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Draft of Observer Column Sparks Strong Social Media Response
The Observer, APS’s membership magazine, found itself in an unusual position this week when a draft of an upcoming Presidential Guest Column began circulating on Facebook and Twitter. The opinion piece, written by APS Past President Susan T. Fiske at the invitation of current APS President Susan Goldin-Meadow, decries the unmoderated criticism of researchers on social media. The piece, submitted for publication in the magazine’s November issue and still in the editing phase, has generated a strong response on Twitter and Facebook, with many criticizing both Fiske and the Observer for its tone and content.
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New Reports Showcase Collaborations Between Governments, Behavioral Scientists
Dozens of collaborations between behavioral scientists and government agencies are on display in two new reports emanating from Washington, D.C. and the United Kingdom. Annual reports from the White House’s nascent Social and Behavioral Sciences
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The Psychological Pros and Cons of Connectivity
A study of employees in South Africa indicates that people generally view their experiences with smart phones, emails, and wireless networks with more positivity than negativity.
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Heart Trouble: Exploring Links Between Racism and Health Risks
Research suggests that people who live in communities with high levels of overt racism are more likely to die from heart disease and other circulatory diseases.
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Taking a Dog’s-Eye View of Social Interaction
As many dog owners will likely attest, dogs appear to have pretty sophisticated social skills. Not only can they learn verbal commands, they can also follow a person’s gaze and respond to nonverbal signals, including pointing. But how do they know when a series of events constitutes a social interaction? To find out whether dogs use contingency as a possible cue, researcher Tibor Tauzin and colleagues tested a group of 60 dogs, all family pets that were included in the Family Dog Research Database at the Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary. The sample included both purebred and mixed breed dogs, both males and females.
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More Than Just Faces in a Crowd
Our capacity for remembering items that a
ren’t relevant to the task at hand — such as memory for faces in a crowd — may be greater than previously thought.
