Curated News: Featured: LifeWire

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A new study, published July 20 in JAMA Pediatrics, provides even more compelling evidence that growing up in poverty has detrimental effects on the brain. In an accompanying editorial, child psychiatrist Joan L. Luby, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, writes that “early childhood interventions to support a nurturing environment for these children must now become our top public health priority for the good of all.”

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Yoko Ono’s participatory artwork “Wish Tree for Washington, DC” (2007) is open for the summer at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. For most of the year, visitors are invited to whisper their wishes to the tree, a white flowering dogwood in the museum’s collection. But during the summer through Labor Day, they may write their wishes on paper tags and tie them to the tree’s branches.

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A new analysis by University of Utah researcher Nick Wolfinger finds those who tie the knot after their early 30s are now more likely to divorce than those who marry in their late 20s. Past the early 30s, the odds of divorce increase by 5 percent per year of age at marriage—but it's not clear why.

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Rudeness in the workplace isn’t just unpleasant: it’s also contagious.

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A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology finds that whites aware of their biases are better equipped to address contemporary racial challenges, where prejudice is often expressed in subtle, unintentional and unconscious ways, than those who claim to have no racial preferences.

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A new Florida State University study has found that just receiving a notification on your cell phone can cause enough of a distraction to impair your ability to focus on a given task. The distraction is comparable to the effects seen when actually using a cell phone to make calls or send text messages.

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Developing any habit starts with a routine. The trick is making exercise a habit that is hard to break. A new Iowa State University study shows that may be easier to accomplish by focusing on cues that make going to the gym automatic.

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When a family finds itself in tough economic times, parents are likely to be more financially generous to a daughter than to a son. And the reason has to do with something parents often tell their adult children – they really want grandchildren. And researchers led by Kristina Durante of Rutgers Business School have found that evolution have made this urge instinctual - based on the higher statistical probability that a daughter will produce offspring than a son.

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When it comes to the art of persuasion, you can attract more followers if you turn conventional wisdom on its head and stress what you like, not what you do. A new study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, finds that people are more likely to conform to others' preferences than conform to others’ actions. In other words, people want to like what others like, but they want to have or do what others don’t have or don't do.

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American University History Professor Lisa Leff’s new nonfiction book “The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust” tells the story of controversial Jewish historian Zosa Szajkowski (Shy-KOV-ski).

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New research finds observing a white American engage in small nonverbal acts such as smiling more often, making eye contact for longer periods of time, and standing in closer proximity to a black American makes the observer less prone to racial biases.

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Children living in low-income households who endure family instability and emotionally distant caregivers are at risk of having impaired cognitive abilities according to new research from the University of Rochester.

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Parents take out second mortgages, give up jobs and liquidate their retirement savings to help their young athletes, musicians and writers reach top competitive levels

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We can alter our facial features in ways that make us look more trustworthy, but don’t have the same ability to appear more competent, a team of NYU psychology researchers has found.

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If you get a warm, fuzzy feeling after watching cute cat videos online, the effect may be more profound than you think, according to research from The Media School at Indiana University.

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Karl Pillemer uncovered common advice for couples walking down the aisle or decades into marriage. The top five lessons from the elders, along with Pillemer’s analysis:

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University of California, Riverside researchers argue that some of the most important developments in immigration policy are now occurring at the state level.Their findings appear in the latest installment of Policy Matters, a public policy journal of the UCR School of Public Policy.

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Up to 80 percent of individuals with a past history of depression will get depressed again in the future. However, little is known about the specific factors that put these people at risk. New research suggests that it may be due to the things you pay attention to in your life.

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From the adventures of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider to the apocalyptic drama of Fallout - new research from the University of Warwick has revealed the secret to how some of the world’s most iconic video games were created.

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A University of Maryland School of Social Work researcher joins with colleagues at William & Mary to probe a possible connection between fermented foods, which contain probiotics, and social anxiety symptoms.

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Food wasted means money wasted, which can be an expensive problem especially in homes with financial constraints. A new study from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and the Getulio Vargas Foundation, shows that the top causes of food waste in such homes include buying too much, preparing in abundance, unwillingness to consume leftovers, and improper food storage.

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Contrary to popular belief, cyberbullying that starts and stays online is no more emotionally harmful to youngsters than harassment that only occurs in-person and may actually be less disturbing because it's likelier to be of shorter duration and not involve significant power imbalances, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.

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Does putting same-sex marriage in the public spotlight impede future policy gains for gay and lesbian couples? A new study says no, contrary to previous research on the topic.

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Both men and women are more likely to cheat on their spouses the more economically dependent they are on them, according to a new study.

