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How Stereotypes Can Threaten Your Driving
In 1995, Stanford University psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson completed a series of groundbreaking experiments showing that evoking negative stereotypes about a group can actually undermine the performance of people in that group — a phenomenon known as stereotype threat. Steele and Aronson’s research demonstrated that even subtle reminders of negative stereotypes about race and intelligence could derail students’ performance on standardized tests. Similarly, new research published in Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that negative stereotypes about older drivers may hinder their performance behind the wheel.
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How To Get Students To Stop Using Their Cellphones In Class
NPR: Our Ideas series is exploring how innovation happens in education. Almost all college students have a cellphone. They use them an average of eight to 10 hours a day and check them an average of every 15 to 20 minutes while they're awake. Heavier smartphone use has been linked to lower-quality sleep and lower GPAs — oh, are you getting a text right now? I'll wait. Anyway, as I was saying, one professor at the University of Colorado Boulder has come up with a solution to smartphone distraction in one of his astronomy classes. "I was stunned how well it worked," Doug Duncan wrote in an email to fellow astronomy professors, which he shared with NPR Ed. ...
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Think You’re Thinking for Yourself? Think Again.
Big Think: "There’s no more central message of psychology than the fact that most of what goes on in our heads we have no access to," explains social psychologist Richard Nisbett, who offers some smart thinking tools in this video interview. He also delves into the science of influence, in particular the power some parties enjoy by influencing the behavior of others. We have no idea that it’s going on. And that becomes clearer and clearer in every passing year. There’s more and more research showing we perceive things that have an influence on us. We have no idea. We don’t even notice that they’re there to have an impact. Read the whole story: Big Think
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The one thing about ‘matching’ algorithms that dating sites don’t want you to know
The Washington Post: Tinder released an updated version of its matching algorithm today, a “big change” that CEO Sean Rad has been hyping for the past week. In a blog post, Tinder offered few details on the new algorithm — but basically promised that it would revolutionize the quantity and quality of matches each user receives. “Just open Tinder to check it out,” they encourage. “We’re sure these updates will make swiping even better and will lead to more meaningful matches.” ...
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How the science of human behavior is beginning to reshape the US government
The Conversation: Back in September, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that marked a major turning point in the role that behavioral science plays in helping the federal government achieve policy goals. The order, which directs federal agencies to incorporate insights from behavioral science into their programs, may turn out to be one of the most important acts of his second term. That’s certainly the view of Cass Sunstein, a Harvard legal scholar and coauthor of the bestselling book on behavioral economics, Nudge. ...
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Scientists say this ridiculously simple strategy can help you learn anything
Business Insider: Testing yourself on the material you’re trying to learn is more effective than studying and re-studying that material. In his book "Fluent Forever," opera singer Gabriel Wyner suggests that one of the best ways to learn a new language is to practice remembering it. In other words, instead of reading and re-reading a list of vocabulary words, you should read it once and then test yourself repeatedly. The same strategy works for pretty much anything you’re hoping to commit to memory, and there’s a growing body of research behind it. Psychologists call this phenomenon the "testing effect." A 2003 study, cited in a meta-analysis by Henry L. Roediger, III and Jeffrey D.
