Middle class attitudes changing
How middle class attitudes differ from those of the working class, in different countries. Enlightening. From The Economist, Feb 12th 2009:
A special report on the new middle classes in emerging markets: Beyond Wisteria Lane
Scott Fitzgerald was wrong. It is not the rich who are different but the middle classes
Rich lack empathy
According to the study below, people from higher economic status have lower emotional intelligence. IMHO that’s like saying the rich lack empathy.
From Chief Learning Officer:
Emotional Intelligence Linked to Socio-Economics, New Study Shows
The rich are selfish
At least more selfish than the poor. But not all is lost: if the rich are reminded, they can act with more compassion.
From The Economist, July 31, 2010:
The rich are different from you and me
They are more selfish
Fair Play
Is the human quality of fairness in our genome, or is it a social construct? The study concludes the latter — it found a correlation between fairness and market integration. Note that the original article includes a graph not reproduced here. From the Mar 18th, 2010 issue of The Economist:
The origins of selflessness
Fair play
It is not so much that cheats don’t prosper, but that prosperity does not cheat
Pinker on Gladwell
An eye-opening review of Malcolm Gladwell’s book “What the dog saw” by Steven Pinker – I will be much more careful of accepting Gladwell’s conclusions from here on. From the New York Times:
Malcolm Gladwell, Eclectic Detective
Suffering leads to belief in god
It seems misery loves supernatural explanations…
Excerpt from “Bering in Mind”‘s God’s in Mississippi, where the gettin’ is good:
…. In an article soon to be published in Personality and Social Psychology Review , Harvard psychologists Kurt Gray and Daniel Wegner argue that human suffering and God go hand-in-hand because our evolved cognitive systems are inherently unsatisfied with “sh*t happens” types of explanations (that is to say, reality). The main gist of their argument is that, since we’re such a deeply social species, when bad things happen to us we immediately launch a search for the responsible human party. In being morally vigilant this way–in seeking to identify the culpable party–we can effectively punish blameworthy, antisocial people, thus preserving our group’s functional cohesion and preserving each individual’s genetic interests. That’s all fine and dandy, say Gray and Wegner, when someone punches us in the face, steals from us or sleeps with our girlfriend; but when our misfortune is more “abstract” (think cancer or a tsunami) and there’s no obvious single human agent to blame, we see the hand of God.
Jared Diamond on the environment
An essay by Jared Diamond, from Time magazine, August 26, 2oo2:
Lessons from Lost Worlds
Beware of videoconferencing
Sounds like videoconferencing is not a good way to make a sale or establish trusted relationships. It may have a great deal to do with eye-contact and head-bobbing. (After you read the article, you can check out cocodex.com.)
From 07.30.2006 Discover magazine:
Jaron’s World: Heads-Up
Why your next telephone may come mounted on a neck.
Bad behaviour promotes bad behaviour
Now it’s proven: signs of vandalism promote more vandalism. From The Economist:
Can the can
From The Economist print edition
The idea that graffiti-spraying and other forms of low-level delinquency promote further bad behaviour has now been tested experimentally
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