that ESP is true," says Brian Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, "or we have to change our beliefs about the right ways to do science." Read the whole story: NPR
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The Energizing Effect of Humor
Humor may actually help people persevere in completing arduous tasks, researchers have found.
