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Our brains, and how they’re not as simple as we think
The Guardian: I never used to discuss neuroscience on the bus but it's happened twice in the last month. On one occasion a fellow passenger mentioned that her "brain wasn't working properly" to explain that she had gone through a long period of depression. On another, an exchange student enthusiastically told me that one of the advantages of learning abroad is that a new language "made your brain more efficient". In each case, the conversation was spattered with references to the brain as casually as we mention family members– "I don't think my brain can handle multi-tasking" gliding between us as easily as "my cousin studied in Paris".
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‘Queen Bee’ stereotype in the workplace is a rarity
TODAY: Jing Wang Herman has plenty of experience as the lone female in the office. Currently the CEO for the USA operations of GetTaxi.com, Wang Herman previously racked up eight years on Wall Street, landed on a Forbes 30 Under 30 list - and earned her taxi driver’s license. “I’m always in male-dominated environments. I don’t even realize it anymore,” she said. As she climbed the corporate ladder, her mentors have been men, a fact of little consequence, said Wang Herman, whose tech company makes an app to hail and pay taxis. “To me, mentoring is gender neutral.” Some might wonder if she’s a Queen Bee, a powerful, conniving woman who undermines competing females.
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A New Look at Perception (Thank you, El Greco)
El Greco was one of the greatest artists of the Spanish Renaissance, and also one of its most idiosyncratic. His contemporaries were puzzled by his fantastic use of color, and even more so by his oddly distorted vision. Many of his figures—Saint John the Baptist and The Repentant Magdalen and even his own self-portrait—are unnaturally elongated, as if they are being stretched from toe to head. El Greco found a more appreciative reception among 20th century art historians, but the puzzle of his style persisted. Then, in the early 1900s, one expert came up with an explanation: The painter suffered from a severe astigmatism—a distortion of the eye—which “stretches” the world vertically.
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How to Defuse a Hateful Slur
The Huffington Post: Well, now we have a psychological explanation for this counterintuitive phenomenon of self-labeling. Columbia University psychological scientist Adam Galinsky and his colleagues have come up with an elaborate model to illuminate self-disparagement -- its origins, intentions, and consequences. The scientists ran ten experiments to begin documenting this novel theory. It all has to do with power, and perceptions of power, in society. If social power is control over valuable resources, Galinsky argues, then self-labeling is the act of controlling words and their meaning.
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Does This Ad Make Me Fat?
The New York Times: OBESITY is a problem everywhere, with significant consequences for personal health and public spending. People weigh more than ever — but why? If we can find the causes of obesity, we can try to eliminate or counter them. Unfortunately, finding causes is easier said than done, and causes we think we see can turn out to be illusions. Consider a recent study in the journal BMC Public Health under the anodyne title “Outdoor advertising, obesity, and soda consumption: a cross-sectional study.” A team of researchers walked every street in 228 census tracts around Los Angeles and New Orleans and recorded every outdoor ad they saw.
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Events in the Future Seem Closer Than Those in the Past
People experience time as if they’re moving toward the future and away from the past We say that time flies, it marches on, it flows like a river -- our descriptions of time are closely linked to our experiences of moving through space. Now, new research suggests that the illusions that influence how we perceive movement through space also influence our perception of time. The findings provide evidence that our experiences of space and time have even more in common than previously thought.
