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Steven Pinker’s Sense of Style
Scientific American: Writing guides tend to be pretty unsatisfying. They offer plenty of concrete rules, but why, a reader might ask, should the rules be followed? The answer is usually “because” — as in, “because I say so.” This, of course, is where humanity found itself before the advent of the scientific method: the mystics spoke, and everyone had to decide for themselves whom to believe. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker takes a different approach, one that is both more ambitious and more modest. In his new book, “The Sense of Style,” he draws on research, and particularly his deep knowledge of linguistics, to give his writing principles a scientific basis.
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Apple or Ice Cream? The Mechanics of a Healthy Choice
The Huffington Post: You've been trying to lose some weight, but you also get hungry for a snack in the evening. So imagine you go to the kitchen to check out your options, and you find apples and pears. You may have a slight preference one way or the other, but you are not going to agonize too much over this decision. Both are tasty, and even relatively healthful. But what if your options are a pear and a bowl of chocolate ice cream? Now you've got a real choice to make, because you're no longer comparing, well, apples and pears. The pear is clearly better for you than ice cream, no doubt of that, but the taste and richness of that ice cream is pulling you.
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Hearing That Things Can Change Helps Teens Dodge Depression
NPR: Depression is common in teenagers, with 11 percent being diagnosed by age 18, and many more having depressive symptoms. Social and academic stress can trigger depression, and rates of depression tend to peak in adolescence around the age of 16. It doesn't help that stressed-out teens often fall into hopelessness, says David Yeager, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. "When kids have hard things happen to them, they think it'll be like that way into the future." Researchers started noticing back in the 1980s that many teens felt that social and personality traits were immutable — that someone who is once a loser is always a loser.
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Shared Pain Can Act As A Social Glue: Study
Gizmodo: What can make for a strong sense of group loyalty? - Pride in the identity and achievements of your group? Commitment to the work? or the mutual attraction existing among group members? A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that the answer could be the experience of 'shared pain'. According to the research, a shared painful experience, which is not fatal or permanently debilitating, could actually add to the strength of a group. Also, while there is certainly some degree of difficulty associated with the painful experience, its aftermath could be much more pleasant for the social cohesiveness of the group.
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Guilty Conscience? Brain Wave Breakthrough May Reveal Crooks
NBC News: A brain wave linked to memory may be a telltale marker for criminal investigators, divulging when a person under scrutiny knows a damning morsel of knowledge — such as the weapon used to commit a murder, according to a new study from Northwestern University. The findings, posted Tuesday at the Association for Psychological Science website, center on a unique, brain-emitted electrical signal called the P300.
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Lonely People Are More Likely to See Doll Faces as Human
The Atlantic: For social animals like humans, the health cost of loner-dom can be high—depression, high blood pressure, and an increase in stress hormones have all been linked to a lack of social connection. Previous research has also shown that when people are feeling lonely, they are better at cooperating and are more sensitive to emotions and social cues. But a new, small, weird study published in Psychological Science suggests that the isolated may cast about too wildly for companionship, leaving them with a lowered ability to tell if a face is alive or not. Researchers at Dartmouth College and Harvard University showed a group of 30 students a series of 90 faces.