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The rare corpse flower, widely known as the world’s smelliest plant, has started to bloom McMaster, one of only a handful in the world to do so this year.

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If you’re a musician, this sounds too good to be true: University of Chicago psychologists have been able to train some adults to develop the prized musical ability of absolute pitch, and the training’s effects last for months.

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Holding cynical beliefs about others may have a negative effect on your income according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Air pollution regulations issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are estimated to save thousands of lives annually. A new study by researchers at Indiana University says these estimates are more uncertain than commonly believed.

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In terms of your mental health, University of Montreal industrial relations researcher Annie Barreck identifies the best ways to get yourself to work.

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Inducing a sense of awe in people can promote altruistic, helpful and positive social behavior, according to new research led by UC Irvine psychologist Paul Piff.

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Inducing a sense of awe in people can promote altruistic, helpful and positive social behavior according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Estrangement between a mother and an adult child is more common than people might think, says an Iowa State researcher. A new study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, found estrangement is often the result of a difference in values.

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Whether we’re buying a ticket to a movie, catching a train, or shopping for groceries, the more committed we are to achieving that goal, the more likely we are to assume others have exactly the same objective, a study by New York University psychology researchers shows.

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​If you have a spring in your step and a smile on your face, you’re in good company. Americans are generally a pretty happy bunch, according to a new study that aims to further our collective understanding of happiness and its root causes.

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A special issue of American Psychologist provides a comprehensive review of over 40 years of research on bullying among school age youth, documenting the current understanding of the complexity of the issue and suggesting directions for future research.

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The study, led by Professor Simone Shamay-Tsoory of the University of Haifa found that, in addition to gender, differences in empathy between people is related to sexual preference and, therefore, this orientation is important when assessing differences in empathy among people

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The tendency for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder to lash out in anger can be significantly amplified if they are also depressed, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Karen Kramer, an associate professor of anthropology, published a study in the Journal of Human Evolution titled, “When Mothers Need Others: Life History Transitions Associated with the Evolution of Cooperative Breeding.” Her research examines how mothers underwent a remarkable transition from the past – when they had one dependent offspring at a time, ended support of their young at weaning and received no help from others – to the present, when mothers often have multiple kids who help rear other children.

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The music of 18th century Indian musicians and dancers has been revived, recorded and reinterpreted for the 21st century by highly acclaimed harpsichordist and University of Southampton Turner Sims Fellow, Jane Chapman.

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When highly educated, dual-career couples have their first child, both spouses think the baby increases their workloads by equal amounts – but a new study suggests that’s not true.

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When it comes to rewards and punishments, which is more effective — the carrot or the stick? A simple experiment devised at Washington University in St. Louis suggests that punishments are more likely to influence behavior than rewards. The results, which stem from a study involving 88 students at the university, are available online in the journal Cognition.

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Some 9 million American families lost their homes to foreclosure during the late 2000s housing bust, driving many to economic ruin and in search of new residences. Hardest hit were black, Latino, and racially integrated neighborhoods, according to a new Cornell University analysis of the crisis.

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Tax cuts for ordinary Americans boost economic growth and create jobs, while tax breaks for the rich do little to help the economy.

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In her most recent book, Wild Animal Skins in Victorian Britain: Zoos, Collections, Portraits, and Maps, Ann Colley integrates 19th century interest in animal skins with contemporary thinking about skin and identity.

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A study from the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health finds students with standing desks are more attentive than their seated counterparts. Preliminary results show 12 percent greater on-task engagement in classrooms with standing desks.

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A new study from the Santa Fe Institute confirms quantitatively that partisan disagreements in the U.S. Congress are worsening and that polarization is harmful to policy innovation.

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Using statistics that describe how an infectious disease spreads, a University of Utah anthropologist analyzed different theories of how people first settled islands of the vast Pacific between 3,500 and 900 years ago. Adrian Bell found the two most likely strategies were to travel mostly against prevailing winds and seek easily seen islands, not necessarily the nearest islands.

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LeRoy Neiman considered this 9-by-13-foot work featuring 18 iconic jazz musicians one of the greatest works in his career. Donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, it was recently unveiled for April, Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM).

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Critical questions about life outcomes beyond clinical interventions are the focus of a report issued today from Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, from its Life Course Outcomes Research Program. The “National Autism Indicators Report: Transition into Young Adulthood” is a comprehensive report (available free online) that presents new findings about a wide range of experiences and outcomes of youth on the autism spectrum between high school and their early 20s, including new safety and risk indicators for young adults with autism. The report describes the indicators now available and serves as a call to action to fill the remaining large gaps in knowledge.

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Meaningful college experiences, including internships and studying abroad, may not matter as much as your major and what school you attend when it comes to job satisfaction and earnings, according to research by NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.