Science News

In many ways social gifting shrouds purchasing in a cloak of generosity, since the social streaming context removes the gaucheness of sharing these gifts.

If You're So Free, Why Do You Follow Others? The Sociological Science Behind Social Networks and Social Influence.

In the famous "marshmallow experiment" four decades ago, researchers at Stanford University presented more than 600 four-year-olds with a marshmallow and told the kids that if they could resist eating it for an unspecified amount of time (actually 15 minutes), they would get two marshmallows.

Researchers followed up with the participants over the next several years and found that those who were able to wait for the second marshmallow as children tended to enjoy more success later in life, from higher scores on their SATs to lower body mass index.

A new small study that plays on this experiment suggests that the ability to delay gratification might be impacted as much by the environment as by innate self-control....

Infants who have a close, intimate relationship with at least one parent are less likely to experience emotional or behavioral problems in childhood, according to a University of Iowa study.

University of Toronto psychologist Keith Oatley presents data that seems to show that reading novels improves one’s ability to understand and empathize with others. He demonstrates using brain imaging, that the parts of the brain that are activated when reading stories are the same as those that we use in social interactions. So perhaps the next time you don’t see eye to eye with somebody, the two of you should dive into a good book.

If you were a young adult Ethiopian wolf, you would have a choice to make: Should you be a member of a monogamous breeding pair or a helper to an already established breeding pair (who are probably your parents)? The choice seems obvious, right? I mean, who wants to be a helper? Why should you forgo all the glory and status of being part of the breeding pair to be a babysitter?

Given that lower-class individuals are more dependent on their social environments and on others than their upper-class counterparts, we might also expect that these individuals will exhibit more emotional contagion in interactions. Specifically, being constantly vigilant of others' emotions may make an individual prone to unintentionally experiencing the emotions of others.

In online discussions, people provide vital emotional support for others. Now computer scientists have created an index that automatically identifies Good Samaritans.

The things we own come to represent our extended selves.

Daniel Kahneman makes an important point, one rarely addressed so directly in academic circles -- that the ego-clashes we tend to excuse among high-achievers are dangerously counterproductive when it comes to advancing human knowledge. He proposes adversarial collaboration as one alternative.

The article, based on a survey of members of the American Economic Association, found that more female than male economists favored policies that lead to a redistribution of income.

Given the benefits of psychological safety, organisations may want to make efforts to facilitate it, by giving permission to speak out; leaders can role model this, even showing they are prepared to be fallible in public. It's noteworthy that a team may work well and be cohesive without necessarily feeling psychologically safe, so it can be worth evaluating exactly what the conditions are within a group, particularly if groupthink and unexamined ideas would pose highly negative consequences.

Why can’t we accept differences in moral opinion the same way we readily accept differences in other opinions like music preference? What makes moral attitudes so different and divisive?

Consumers enjoy products more in the long run if they don't overuse them when first purchased, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.