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The Political Effects Of Existential Fear
Why did the approval ratings of President George W. Bush— who was perceived as indecisive before September 11, 2001—soar over 90 percent after the terrorist attacks? Because Americans were acutely aware of their own deaths. That is one lesson from the psychological literature on “mortality salience” reviewed in a new article called “The Politics of Mortal Terror.” The paper, by psychologists Florette Cohen of the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island and Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College, appears in October’s Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.
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The Kids Are Actually Sort of Alright
New York Magazine: My screwed, coddled, self-absorbed, mocked, surprisingly resilient generation. Every generation finds, eventually, a mode of expression that suits it. Cavemen drew lines on their cave walls. Sixties kids marched. My generation, we Gchat, a million tiny windows blinking orange with hopes and dreams and YouTube links, with five-year plans and lunch plans. So as I began to search for a single phrase that could, preposterously, describe our entire cohort, post-crash, I did what I always do in moments of crisis. I Gchatted my 24-year-old sister Clare, who happens to be living back at home with our parents while she looks for a job. Read the whole story: New York Magazine
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Breakthroughs in Diagnosing, One Day Preventing Autism
Education Week: New research says it's possible to help diagnose autism in babies as young as a year old, and an early diagnosis could allow for earlier intervention or potentially stop a child from developing autism. Autism typically isn't diagnosed until a child starts to show delays in talking and other milestones that occur after age 2. A study published in this month's Current Directions in Psychological Science says the medical community has new clues about what to look for in even younger children. For example, children who will later develop autism are less likely to show "joint attention behaviors"—paying attention to both a toy and another person.
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Bonus tötet Arbeitsfreude
Süddeutsche Zeitung: Staaten sind von der Pleite bedroht, Banken stehen nach nur drei Jahren vor der nächsten Rettungsaktion durch die resignierenden Steuerzahler - aber die Boni fließen weiterhin, vor allem die für Banker, die mit ihren Derivate- und sonstigen Wettgeschäften unbehelligt wie eh und je vor allem ihre eigenen Taschen gefüllt haben. Ehe wir indessen das Sozialneid-Lied der mangelnden Verteilungsgerechtigkeit anstimmen, wollen wir einfach mal dem vermaledeiten Bonus-Wesen wissenschaftlich auf den überhöhten Puls fühlen und nachschauen, ob solche Höchst-Belohnungen überhaupt durch Höchst-Leistungen gerechtfertigt sind.
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3 Ways To Treat Yourself Better
Huffington Post: Do you handle tough times by getting even tougher on yourself? Tearing yourself down with self-criticism or building yourself up with inflated self-esteem are two sure ways to prolong a hard time. Fortunately there’s a simpler way to relieve your suffering: self-compassion. What does self-compassion entail? “It’s not about judging yourself positively, it’s relating to yourself kindly -- whether you’re succeeding or failing,” says leading self-compassion researcher Kristin Neff, Ph.D. When a relationship “fails,” in the case of divorce, having self-compassion can decrease distress, according to recent research in Psychological Science.
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Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: The Importance of Perspective-Taking
Scientific American: I often find myself walking into the kitchen (or the living room or bedroom or wherever), unable to recall why I was going there in the first place. What I do in those cases is retrace my steps, until I am back to where I began my trip. And more often than not, the location triggers the precise association that prompted me to move in the first place, and I triumphantly return to the place of forgetfulness, ready to do whatever it is that needs doing. In this case, I’m exploiting the close contextual nature of memory: our minds respond to cues in our surroundings to retrieve whatever it was that needed retrieving.
