- how do we develop trust?
- why do we have beliefs?
- how can we prevent them from turning into bias?
- what are effective methods for managing our trust and beliefs in daily life?
Boosting Self-esteem Can Backfire In Decision-making - ScienceDaily - Apr 4, 2008 (News Report) Smart business leaders understand that confidence affects decision-making and ultimately a company's earnings. But giving employees positive feedback in the hopes of promoting better decisions sometimes can backfire, suggests new research from the psychology department and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the London Business School. -- Some types of positive feedback actually can escalate perceived threats to the ego and increase... More »
How Stereotyping Yourself Contributes to Your Success (or Failure) - Scientific American - By S. Alexander Haslam, Jessica Salvatore, Thomas Kessler, Stephen D. Reicher - Apr 3, 2008 (Review) People's performance on intellectual and athletic tasks is shaped by awareness of stereotypes about the groups to which they belong. New research explains why-- and how we can break free from the expectations of others -- You tried so hard. But you failed. You did not pass the test, you performed poorly in the interview or you missed your project goal at the office. Why? Is it that you were not capable? Or could something more subtle--and worrisome--also be at work? -- As it turns out, research shows that such performance failures cannot always be attributed simply to inherent lack of ability or incompetence. Although some have jumped to the highly controversial conclusion that... More »
The science of religion - Where angels no longer fear to tread - Economist - Mar 27, 2008 (Review) By the standards of European scientific collaboration, E2m ($3.1m) is not a huge sum. But it might be the start of something that will challenge human perceptions of reality at least as much as the billions being spent by the European particle-physics laboratory (CERN) at Geneva. The first task of CERN's new machine, the Large Hadron Collider, which is due to open later this year, will be to search for the Higgs boson--an object that has been dubbed, with a... More »
Why Great (and Not So Great) Minds Think Alike - Scientific American - By Nikhil Swaminathan - Mar 19, 2008 (Review) Have you ever wondered why you seem to understand some people--even if you know relatively little about them? It turns out there may be a biological reason why it's easier to walk a mile in some people's shoes but not in others'. Researchers report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that brain scans suggest people project their own values and feelings onto others if there is even the slightest evidence that the pair have something in common. More »
Predictably Irrational - New York Times - By David Berreby - Mar 16, 2008 (Review) Another sign that times are changing is "Predictably Irrational," a book that both exemplifies and explains this shift in the cultural winds. Here, Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., tells us that "life with fewer market norms and more social norms would be more satisfying, creative, fulfilling and fun." By the way, the conference where he had this insight wasn't sponsored by the Federal Reserve, where he is a researcher... More »
The cost of superstition - Chicago Tribune - By Lisa Anderson - Mar 14, 2008 (Review) A word of warning to those who believe in lucky numbers, auspicious colors and star-crossed dates: Beware. The Ides of March are upon us. Only those familiar with history or William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" readily may recognize the reference to March 15, the day of Caesar's assassination in 44 B.C. The Roman calendar designated monthly Ides, or midpoint, days that fell either on the 13th or 15th day, depending on the month. More »
The Political Psychology of Race and Gender - Newsweek - By Andrew Romano - Mar 12, 2008 (Interview) Talk about good timing. A week ago, Cornell law student Gregory S. Parks emailed me a law review article that he had just coauthored with university professor Jeffrey Rachlinski. The subject? "Unconscious race and gender bias in the 2008 election." In addition to their legal studies, both Parks and Rachlinski (whose academic efforts have focused on the influence of human psychology on decision-making by courts, administrative agencies and regulated... More »
Respecting the Religious (or the A-Religious) - ScienceBlogs.com - Mar 11, 2008 (Blog Post) Discussion of a paper titled "Respect and Religion," by Simon Blackburn, is making its way through the blogosphere, and sparking some interesting discussion (particularly over at Crooked Timber, but this is a good read too). The key quote from Blackburn's article is this: We can respect, in the minimal sense of tolerating, those who hold false beliefs. We can pass by on the other side. We need not be concerned to change them, and in a liberal... More »
Into the Brain of a Liar - National Public Radio - By Robert Krulwich, Jad Abumrad - Mar 7, 2008 (Special Report) We all lie -- once a day or so, according to most studies. But usually we tell little lies, like "your new haircut looks great!" And most of us can control when we lie or what we lie about. But some people lie repeatedly and compulsively, about things both big and small. -- In 2005, a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry provided the first evidence of structural differences in the brains of people with a history of persistent lying... More »
Television Shows Can Affect Racial Judgments - ScienceDaily - Mar 7, 2008 (Review) A new study reveals that viewers can be influenced by exposure to racial bias in the media, even without realizing it. Led by Dana Mastro of the University of Arizona, the study exposed participants to television clips where Latinos were portrayed in both flattering and unflattering ways. More »
