Better thinking through gum
BECAUSE OF ITS association with the carefree attitude of youth, chewing gum can convey an immature or unprofessional air. New research suggests that it may be time to change that preconception. People who chewed gum while working through challenging mental tasks showed higher alertness and lower stress and anxiety (including lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone) than those who weren't chewing gum. Although the exact mechanism is unclear, the authors speculate that chewing gum may increase blood flow or metabolism.
Scholey, A. et al., "Chewing Gum Alleviates Negative Mood and Reduces Cortisol During Acute Laboratory Psychological Stress," Physiology & Behavior (forthcoming).
Things are bound to get better
FOR MANY PEOPLE, faith in a higher power gets them through dark times. But for those who are less spiritual, is there a comparable source of comfort? Maybe so, according to research suggesting that faith in progress has many of the same psychological effects as spiritual faith. For example, people who were first asked to think about their own death were then less likely to agree with an essay claiming that progress is a myth. Alternatively, people who first read an essay claiming that progress is a myth were then more likely to think about their own death. Also, after having their faith in progress reinforced, people were more able to resist thoughts about death and less defensive about their own worldview.
Rutjens, B. et al., "Things Will Get Better: The Anxiety-Buffering Qualities of Progressive Hope," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (forthcoming).
Ladies to the back of the line
MUCH OF GOVERNMENT is now automated and impersonal, but it wasn't long ago that the typical experience involved spending a lot of time face-to-face with bureaucrats. Being human, though, bureaucrats could always skew the process based on their personal feelings about your situation. A new analysis of the unemployment insurance bureaucracy finds that women may have been subject to some degree of in-person discrimination. Researchers analyzed national unemployment claims data from the Department of Labor from 1992 to 2005, a period when filing claims by telephone became common. Specifically, they wanted to see if the percentage of people filing by telephone resulted in more women receiving benefits, on the theory that bureaucrats had previously imposed their own gender expectations on applicants interviewed in person. Indeed, after 2000, rollout of a telephone claims process increased the percentage of women receiving benefits, with no effect on men.
Wenger, J. & Wilkins, V., "At the Discretion of Rogue Agents: How Automation Improves Women's Outcomes in Unemployment Insurance," Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (April 2009).
Comfortably numb
IN CASE THERE isn't enough controversy about the impact of the media and entertainment industry on our behavior, here's something new to consider. In two experiments, researchers found that people were slower to help someone in need after viewing violent content. In the first experiment, subjects were assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game in a room with the door closed. After playing the game, subjects began filling out a questionnaire and were soon interrupted by the sounds of a (staged) fight outside the room. When one of the people in the fight was supposedly injured and abandoned, the researchers timed how long it took for the subject to get up and offer help. Among those who bothered to help, those who had played the violent game took significantly longer to help. In the second experiment, the researchers had a young woman with crutches pretend to fall down outside a movie theater. People coming out of a violent movie took significantly longer to help.
Bushman, B. & Anderson, C., "Comfortably Numb: Desensitizing Effects of Violent Media on Helping Others," Psychological Science (March 2009).
The immigrant win-win
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY be at the heart - emotionally and politically - of the immigration debate, but there has also been a vigorous discussion about how many and what kind of legal immigrants the country can absorb. As illustrated by the debate over the H-1B visa program for high-tech workers, it doesn't seem there is even a consensus that we should increase skilled immigration, because such immigrants might displace (or "crowd out") native skilled workers. However, a recent analysis found that fears of native crowd-out may be unwarranted. In states with more skilled immigrants, there were more patents among immigrants and the native-born alike - a benefit all around.
Hunt, J. & Gauthier-Loiselle, M., "How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation?" National Bureau of Economic Research (January 2009).
Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. He can be reached at kevin.lewis.ideas@gmail.com.
