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Shutdown Science: Furloughed Workers Feel the Burden of Boredom
LiveScience: Jennifer Wade is bored. A program director for the National Science Foundation, Wade normally spends her workdays managing grant proposals and wrangling the reviewers who will decide what research gets federal funding. But with the federal government shutdown pending a Congressional budget agreement, Wade is stuck at home — and she's not enjoying it. "I think nine days is the length of time it takes for anxiety to dissipate, anger to move to a background steady state, and boredom to just take over," Wade told LiveScience. "I literally paced, a little bit ago, to keep myself from lying on the couch. Now I'm walking to get a coffee just to give myself something to do." ...
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‘Belief superiority’: A reason for the political impasse?
The Washington Post: As we enter the second week of the government shutdown with legislators unwilling to reach across the aisle to find a compromise, it seems appropriate that a study on extreme political views and “belief superiority” has been published in a scholarly journal. The results are no surprise: People holding the most extreme views are the ones who are the most convinced they’re not only correct, but that the rest of the world is wrong. That holds true for both liberals and conservatives on the far ends of the political spectrum.
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We identify people by their body, when face is no help
The Telegraph: When trying to recognise someone from far away or when their face is obscured, the brain uses information from a person's body size and shape to figure out who it is. Scientists had previously thought recognition relied solely on facial features but the latest discovery found that working out who someone is from far away relies on other physical cues. The finding could have implications for security and law enforcement, who currently rely on facial features for recognising people. Researcher Allyson Rice said: "Psychologists and computer scientists have concentrated almost exclusively on the role of the face in person recognition.
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Stop Making Eye Contact
New York Magazine: It's always tough to determine the appropriate amount of time to hold someone's gaze. Too short, and you risk seeming bored or distractible; too long, and you look like you might be a robot, or flirting. The conventional wisdom is that people who make unflinching eye contact are more trustworthy, but a new study (noticed by Katy Waldman at Slate) suggests that if you’re arguing with someone who disagrees with you, you’ll be more likely to persuade them if you don’t look directly into their eyes. Read the whole story: New York Magazine
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Genes May Predispose Some People to Focus on the Negative
New research finds that a previously known gene variant may predispose individuals to perceive emotional events — especially negative ones — more vividly than others. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “This is the first study to find that this genetic variation can significantly affect how people see and experience the world,” says psychological scientist Rebecca Todd of the University of British Columbia.
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Making eye contact can hurt your argument, study finds
The Washington Post: “Look at me when I’m talking to you!” If you’ve ever used that line during a disagreement, you might want to think again. Forcing eye contact when trying to change someone’s mind may actually cause listeners to become more stubborn, a new study shows. Researchers found that subjects made to hold eye contact with a speaker were less open-minded and held steadfast to their original opinion, more so than those who looked elsewhere. “Eye contact is a very intimate thing,” said Julia A. Minson, study author and a social psychologist.
