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Calling a Bluff: Is It All In the Arms?
Annie Duke was on track for a promising career in psycholinguistics, when she abruptly abandoned the academic life for the high-stakes world of poker. That was two decades ago, and since then she has won a slew of honors, including the prestigious World Series of Poker “bracelet”—plus lots of cash. She is known among other poker players as the Duchess of Poker. In a recent Radiolab interview, Duke talked about how she weighs risk and certainty and doubt in deciding to hold or fold. It’s largely math, but not the straightforward odds of drawing to an inside straight. She computes odds and acceptable losses over long periods of time.
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How Junior High Friendships Affect Adult Relationships
TIME: Middle school is typically a time of chaotic emotions, confusing relationships and challenging growing pains. But it may also have a surprisingly lasting influence on the future. In a study published in Child Development, researchers found that adolescents who were best able to negotiate the relationship minefield of finding friends and making sound behavior choices were most likely to be rated by their parents as successful both socially and professionally when they became young adults.
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Low on Self-Control? Surrounding Yourself With Strong-Willed Friends May Help
Research suggests that people with low self-control prefer and depend on people with high self-control, possibly as a way to make up for the skills they themselves lack.
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Fruit, Not Fries: Lunchroom Makeovers Nudge Kids Toward Better Choices
NPR: Gone are the days of serving up tater tots and French toast sticks to students. Here are the days of carrot sticks and quinoa. New nutritional guidelines, announced in 2012, require public school lunchrooms to offer more whole grains, low-fat milk and fewer starchy sides like french fries. But short of stationing grandmothers in every cafeteria, how do you ensure that students actually eat the fruits and veggies they're being offered? A minor lunchroom makeover could make a big difference, says Andrew Hanks, a behavioral economist at Cornell University.
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Tactics to Spark Creativity
The Wall Street Journal: Why is it that some people rack their brains for new ideas, only to come up empty—while others seem to shake them almost effortlessly out of their sleeves? Whether creativity is an innate gift or a cognitive process that anyone can jump-start is a question so intriguing that researchers keep studying it from different angles and discovering new and surprising techniques. ... But personality isn't the only path to inspiration, researchers say. Walking away from a problem to do simple, routine tasks, and letting the mind wander in the process, can spark creative new connections or approaches to solving dilemmas, says a 2012 study in Psychological Science.
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Does nature play a role in forming prejudices?
The Boston Globe: Anyone who’s ever been to a playground or read “Lord of the Flies” knows that children don’t have to be taught how to pick on unpopular peers. But a troubling new study in the journal Psychological Science offers evidence that the impulse to hurt those who are different shows up even in children too young to speak. In a study involving 200 babies, researchers at Yale and the University of British Columbia first demonstrated that babies were far more likely to favor a rabbit puppet that preferred the same food they did. Then they broadened the experiment by introducing two dog puppets — a “helper” dog that was nice to the rabbits, and a “harmer” dog that was mean.
