-
Trading Places
Hide-and-seek: child’s play, or an important developmental tool that teaches children how to work together? British scientists Alex Gillespie and Beth Richardson think it might be both. Gillespie, at the University of Stirling, and Richardson, at Lancaster University, are interested in perspective exchange — switching social positions as children do when they play hide-and-seek; as a game of hide-and-seek progresses, seekers become hiders, and hiders become seekers. Perspectives switch. The researchers think perspective exchange might play an important role in cooperative activities that require people to work together across distinct points of view and distinct social demands.
-
Science Explains What Your Desk Says About You
Fast Company: Does every object on your desk have its proper place? Do you keep your pencils sharpened to the exact same length and dust regularly between your computer keys? Or maybe there’s so much junk on your desk that you can’t even see the surface. Maybe all that crap looks like it’s levitating. It turns out, there are benefits to both types of work spaces. A recent study published in Psychological Science, found that subjects who worked in a clean room were more likely to make charitable donations and eat healthy foods than those who worked in a messy room. For example, when participants in the clean room were offered chocolate or fruit, they chose the fruit.
-
Does sitting at a big desk make you cheat?
The Washington Post: There could be an upside to being confined to that tiny cubicle at work: It may make you less likely to cheat. A new study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science finds that sitting at a large workspace or in a big seat in a car can make people feel more powerful — and therefore, lead them to act more deceptively. The research, titled “The Ergonomics of Dishonesty,” was led by Andy Yap of MIT (who conducted the research while at Columbia University) and Dana Carney of the University of California, Berkeley.
-
Fierce beliefs: built on ignorance
The Boston Globe: Do you have a strong opinion about Obamacare? Great. Now, please explain how it works. If that question gives you pause, it might also serve a purpose: A new study suggests that the intense political polarization affecting this country depends on ignorance, and that drawing our attention to how little we know could actually help us get along. Researchers asked people to indicate their position on one of several policies (e.g., cap and trade, flat tax) and then asked them to explain the mechanics of how the policy worked or didn’t work. Read the whole story: The Boston Globe
-
About the Authors
Madhulika Agarwal, MD, MPH serves as the Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Policy and Services for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Her organization’s vision is to lead policy and services development to ensure the best possible health care outcomes for our Nation’s Veterans.
-
Seeing Happiness In Facial Expressions, Instead Of Anger, Can Lessen Aggression
The Huffington Post: How you perceive emotions in others can have a real impact on how you feel yourself, according to a new study. The new research, published in the journal Psychological Science, shows that training people to be biased to recognize happiness instead of anger in a facial expression can help to lower their own feelings of aggression and anger. "Our results provide strong evidence that emotion processing plays a causal role in anger and the maintenance of aggressive behavior," study researcher Marcus Munafo, a professor at the university, said in a statement.
