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Can You Make Yourself Smarter?
The New York Times: Early on a drab afternoon in January, a dozen third graders from the working-class suburb of Chicago Heights, Ill., burst into the Mac Lab on the ground floor of Washington-McKinley School in a blur of blue pants, blue vests and white shirts. Minutes later, they were hunkered down in front of the Apple computers lining the room’s perimeter, hoping to do what was, until recently, considered impossible: increase their intelligence through training.
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Reminders of Secular Authority Reduce Believers’ Distrust of Atheists
What’s the group that least agrees with Americans’ vision of their country? It’s not Muslims, gays, feminists, or recent immigrants. It’s atheists, according to many sociological surveys. In one survey conducted in 2006 by sociologist Penny Edgell and her colleagues, nearly half of respondents said they would disapprove if their child wanted to marry an atheist, and a majority would not vote for an atheist president of their preferred political party, the lowest social acceptance rates of any group that Americans are asked about.
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Being nice may be in your genes, according to study
CBS News: Being a nice person isn't just because of how your mother raised you: It might be coded into your genes. A new study, out in the April issue of Psychological Science, shows that people who have certain types of oxytocin and vasopressin receptor genes were more likely to be generous when coupled with that person's outlook on the world. Past research has shown that oxytocin and vasopressin promote more charitable behavior. Oxytocin has even been called the "love drug" or the "cuddle chemical" and has been known to create mothering behavior, according to Dr. Michel Poulin, professor of psychology at the University of Buffalo, who led the study.
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Can You Think Your Way To That Hole-In-One?
NPR: Psychologists at Purdue University have come up with an interesting twist on the old notion of the power of positive thinking. Call it the power of positive perception: They've shown that you may be able to improve your golf game by believing the hole you're aiming for is larger than it really is. Jessica Witt, who studies how perception and performance are related, decided to look at golf — specifically, how the appearance of the hole changes depending on whether you're playing well or poorly. So she took a large poster board to a golf course with circles of different sizes drawn on it. Some circles matched the size of the golf hole, some were larger and some were smaller.
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Does power reveal people’s true colors?
Business Insider: Does power reveal people's true colors? Not necessarily. People with power do show their true colors when no other factors are affecting them. Overall it's more accurate to say that power makes people behave in line with whatever influences easily come to their mind -- whether that's their true desires, their habits or the context they're in. My guess is that the distinction here is that people without power have to consider whether their feelings are appropriate so as to not rock the boat. Powerful people don't need to filter, they just react to whatever is top of mind. Read the whole story: Business Insider
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Google searches for “Free Term Paper” expose cheating in income inequality states
KALW Public Radio: A new study published in the journal Psychological Science shows a correlation between college students that come from states with high income inequality and students that cheat. The researcher, Lukas Neville, is a Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior at Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He said he became interested in academic dishonesty and plagiarism because of his teaching experience. Turnstyle spoke with Neville about his research. Turnstyle: What inspired you to do this study? Neville:I wanted to look at situational factors that contributed to cheating.
