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Political beliefs rooted in childhood, study shows
Detroit Free Press: A person’s temperament in childhood and the type of parenting they received have a major effect on their political beliefs, according to a new study. Children with authoritarian parents were more likely to have conservative political beliefs when they were 18, while those with egalitarian parents were more likely to have liberal beliefs, according to a study of more than 700 children who took part in earlier research from the U.S. National Institute on Child Health and Human Development.
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Pounds of Personality
The Huffington Post: It's November, which means that Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching -- and with it the season of temptation. Beginning with the giblet gravy and ending with the New Year's Eve champagne toast, the weeks ahead will add a pound of weight to the typical American -- a pound that will rarely be lost. That means steadily expanding waistlines as we move from young adulthood into middle age and beyond. But some people won't follow this trend. Some are conscientious and disciplined and know where to draw the line on indulging, while others seem to lack control of their impulses and desires.
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Glucose Mouth Rinse Really Does Enhance Self-Control
Pacific Standard: Undoubtedly the oddest piece of research we’ve reported on in a while is an Australian study that found gargling with a glucose solution helps people renew their self-control. Even as I wrote the piece, I could hear the sarcastic voice of Paula Poundstone in my head, making fun of it on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. Well, guess what? A group of American researchers has come to the same conclusion. Writing in the journal Psychological Science, a research team led by University of Georgia psychologist Matthew Sanders describes an experiment featuring 51 students.
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Do Sandy’s storm clouds have a silver lining?
This morning I heard a radio interview with a resident of one of New York’s storm-ravaged towns. It’s been more than a week since Sandy swept through the eastern seaboard, and locals are just starting to process the long-term implications of this natural disaster. It will be months and months before many homes and businesses are restored, and some communities will never again be the same. Yet this man concluded the interview with this thought: New Yorkers will learn from this experience, he said, and it will make us stronger. Make us stronger.
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Taking on the Challenges of Replication in Psychological Science
Psychological science has come of age. But the rights of a mature discipline carry with them responsibilities, among them the responsibility to maximize confidence in our findings through good data practices and replication. The November issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), reflects the discipline’s ongoing commitment to examine methodological issues that affect all areas of science — such as failures to replicate previous findings and problems of bias and error — with the goal of strengthening our discipline and contributing to the discussion that is taking place throughout science.
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We Need a Little Fear
The New York Times: The voters have spoken. So, what now? How will our still divided government deal with our mounting threats and challenges? Shared fear can help. A Bedouin proverb says, “Me against my brother, my brothers and me against my cousins, then my cousins and me against strangers.” Human beings are pretty good at uniting to fight at whatever level is most important at a given moment. This is why every story about a team of warriors or superheroes features an internal rivalry, but all hatchets are buried just before the climactic final battle in which the team vanquishes the external enemy.
