Does daddy love you more if you look like him?
s, he does: Abstract: Human fathers face paternity uncertainty and are expected to use cues of relatedness to adjust their investment. So far, the main cue hypothesised to account for paternity assessment is facial phenotypic resemblance between a father and his child. However, previous studies showing a discriminative paternal investment either relied on fathers' perceptions of resemblance (which differs from actual resemblance, as perceived resemblance could be socially biased), or manipulated facial resemblance. In this study, we investigate in a…
1 min read
Is never spanking worse for kids than spanking them?
a blog.newsweek.com The study asked teens how old they were when their last spanking occurred, and how often they would get spanked as a child. That was cross-referenced against the data on bad outcomes we might fear spanking could lead to years later: antisocial behavior, early sexual activity, physical violence, and depression. But Gunnoe went farther. She also looked at many good outcomes we might want for our teens, such as academic rank, volunteer work, college aspirations, hope for the…
1 min read
Do parents know what their kid’s talking about most of the time?
a blog.newsweek.com Despite their warm relationships, the families had absolutely no clue what was going on in their each others’ heads in the moment. When asked, the families were wrong about what the spouse or kid was thinking, 76 percent of the time. And these weren't subtle degrees of difference. A third of the time, the family members weren’t even on the same topic. Only 7 percent of the families were reliably accurate in understanding each others' points of views─and…
2 minutes
Is peer pressure a good thing?
..a funny thing happened as Allen continued to follow these kids every year for the next 10 years: the kids who felt more peer pressure when they were 12 or 13 were turning out better." Via blog.newsweek.com: According to every pop theory of adolescence, peer pressure is peril. Being able to resist it should be considered a sign of character strength. But a funny thing happened as Allen continued to follow these kids every year for the next 10 years:…
2 minutes
Is it good for toddlers to feel a little fear?
a newscientist.com Even at the tender age of 3, children who will go on to be convicted of a crime are less likely to learn to link fear with a certain noise than those who don't. This may mean that an insensitivity to fear could be a driving force behind criminal behaviour. Adult criminals tend to be fearless, but whether this characteristic emerges before or after they commit a crime wasn't clear, says Adrian Raine, a psychologist at the University…
1 min read
No, mommy does not love you all the same:
a nytimes.com Parents would certainly deny it, but Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones. Researchers at the University of Alberta carefully observed how parents treated their children during trips to the supermarket. They found that physical attractiveness made a big difference. The researchers noted if the parents belted their youngsters into the grocery cart seat, how often the parents' attention lapsed and the number of times the…
2 minutes
Can talking back lead to smarter kids?
a blog.newsweek.com Moms, dads, or caregivers who mainly talk to their offspring using commands, like Xenia, who was cited in the study, rather than reasoning may get their kids to do what they want, but they also fail to develop their children’s minds, the research out of the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA suggests. The findings have particular significance for minority communities where do-as-I-say exchanges have long predominated over more nuanced argument. But they may also resonant with policy…
1 min read
