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Superman May Inspire Altruistic Behavior
For all their box-office success, superheroes haven't gotten much respect of late. A 2017 study reported that preschoolers who identify with superheroes tend to be more aggressive than their peers. Numerous pop-culture commentators, including Bill Maher, argue that these characters share some blame for the presidency of Donald Trump, citing superheroes' advocacy of vigilantism, and the comic-book message that only one extraordinary man can save us. But new research suggests that the Man of Steel may have been maligned: It reports that people exposed to images of Superman were more likely than others to engage in helpful behavior. "Heroes loom large as exemplars of morality.
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Your Dog May Not Be a Genius, after All
If you are convinced your dog is a genius, you may be disappointed in the conclusions of a study just published in the journal Learning and Behavior.The study finds that dogs are cognitively quite ordinary when compared to other carnivores, domestic animals, and social hunters. “There is no current case for canine exceptionalism,” the authors conclude. That we think otherwise is not surprising.
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Fear of Disloyalty Drives Anti-Immigrant Bias
Fear of immigrants remains such a potent force in American life that the Republican Party is overtly relying on it in advance of the mid-term elections. But why, exactly, do so many people see a newcomer to the nation and perceive a threat? New research suggests it's a matter of perceived loyalty. The latest findings report that immigrants who see themselves—or are viewed as—having dual identities are less likely to be seen as people who can be depended upon if and when the country finds itself in a crunch. "Humans are acutely attuned to the loyalty of newcomers," writes a research team led by psychologist Jonas Kunst of Yale University and the University of Oslo.
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The Pathology of Prejudice
Driving around the part of Fresno, California, where Shannon Brown spent much of her life feels a bit like entering an alternate, more insular version of America, something out of an earlier time. We passed a white woman holding a baby in a driveway. An older white man worked in his yard. A white woman walked a dog. There didn’t appear to be a single person of color in the area, I said. That’s because there are none, Brown replied. Brown, 48, is white, with blond hair, pale blue eyes, and milky skin. She wore a checkered black-and-white dress, a silver cross dangling from her neck. Brown had nothing against diversity, she explained.
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The Cognitive Advantages of Growing Older
If, like me, you’re on the wrong side of sixty, you’ve probably noticed those increasingly frequent and sinister “senior moments.” What was I looking for when I came into the kitchen? Did I already take out the trash? What’s old what’s-his-name’s name again? One possible reaction to aging is resignation: You’re just past your expiration date. You may have heard that centuries ago the average life expectancy was only around 40 years. So you might think that modern medicine and nutrition are keeping us going past our evolutionary limit. No wonder the machine starts to break down. In fact, recent research suggests a very different picture.
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Pretend play is less beneficial for early child development than play that’s rooted in real life
Child-raising and early education would do well to shift towards play, books, and visual media that are more rooted in real life. Young children—particularly those aged over three years—often prefer these things to pretend play that involves fictional characters, cartoons, and fantasy. Play that’s based on what adults do can enhance early child development. This advice challenges Western beliefs that fictional, pretend play is central to early child development and the growth of individual creativity. No strong evidence supports the idea that pretend play based on fiction or fantasy has a unique, causal role in creativity. And some evidence suggests that it can disrupt children’s thinking.
