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Summoning the Past: Why This and Not That?
My memory baffles me. There is no rhyme or reason to what I recall and what I forget, whether it’s today’s to-do list or recollections of childhood. Important information vanishes, yet I have a random collection of odd facts and memory traces taking up space in my mind. I'm not alone in this. Everyone I know has a story about the quirkiness of memory, and scientists have been fascinated and perplexed by these oddities for years. Why isn’t memory a better system, more efficient and organized, if remembering is so crucial to daily functioning and future planning? Why do we remember so many trivial and irrelevant things? Why this and not that?
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Predicting Sexual Crime: Are the Experts Biased?
The Huffington Post: Leroy Hendricks had a long history of sexually molesting children, including his own stepdaughter and stepson. When he was 21, he was convicted of exposing himself to two girls, and he continued to prey on kids until he was sent to prison at age 50 for molesting two 13-year-old boys. He served ten years of his five- to 20-year term, with time off for good behavior, and then was set free. ... Based on these genuine case records, all the experts completed the two risk assessments on each of the four SVP cases.
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Your spouse is trying your patience. Instead of freaking out, do this
The Globe and Mail: Maybe you are outraged by the dirty socks strewn across your bedroom floor. Or you are frustrated that your anniversary has gone unacknowledged – again. Whatever the reason, your spouse is trying your patience. How do you bring back that loving feeling? ... “Not only did this effect emerge for marital satisfaction, it also emerged for other relationship processes – like passion and sexual desire – that are especially vulnerable to the ravages of time,” lead author Eli Finkel of Northwestern University said in a press release. Read the whole story: The Globe and Mail See Eli J. Finkel at the 25th APS Annual Convention.
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Unlocking the Conspiracy Mind-Set
The New York Times: When I first met the NASA climate researcher Gavin Schmidt a few years ago, we discussed the proliferation of material on the Internet attacking mainstream climate science. I asked him whether he thought climate contrarians were flirting with conspiracy theory in their views. ... It all started last year, when a social scientist named Stephan Lewandowsky, of the University of Western Australia, and two colleagues published a rather provocative paper. It was based on an anonymous Internet survey of the readers of climate blogs. Read the whole story: The New York Times
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Le pouvoir rend heureux (power makes them happy)
Le Monde: La solitude de la fonction, la lourdeur de la charge, les renoncements qu'elle implique sont invoqués pour justifier les émoluments conséquents de certains dirigeants. Pas du plus grand nombre, qui gagnait en moyenne 65 780 euros par an en 2010, selon l'Insee, pour diriger plus de 134 000 personnes. Mais des patrons de grands groupes, dont les rémunérations se chiffrent en millions d'euros par an. ...
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What a Mess: Chaos and Creativity
The Huffington Post: One of the most influential ideas about crime prevention to come out in recent years is something called the "broken windows theory." According to this theory, small acts of deviance -- littering, graffiti, broken windows -- will, if ignored, escalate into more serious crime. In practice, this theory leads to zero tolerance of public disorder and petty crime. Both theory and practice have been embraced by some big city mayors, most notably Rudy Giuliani, who credited the strategy with significantly cutting serious crime in 1990s New York City. ... This was the point of departure for psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota.
