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Gossiping benefits society, study claims
The Telegraph: Gossip can benefit society by preventing bullying and encouraging co-operation, a new study suggests. In contrast to the conventional belief that gossip and social exclusion are malicious and should be avoided, researchers found sharing “reputational information” could have a positive effect on society. Gossip can help social groups to reform bullies, encourages co-operation and stops “nice people” being exploited, according to the study, published in the journal Psychological Science.
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You really do smell sick
The Boston Globe: Next time someone says that you stink, you might want to take it as friendly medical advice. In an experiment, healthy volunteers were injected with either saline placebo or lipopolysaccharide—a molecule found on the surface of bad bacteria and that prompts a strong immune reaction. After several hours, researchers collected the volunteers’ shirts, cut out the armpit areas, and stored them in plastic squeeze bottles with flip-top caps. Read the whole story: The Boston Globe
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How Your Smartphone Can Affect Your Well-Being
Volkswagen turns off some workers’ email 30 minutes after quitting time. BMW is instituting new rules that will guard employees from being contacted after working hours. In fact, an increasing number of companies have created similar rules, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Employers appear to be recognizing, after years of freely contacting workers on their smartphones at any time of the day or night, that employees need to be able to escape from work.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Auditory Processing in Growth-Restricted Fetuses and Newborns and Later Language Development Barbara S. Kisilevsky, Beverly Chambers, Kevin C. H. Parker, and Gregory A. L. Davies Past research has found that children who are born small for their gestational age are at risk for language deficits. In the first of three studies, fetuses that were of average size for their gestational age (AGA) were played audio recordings of a passage of text being read by their mothers.
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Researchers: Gossip May Have Some Benefits (Even in Schools)
Education Week: Pass it around: A new study shows that while not all gossip is good, some gossip yields real societal benefits. The study, done by researchers from Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley, explores the relationship between spreading information and social pressure. It found that, facing the threat of reputational harm and exclusion from a group, people will lessen their antisocial tendencies. "Although we have a single word for gossip, it's multiple different things," researcher Matthew Feinberg said in an interview.
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If You’re Allowed to Quit, You’ll Work Even Harder
INC.: The option to abandon a project might just strengthen your resolve to complete it, according to a study published in Psychological Science. The study, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvanis and Georgia State University, is detailed at the Association of Psychological Science's Minds for Business blog. It explored how people responded when given the option to complete a task as opposed to being required to do so. The Study Researchers Rom Schrift and Jeffrey Parker's subjects were asked to complete a word-search puzzle and told they could win a prize based on their performance. The rub: Some participants were allowed to opt out of doing the puzzle.
