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Are movie stars worth it?
ey definitely increase the revenue for a film but don't increase the valuation of the companies that release the movies: Is the involvement of stars critical to the success of motion pictures? Film studios, which regularly pay multimillion-dollar fees to stars, seem to be driven by that belief. This article sheds light on the returns on this investment using an event study that considers the impact of more than 1200 casting announcements on trading behavior in a simulated and real…
2 minutes
Are husbands more likely to cheat when their wives are pregnant?
s: Predictors of 12-month prevalence of sexual infidelity were examined in a population-based sample of married individuals (N = 2,291). Predictor variables were organized in terms of involved-partner (e.g., personality, religiosity), marital (e.g., marital dissatisfaction, partner affair), and extradyadic (e.g., parenting) variables. Annual prevalence of infidelity was 2.3%. Controlling for marital dissatisfaction and demographic variables, infidelity was predicted by greater neuroticism and lower religiosity; wives' pregnancy also increased the risk of infidelity for husbands. In comparison, self-esteem and partners' suspected…
1 min read
If your parents divorced, are you more likely to divorce?
obably -- if you're a woman: Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that compared with offspring of nondivorced parents, those of divorced parents generally have more negative attitudes toward marriage as an institution and are less optimistic about the feasibility of a long-lasting, healthy marriage. It is also possible that when entering marriage themselves, adults whose parents divorced have less personal relationship commitment to their own marriages and less confidence in their own ability to maintain a…
1 min read
Does parenthood make marriage worse?
s -- but you can limit this by being happy in your marriage before parenthood and planning the pregnancy: The purpose of the present study was to discriminate between the 2 dominant perspectives governing research on the nature of marital change over the transition to parenthood. Progress can be made in understanding this transition by recognizing the role of uncontrolled sources of variability in research designs, defining and using control groups, and timing of data collection around the child's arrival,…
1 min read
How to pick a self-help book:
lf-help books for psychological disorders have become increasingly popular, yet there is surprisingly little research on their scientific status or overall utility. The authors identified 50 top-selling self-help books for anxiety, depressive, and trauma-related disorders. Using a scale derived from the literature on bibliotherapy, expert psychologists rated each book on overall usefulness, grounding in psychological science, the extent to which it offers reasonable expectations, the extent to which it offers specific guidance for implementing the self-help techniques and for monitoring…
1 min read
Who makes bomb threats?
stly middle-aged men who want money: This study examined telephone bomb threats and offender characteristics in Japan (N = 101). The results showed that the most frequent offenders were middle-aged men (mean 42.6 years), motivated by desire for money (46%), resentment (26%), or diversion (24%). In the case of female offenders, most were connected with the targets (83%). Categorical principle component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis differentiated the offenders into three themes. 'Instrumental' offenders telephoned the target directly (e.g. a…
1 min read
Does assassination promote democracy?
s. Seems like whacking people may be a way to promote freedom: Assassinations are a persistent feature of the political landscape. Using a new data set of assassination attempts on all world leaders from 1875 to 2004, we exploit inherent randomness in the success or failure of assassination attempts to identify assassination’s effects. We find that, on average, successful assassinations of autocrats produce sustained moves toward democracy. We also find that assassinations affect the intensity of small-scale conflicts. The results…
1 min read
Do spies and assassins really wear fake beards?
solutely. When an assassin pulls off a hit in a public place, he usually wears what espionage experts call "light disguise," consisting of accessories that can be quickly removed—like glasses, a hat, a cane, or the old standby false mustache. That way, after pulling the trigger, he can duck into a restroom stall and change identities by peeling off his facial hair and ditching the chapeau. Beards also help to confuse electronic facial recognition systems that rely on precise measurements…
1 min read
