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People Attribute Minds to Robots, Corpses That Are Targets of Harm
As Descartes famously noted, there’s no way to really know that another person has a mind -- every mind we observe is, in a sense, a mind we create. Now, new research suggests that victimization may be one condition that leads us to perceive minds in others, even in entities we don’t normally think of as having minds. This research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows that people attribute minds to entities they perceive as being targets of harm, even when the entity in question is a robot or a corpse.
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So Damn Superior: Parsing Partisan Politics
A new Gallup poll shows that Americans’ confidence in the Congress is at an all-time low. A measly 10 percent of citizens express confidence in lawmakers, and most say they have little or no confidence. That is the worst rating of any American institution—including the military, HMOs and labor unions—since this polling began in 1973. A lot of this disaffection has to do with the extreme partisanship that has seemingly paralyzed Capitol Hill. Today’s is not the first political stalemate in American history, but it is certainly one of the most maddening. Lawmakers—and the country itself—appear locked into extreme ideological positions that allow little if any room for compromise.
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Le donne hanno una migliore memoria fotografica (Women may have better memory for faces)
La Stampa: Le donne godrebbero di una naturale migliore memoria fotografica rispetto agli uomini. Non si tratterebbe di pigrizia mentale o scarsa attenzione da parte dei maschi, ma di una capacità innata, e spesso inconsapevole, tipica delle femmine di studiare le caratteristiche di un volto nuovo. A decretare che sul fronte memoria fotografica vincono le donne è un nuovo studio della McMaster University di Hamilton, in Canada, e pubblicato su Psychological Science.
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Why Dads Get Short Shrift on Father’s Day — and Dads Are O.K. With It
TIME: When it comes to their respective days of honor, why do dads get funny ties and moms get diamond-heart necklaces? Why do we spend 40% more on Mother’s Day than Father’s Day? Some seemingly ungrateful children (and a few dads) offer explanations. Every year since the National Retail Federation has been keep track, the amount consumers spend on Father’s Day gifts has been significantly less than the average spent on Mother’s Day. This year, average Father’s Day spending is expected to be around $120, compared with $169 for moms. To get to the bottom of this apparent inequity, I interviewed scores of dads and kids about Father’s Day.
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The Third Metric for Success
The Huffington Post: I just returned from NYC from an invitation only conference on the third metric for success: beyond money and power, hosted by Arianna Huffington. I'm not one for mindless flattery, so it is with great sincerity that I say that Arianna is a force to be reckoned with. She's extremely bright and incredibly effective so perhaps it's no surprise that the event was so successful. For me, however, the event cut both ways. It's been forever since I attended a conference without being a speaker. This was even more unusual since the event was really a conference on the importance of being mindful. Not being acknowledged by speaker after speaker was a blow to my ego.
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A Smart Answer to the Season of ‘I’m Bored’
The Wall Street Journal: When it comes to summer vacation, Victoria Lau works hard to keep her 6-year-old's days interesting and full. The South San Francisco, Calif., stay-at-home mom sets a weekly activity plan, which includes regular swimming and karate lessons and everything from exploring the local library to crafting origami butterflies and mucking around with Play-Doh. Still, she says, Carter has already voiced the dreaded summer lament. "My son does get bored," she says.
