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Social science research makes surprise appearance in rollout of Melania Trump’s children’s initiative
Social science research got a shoutout this week when U.S. first lady Melania Trump unveiled Be Best, her signature initiative on children’s health. Coming from an administration that has often denigrated the value of such research, that’s good news. And although the scientists welcome the high-level attention, they note that the study the White House cited doesn’t really address a major thrust of the initiative. They also are in the dark about how they appeared on the White House radar.
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How My Mother Overcomes the “Mother of All Biases”
My mother has opinions. Lots of them. Strong ones. These beliefs are decreed with the force of gospel to all comers: The King’s English is the only proper way to speak. Jack Daniels makes the best bourbon. Airlines pad their flight times to artificially produce more on-time arrivals. Outback Steakhouse’s Bloomin’ Onion is the definitive cause of the obesity epidemic in America. Once we tell the 42 percent of Americans who have some doubts that humans cause global warming that 97 percent of scientists have no doubts whatsoever, then the 42 percent will see the light. That my mother has intuitions about how the world around her works is unremarkable—we all hold these beliefs.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring eye movements and false memory, inflexibility in obsessive-compulsive disorder, and cognitive control in depression.
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Why Do So Few Women Write Letters to the Editor?
In America, letters to the editor have been around as long as newspapers. They represent one of the country’s most basic modes of political engagement, accessible—at least in theory—to all. They are also written, overwhelmingly, by men. --- The disparity, several experts told me, stems from “the confidence gap,” a phenomenon covered by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman in The Atlantic in 2014. Women are less likely to think that they’re, one, skilled enough write something worthwhile, and, two, able to offer insight other people should care about, Joyce Ehrlinger, assistant professor of psychology at Washington State, said.
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Birth Control Probably Doesn’t Change Who You’re Attracted to, Study Finds
A commonly touted theory about how women’s attraction to men works might be all wrong, suggests a new paper published this week in Psychological Science. Prior, small experiments have found that birth control pills and ovulation could change a woman’s sexual preferences. Now, a large new study has found that women’s preferences for men’s faces are reliably stable, regardless of whether they’re taking birth control pills or whether they’re ovulating. Some previous experiments have found that women taking hormonal contraceptives or experiencing their period were more likely to favor male facial features that are less associated with testosterone, like a rounder jaw or thinner eyebrows.
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The Fox And The Hedgehog: The Triumphs And Perils Of Going Big
The Greek poet Archilochus wrote, "the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." There are many different interpretations of this parable, but psychologist Phil Tetlock sees it as a way of understanding two cognitive styles: Foxes have different strategies for different problems. They are comfortable with nuance; they can live with contradictions. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, focus on the big picture. They reduce every problem to one organizing principle. "The hedgehogs are more the big idea people, more decisive. In most MBA programs, they'd probably be viewed as better leadership material," Tetlock says.
