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Insecurity at the Borderline
Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who has represented Mississippi since 1978, this week used a clever psychological strategy to fend off a primary challenge from the right wing of the party. “The Tea Party,” he confessed on a final campaign swing, “is something I don’t really know a lot about.” Nobody believes that. Cochran hasn’t been living in a cave. What he was doing, very effectively, was marginalizing his Tea Party rival, playing on the insecurities of a GOP “fringe” faction within the party’s establishment. And his opponent took the bait, reacting with hostility toward the powerful incumbent and behaving ungraciously in defeat.
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Where’s The Line Between Cheating A Little and Cheating A Lot?
NPR: Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains the hidden reasons we think it's okay to cheat or steal. He says we're predictably irrational — and can be influenced in ways we don't even realize. Listen to the whole story: NPR
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Studying Human-Computer Interaction at Microsoft Research
Science Magazine: At most scientific conferences, almost every nametag you see dangling from people's necks shows a university title. But this wasn't the case for many people wandering the halls last month at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Many of those tags featured names like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other tech giants. It’s a sign of the times: Social scientists are getting snatched up by tech companies. Mary Czerwinski is a cognitive psychologist based at Microsoft Research (MSR) in Redmond, Washington. Czerwinski earned a Ph.D.
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The Fault in Our Stars
The Wall Street Journal: World Cup fans, take note: If your team loses, the problem may be too much talent. Of course, teams benefit from great players. Still, a new study from researchers on both sides of the Atlantic finds that in team-oriented sports like soccer and basketball, too many stars on one team can hurt performance by impairing teamwork. But in baseball—with its emphasis on individual performance by batters, pitchers and fielders—the more stars, the better. The study, by social scientists at Columbia University, France's Insead business school and Amsterdam's VU University, analyzed data from all three sports to tease out the connections among star talent, teamwork and success.
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Want to Succeed in Business? Then Play High School Sports
Fortune Magazine: New research finds teenage athletes are more likely to land plum jobs later in life. Those dumb jocks may not be so dumb after all. Two new studies found that past participation in high school sports helps youngsters develop a host of crucial skills which give them a leg up as they enter the work world and achieve success for decades afterward. Appearing in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies this week, Cornell’s Kevin Kniffin and two other colleagues found that teenagers who played sports developed stronger leadership skills, worked better in teams and demonstrated more confidence. Read the whole story: Fortune Magazine
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Relevant? Nurturing? Well, So’s Your Old Man
The New York Times: When our young daughters first decided to play on top of our Honda minivan, parked in our driveway, my wife was worried. But to me, it seemed no less safe than chasing a ball that frequently ended up in the street. And they loved the height, the novelty, the danger. So I let them stay. They never fell. And with the summer weather here, playing on the car is once again keeping them occupied for hours. Now that I have read Paul Raeburn’s “Do Fathers Matter?,” I know that my comfort with more dangerous play — my willingness to let my daughters stand on top of a minivan — is a typically paternal trait. Dads roughhouse with children more, too.