100 posts · 33,629 views
Thinking, Learning, Psychology, and Policy.
erichorow
100 posts
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- May 21, 2012
- 12:57 AM
- 18 views
Inequality Aversion Is For Real
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
A number of studies have found support for the idea that children as young as 4 or 5 dislike inequality. However, the studies generally don’t do a good job isolating the desire to curb inequality from concerns about social welfare or social comparisons. For example, if Billy is unhappy that Steve receives more candy than [...]... Read more »
Shaw, A., & Olson, K. (2012) Children discard a resource to avoid inequity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(2), 382-395. DOI: 10.1037/a0025907
- May 20, 2012
- 04:06 AM
- 23 views
The Allure of Variety
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Very little in the world can be objectively characterized (e.g. right or wrong, dull or interesting, etc.) Most things are open to interpretation, and our interpretations then shape what we believe reality to be. Yet those interpretations themselves are shaped by our expectations. When we expect somebody to be a jerk and we see them [...]... Read more »
Dimmock, J., Jackson, B., Podlog, L., & Magaraggia, C. (2012) The effect of variety expectations on interest, enjoyment, and locus of causality in exercise. Motivation and Emotion. DOI: 10.1007/s11031-012-9294-5
- May 19, 2012
- 01:54 AM
- 51 views
The Magic Of the Unknown
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Earlier in the week I caught some of a Stuart Firestein talk about the origin of his new pop-science book, Ignorance: How it Drives Science. The idea for the book came out of a class he taught at Columbia in which each week a professor from a different field would come in and lecture about [...]... Read more »
Arya, D., & Maul, A. (2012) The Role of the Scientific Discovery Narrative in Middle School Science Education: An Experimental Study. Journal of Educational Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/a0028108
- May 18, 2012
- 01:59 AM
- 48 views
Is the Objectification Of Others Driven By An Honorable Motive?
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Researchers have identified a few reasons why we objectify others. One explanation relates to instrumentality. When somebody is seen as instrumental to achieving a goal — whether it be sexual, professional, or recreational — people are more likely to treat them as tools to be used or obstacles to be overcome. Another explanation is that we [...]... Read more »
Landau, M., Sullivan, D., Keefer, L., Rothschild, Z., & Osman, M. (2012) Subjectivity uncertainty theory of objectification: Compensating for uncertainty about how to positively relate to others by downplaying their subjective attributes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.003
- May 17, 2012
- 01:41 AM
- 83 views
Does Eating Organic Food Actually Make You a Haughty Jerk?
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
We humans like to engage in something called “moral licensing.” Like a child who earns the right to stay up late after acing a test, we tend to follow up a moral act by giving ourselves greater leeway to do something amoral. And it’s not just following big things like large charitable donations or tough [...]... Read more »
Eskine, K. (2012) Wholesome Foods and Wholesome Morals? Organic Foods Reduce Prosocial Behavior and Harshen Moral Judgments. Social Psychological and Personality Science. DOI: 10.1177/1948550612447114
- May 16, 2012
- 12:50 AM
- 84 views
Your Moral Compass Can Be Easily Hacked
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Our moral decisions are often influenced by those around us. Sometimes we look to others to see what norms are appropriate, and sometimes we are reminded how to act through the priming of various role models (e.g. “Parents are supposed to be supportive”). There is also a third way others can affect our moral compass, [...]... Read more »
Gino, F., & Galinsky, A. (2012) Vicarious dishonesty: When psychological closeness creates distance from one’s moral compass. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.03.011
- May 15, 2012
- 12:39 AM
- 91 views
The Future Version of Yourself Is More Sinister
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
One of the more interesting aspects of social psychology is the way different orientations can cause people to interpret the same thing in different ways. For example, you judge something differently if it were to happen in the past rather than the future. More specifically, according to a new study by Zachary Burns, Eugene Caruso, and [...]... Read more »
