Kids are not more troubled than 40 years ago, a review of 175 studies finds
Pooling 175 studies of 418,528 young people from 1981 to 2019, researchers found no rise in total emotional and behavioral problems. Aggression fell, while some attention, thought and teen anxiety-depression scores rose modestly.
Adults come to look like their first names, but children do not
People picked adults’ real names from four options 27% to 30% of the time versus 25% chance, but not children’s, and a neural network found same-name adult faces more alike in 60% of comparisons versus 52% for children, supporting a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Left-leaning, older and ethnic minority Britons label more experiences as traumatic
In a UK survey of 214 adults rating 80 adversities, 76% of the events scored above the midpoint of a trauma scale; more left-wing, older and ethnic minority participants were significantly more likely to call experiences traumatic.
More sunlight in the second trimester linked to higher adult income in China
Matching Chinese survey data with weather records, economists found that people whose mothers got more sunlight in the second trimester of pregnancy earn more as adults. The effect was larger for women, older workers, the rural-born and children of less-educated mothers.
Admitting a boast sounds hard to believe can make it more convincing
Across ten studies, people seen as lacking credibility were judged more self-aware and sincere when they prefaced self-promotion with disclaimers like “I know this may seem hard to believe, but”, while the same disclaimers did nothing or backfired for speakers already seen as credible.
Most of China’s “struggle” rhetoric is about problems at home, not rivals abroad
Across 12,208 People’s Daily articles using the word “struggle”, 68 to 85 percent dealt with domestic issues, and 176 Xi Jinping speeches on the US stressed cooperation, leading the authors to call China a limited, status quo power.
Children judged more creative at age seven went on to earn more as adults
Following 12,211 Britons born in one week of March 1958, economists found childhood creativity predicted higher career earnings, better jobs and more education. In their working paper, one standard deviation more creativity meant about 2% higher pay.
Lotto tickets with the number 7 win smaller prizes because so many players pick it
Using lotto draws from Belgium and France and Euromillions data, two economists show that tickets containing the lucky number 7 earn significantly lower prizes, because parimutuel payouts are shared among the many players who choose it.
Sensing society is falling apart breeds uncertainty and a wish for strongmen
In a German survey of 1,504 people and three US experiments with 846 participants, perceived social breakdown raised support for authoritarianism (5.22 vs 3.51 on a 7-point scale) by first eroding political control and then creating political uncertainty.
