Archive

How to win (and lose) friendships across cultures: Why relational mobility matters

Making and keeping friends: Strategy matters

Always on the Move: How Residential Mobility Impacts Our Well-Being

John had just received a job offer from a company located in a big city. He was very excited about it and couldn’t wait to move there. He had been hearing a lot of vivid descriptions about the interesting life experiences he could have in the new city from his future colleagues, who have lived there for a couple of years. They told John that people in this big city are friendly, especially to the newcomers. Even...

Gender equity in science: Achievement unlocked?

Is it time to throw out our gender-equity-in-STEM training materials? Williams and Ceci (2015) reported that STEM faculty members have a preference for hiring women (not men), reigniting debates over equity in academic hiring. In our blog post, we add to a growing conversation among the scientific community that questions Williams & Ceci’s grand claim of a post-sexist era in academic hiring. / more

To affinity and beyond! How our preference to be among similar people interacts with our social ecology

From a socio-ecological perspective, we discuss the interactions between our social environment and our preferences in relationships. We discuss research showing that not only does our intrinsic desire for similarity in others create different outcomes depending on the opportunities we have to choose the people we form relationships with, but our preferences also contribute to socioeconomic inequality and societal fragmentation. / more

The Power of Others

The majority of people perceive themselves as individual thinkers who make their own decisions and formulate their personal opinions independent of others. Could this perception be far from the truth?                                                                                                Are most of our decisions predetermined by others? Is free choice an illusion created... / more

A junior researcher's practical take on the why and how of open science.

If you are a social psychologist, it’s probably old news to you that the field is in the midst of a revolution.  As a fifth-year grad student, this is all I have ever known of the field—news of Hauser’s questionable coding broke my first week of graduate school, and Bem’s parapsychology paper and Diederik Stapel followed shortly after. Since then, nearly every conference, Twitterfeed, and paper-writing meeting I’ve experienced has included discussion of QRPs (questionable... / more

A Perfect Storm: The Record of a Revolution

At some point in their past, almost every country has witnessed a political revolution, a change of government following a dramatic and sometimes violent expression of discontent. As a result, emperors have been beheaded, kings dethroned, and presidents exiled. Revolutions are often caused by a slowly growing dissatisfaction in the general population, for instance due to lost wars, lack of food, or high taxes. In other words, the general population feels a strong desire for change.... / more

The perverse incentives that stand as a roadblock to scientific reform

Four pillars of perverse incentives stand strong against efforts to make our science more transparent and reproducible. Arguments against these changes, by their nature conservative arguments to keep the status quo, only help to perpetuate a system that has rewarded individuals and individual careers, but has undermined the integrity and reliability of our science. Reporting only statistically significant findings results in a literature that does not represent the truth. Pushing small N, conceptual replications aids and abets the hiding of inelegant findings that don’t conform perfectly to the theories we test. Overvaluing counter-intuitive findings undermines the development of cumulative knowledge that might be relied on for social policy. Policing studies so that they only report “clean findings” and thus have a clean narrative further incentivizes a depiction of science that is too good to be true. / more

Girls will be girls, boys will be bossy

The word bossy has been heavily discussed recently, thanks, at least in part, to the Ban Bossy campaign. To date, this debate has centered on why women get called bossy. But what about men? In this blog post, I will share some new research on the word bossy, and what happens when both men and women act bossy, specifically within a workplace context. / more

Einstein beats Mother Theresa as the hero of the world

Heroes and villains don’t only exist in comic books. The real world is full of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys (and girls). Being an exceptional scientist or humanitarian will most likely land you on the heroic side of history. Obviously, dictators who have oppressed millions of people are more likely to be seen as the villains of world history. For a number of influential figures, our perception of their achievements however strongly depends on how our particular cultural region was affected. For example, even though the abolition of slavery by Abraham Lincoln makes him a historical hero in American eyes, people from other countries might value Mandela’s struggle against apartheid, or even Princess Diana much more. And what about more controversial figures such as Che Guevara and Napoleon? In this blog, I will review a brand new study in which it was tested who the heroes and villains of our shared, global history are. / more