Burns, Z., Caruso, E., & Bartels, D. (2012) Predicting premeditation: Future behavior is seen as more intentional than past behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(2), 227-232. DOI: 10.1037/a0024861
- May 14, 2012
- 09:45 AM
- 139 views
Why That Cute Girl At the Bar Isn’t Smiling At You
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
We’ve all been in that situation where you’re blissfully engrossed in a new subway advertisement and you suddenly notice the crazy person in the corner seems to be smiling at you. But you’re not sure. Maybe they’re merely pleased by the informative contraception PSA to your left. The bad news is that there’s no magical [...]... Read more »
Lobmaier, J., Hartmann, M., Volz, A., & Mast, F. (2012) Emotional expression affects the accuracy of gaze perception. Motivation and Emotion. DOI: 10.1007/s11031-012-9295-4
- May 13, 2012
- 02:04 AM
- 123 views
In Education, Small Ponds Create Bigger Fish
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
There’s an old episode of The Simpsons where Lisa is skipped ahead to 3rd grade. After struggling academically and fighting with a recently demoted Bart, she is eventually presented with two options: Principal Skinner: And Lisa, you have a choice. You may continue to be challenged in third grade, or return to second grade and be [...]... Read more »
Nagengast, B., & Marsh, H. (2012) Big Fish in Little Ponds Aspire More: Mediation and Cross-Cultural Generalizability of School-Average Ability Effects on Self-Concept and Career Aspirations in Science. Journal of Educational Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/a0027697
- May 8, 2012
- 12:56 AM
- 148 views
When Is the Best Time to Ask For a Raise?
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Everybody seems to feels unappreciated these days. A lot of that stems from the tendency to comically overestimate our individual contributions to society, but there also may be a more scientific reason. In a new study Benjamin Converse and Ayelet Fishbach examine the connection between the appreciation felt toward a person, and that person’s instrumentality in [...]... Read more »
Converse, B., & Fishbach, A. (2012) Instrumentality Boosts Appreciation: Helpers Are More Appreciated While They Are Useful. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611433334
- May 5, 2012
- 03:07 PM
- 141 views
Another Reason Bad Schools Stay Bad
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
As if there weren’t enough self-perpetuating social and economic phenomena that make it difficult for poor neighborhoods to change, Stanford’s Michelle Reininger highlights a new one: Teachers are significantly more likely than other professionals to work near where they grew up. Teachers’ preference for working close to where they grew up is a distinct characteristic [...]... Read more »
Reininger, M. (2011) Hometown Disadvantage? It Depends on Where You're From: Teachers' Location Preferences and the Implications for Staffing Schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 34(2), 127-145. DOI: 10.3102/0162373711420864
- April 27, 2012
- 01:26 AM
- 127 views
The More Informed You Are, the More Likely You Are to Change Your Mind
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
In American politics there is now an embargo on publicly changing your mind. And not the standard oscillation between two positions that were each artificially constructed for political gain. I’m talking about forming new views after evaluating new evidence — for example, a staunch law-and-order senator eventually realizing the war on drugs is a failure, or [...]... Read more »
ALBARRACÍN, J., WANG, W., & ALBARRACIN, D. (2012) Are Confident Partisans Disloyal? The Role of Defensive Confidence in Party Defection. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00896.x
- April 25, 2012
- 01:05 AM
- 142 views
Anxiety Can Make You Unprepared
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Remember the time you had that really important job interview? You spent all week simulating every possible scenario in your head. You were so stressed and obsessed that you started stupid fights with your significant other, went three days without seeing the sun, and ate enough MSG to kill a small rodent. But it was [...]... Read more »
Mishra, S., & Suar, D. (2011) Effects of Anxiety, Disaster Education, and Resources on Disaster Preparedness Behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00853.x
- April 23, 2012
- 12:58 AM
- 81 views
What Makes People Think a Ritual Is Effective?
