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New Content From Current Directions in Psychological Science
A sample of articles on the risk for alcohol use disorder, language comprehension in children with autism, varied skills, primate vocal communication, the importance of the context for child development, and the role of robots in understanding the human mind.
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New Research in Psychological Science
A sample of research on theory-of-mind development in deaf children, male variability in cooperation, hypnosis and visual tasks, attitude formation, early training and musical skills, whether children prioritize saving animals, and the use of moral language in the U.S. Congress.
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The Science of Reasoning With Unreasonable People
APS Member/Author: Adam Grant A few years ago, I made the mistake of having an argument with the most stubborn person I know. R., whose initial I’m using to protect his privacy, is a longtime friend, and when his family came to visit, he mentioned that his children had never been vaccinated — and never would be. I’m no proponent of blindly giving every vaccination to every newborn, but I was concerned for his children’s safety, so I started debunking some common vaccine myths. After days of debate, I was exhausted and exasperated. Determined to preserve our friendship, I vowed never to talk with him about vaccines again. Then came 2020.
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Bias Is Built Into Our Brains. But There’s Still Hope.
Human beings are simplifiers. We are cognitive misers, exerting the least amount of mental effort that we can in making decisions. We rely on heuristics, or mental shortcuts, to take the fastest route from A to B. And we are categorizers. The tendency to conceive of the world around us in categories is a strategy that is often adaptive, but has at least one unfortunate byproduct: the bias that results from associations we make with different categories. And while there is no getting rid of bias, we can design systems to correct for these errors. ...
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How Elvis Got Americans to Accept the Polio Vaccine
APS Member/Author: Hal Hershfield In late 1956, Elvis Presley was on the precipice of global stardom. “Heartbreak Hotel” had reached number one on the charts earlier that year and Love Me Tender, his debut film, would be released in November. In the midst of this trajectory, he was booked as a guest on the most popular TV show at the time, The Ed Sullivan Show. But he wasn’t only there to perform his hits. Before the show started, and in front of the press and Ed Sullivan himself, Presley flashed his swoon-worthy smile, rolled up his sleeves and let a New York state official stick a needle loaded up with the polio vaccine in his arm.
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Cultural Conditioning in Progress: Children are More Likely to Prioritize the Needs of Animals
Beliefs about how animals should be treated vary significantly between cultures, and are likely socially acquired.
