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Study of the Day: Want to Improve a Woman’s Driving Skills? Flatter Her
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: Previous studies -- and far too many sexist jokes -- have discussed how women are not as skilled as men when it comes to tasks like parking and map-reading that require spatial awareness. University of Warwick psychologist Zachary Estes decided to find out if confidence could account for this gender difference. METHODOLOGY: Together with University of Georgia Health Center's Sydney Felker, Estes recruited 545 students for four experiments involving a 3-D mental rotation task that measures a person's spatial skills.
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Impatient? It May Be Hurting Your Credit Score
The New York Times: Remember when you were a kid and your parents harped on the importance of “delayed gratification” to get ahead in life? (You know: Put that birthday money in the piggy bank and save for something nice, instead of blowing it all now on Milky Way bars.) Well, it turns out that your propensity to wait (or not) is also reflected in your credit score, according to a study from researchers at Columbia and Stanford published online in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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A Thing or Two About Twins
National Geographic: Every summer, on the first weekend in August, thousands of twins converge on Twinsburg, Ohio, a small town southeast of Cleveland named by identical twin brothers nearly two centuries ago. They come, two by two, for the Twins Days Festival, a three-day marathon of picnics, talent shows, and look-alike contests that has grown into one of the world's largest gatherings of twins. Dave and Don Wolf of Fenton, Michigan, have been coming to the festival for years. Like most twins who attend, they enjoy spending time with each other.
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Prejudice Is A Basic Human Need
Science 2.0: Prejudice is just bigotry that arises from flawed ideology, right? Not so, say the authors of a new paper. They contend prejudice stems from a deeper psychological need and it is associated with a particular way of thinking. People who aren't comfortable with ambiguity and want to make quick and firm decisions are also prone to making generalizations about others. People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. And, they argue, it's virtually impossible to change this basic way that people think.
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Never mix business with pleasure: How the office ogler takes a toll on your work rate
Daily Mail: Being ogled by the office lothario probably makes most women feel uncomfortable. Now, it seems, it might also affect their work performance. A study has found women who were subjected to an ‘objectifying gaze’ by men at work scored less well in maths tests than those who were not. Men who were ogled by women, however, scored the same as those who were not. The researchers say the findings may have implications for boosting the numbers of women in traditionally male-dominated fields such as science, technology and engineering. They asked 150 men and women to take part in an interview exercise and told them it was to examine how people work in teams.
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Unlock your creative side
Men's Health: With almost half of Brits working between 9 and 11 hours a day, finding a creative spark can be elusive. Borrow these tips from well-trained minds to turn on your light-bulb moment Be an ideas man under pressure “In my work, being ‘stuck’ is the norm,” says Professor Ian Stewart, a mathematician at the University of Warwick. “So I go off and do something else. Like mow the lawn or take a bath. Your subconscious keeps working, and if it gets somewhere, it tells you.” Distract yourself: When a deadline is looming, create the same ‘psychological distance’ that Stewart relies on by spending 30 minutes doing something completely off topic.