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Rituals are an odd thing. They incite deep devotion despite the absence of a direct causal connection between the ritual and the desired outcome. As University of Texas psychologist Christine Legare and her colleague Andre Souza write in a new paper, rituals are “irretrivably causally opaqe,” and that begs an interesting question: How do people evaluate the [...]... Read more »
Legare, C., & Souza, A. (2012) Evaluating ritual efficacy: Evidence from the supernatural. Cognition. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.03.004
- April 21, 2012
- 07:44 PM
- 113 views
How Generalizations About Learning Hurt Student Motivation
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Recent research on implicit theories of intelligence (i.e. whether you believe intelligence is fixed or malleable) has paved the way for some of the most promising low-cost high-reward educational interventions. For example, a series of short lessons about the brain’s potential to grow like a muscle can have significant and long-lasting effects on student achievement. Even [...]... Read more »
Cimpian, A., Mu, Y., & Erickson, L. (2012) Who Is Good at This Game? Linking an Activity to a Social Category Undermines Children's Achievement. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611429803
- April 19, 2012
- 01:23 AM
- 59 views
Your Predictions Are Bad And You Should Feel Bad
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
In times of trouble people often ask something along the lines of “What would Jesus do?”, but research on perspective taking is steadily demonstrating that the better question to ponder might be “What would Bob from accounting do?” The latest piece of research comes from Ilan Yaniv and Shoam Chosen-Hillen of Hebrew University. The two psychologists [...]... Read more »
Yaniv, I., & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2012) When guessing what another person would say is better than giving your own opinion: Using perspective-taking to improve advice-taking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.03.016
- April 12, 2012
- 01:01 AM
- 128 views
Why Everybody Wants to Be a Victim
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Nowadays whenever a political group is accused of unjustly harming another group, it will invariably play some kind of victim card (e.g. “We’re not anti-capitalist racists screwing you over, you’re anti-capitalist racists screwing us over.”) It’s the political version of responding to a positive steroid test with “I was taking cold medication.” Thanks to the [...]... Read more »
Sullivan, D., Landau, M., Branscombe, N., & Rothschild, Z. (2012) Competitive victimhood as a response to accusations of ingroup harm doing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(4), 778-795. DOI: 10.1037/a0026573
Wohl, M., & Branscombe, N. (2008) Remembering historical victimization: Collective guilt for current ingroup transgressions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(6), 988-1006. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.94.6.988
- April 8, 2012
- 10:55 AM
- 132 views
What’s the Optimal Length of Time to Review a Piece of Information
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
Ideally, one day kids won’t learn vocabulary or history through rote memorization (Battle of Hastings — 1066!!), but until then the best we can do is to figure out how to actually be good at rote memorization. A group of psychologists from Erasmus University Rotterdam decided to help the kids out by examining the optimal [...]... Read more »
de Jonge, M., Tabbers, H., Pecher, D., & Zeelenberg, R. (2012) The effect of study time distribution on learning and retention: A Goldilocks principle for presentation rate. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(2), 405-412. DOI: 10.1037/a0025897
- April 6, 2012
- 01:03 PM
- 175 views
Why Do East-Asians and Westerners Think Differently?
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
You might not know it from the bevy of hack comedians making jokes about the driving of Asian grandmothers, but the differences in how people from Western and Eastern cultures think has been scientifically documented. East Asians think more holistically and focus on relationships and interactive groupings, while Westerners think more analytically and focus on [...]... Read more »
Zhou, X., He, L., Yang, Q., Lao, J., & Baumeister, R. (2012) Control deprivation and styles of thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(3), 460-478. DOI: 10.1037/a0026316
- March 30, 2012
- 01:01 AM
- 171 views
Boozing Your Way to Efficient Goal Pursuit
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
There are many reasons people like alcohol. It makes things seem more positive by making it harder to anticipate negative consequences, and it also causes models playing beach volleyball to instantly appear in your backyard. Anybody who has dared to let their BAC approach .1% could also tell you that alcohol changes the way you think [...]... Read more »
Sevincer, A., & Oettingen, G. (2012) Alcohol intake leads people to focus on desirability rather than feasibility. Motivation and Emotion. DOI: 10.1007/s11031-012-9285-6
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