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Language and Perception – Insights from Psychological Science
New research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, examines the nuanced relationship between language and different types of perception. Bilingual Infants Can Tell Unfamiliar Languages Apart Speaking more than one language can improve our ability to control our behavior and focus our attention, recent research has shown. But are there any advantages for bilingual children before they can speak in full sentences? We know that bilingual children can tell if a person is speaking one of their native languages or the other, even when there is no sound, by watching the speaker’s mouth for visual cues.
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Climate change deniers ‘are either extreme free marketeers or conspiracy theorists’
The Telegraph: The study, to be published in the journal Psychological Science, also found that those who reject the scientific consensus on the human contribution to climate change are more likely to to reject other scientific findings such as the linkage between tobacco and lung cancer or between HIV and Aids. The paper, titled “NASA faked the moon landing – Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science”, was based on a survey of more than 1000 visitors to blogs dedicated to discussion of climate change. “We find that endorsement of a laissez-faire conception of free-market economics predicts rejection of climate science,” the paper says.
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Money Degrades Our Ability to Empathize
Pacific Standard: Given the tone-deaf comments a wealthy political figure recently made while addressing some equally affluent donors, you’d almost think money makes a person less able to relate to the feelings of others. And, according to newly published research, you’d be absolutely right. “Financial incentives lead individuals to see themselves as less interdependent with others, and consequently render them less able to accurately infer what others are feeling,” report psychologists Christine Ma-Kellams and Jim Blascovich. Specifically, they found people judged the emotional states of others less accurately when they were offered a monetary reward for a correct response.
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A Longer Life Is Lived With Company
The New York Times: You die alone, philosophers say. But you could die sooner if you live your life in loneliness. Close connections to friends and family may ward off poor health and premature death, recent research suggests. Loneliness is a risk factor for functional decline and early death in adults over age 60, according to a University of California, San Francisco study published in July. More than 43 percent of the 1,604 participants reported that they often felt left out or isolated or lacked companionship. In the six-year follow-up period, more than half of the self-identified lonely people had difficulty with basic housekeeping and personal tasks.
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Why Being a Leader Is Less Stressful than Following
TIME: While the image of the stressed-out executive or the politician under pressure has been firmly planted in the American mind, research increasingly suggests that it’s actually people lower down on the social scale — not those in leadership positions at the top — who suffer the worst health effects of stress. Now a new study of military officials and government staffers at a Harvard executive-training program confirms these findings, showing that as people climb the organizational rungs, their stress hormone levels and anxiety typically go down.
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Rethinking Sleep
The New York Times: Sometime in the dark stretch of the night it happens. Perhaps it’s the chime of an incoming text message. Or your iPhone screen lights up to alert you to a new e-mail. Or you find yourself staring at the ceiling, replaying the day in your head. Next thing you know, you’re out of bed and engaged with the world, once again ignoring the often quoted fact that eight straight hours of sleep is essential. Sound familiar? You’re not alone.
