Scientists Now Know...
Startling discoveries by social scientists, as announced in press releases issued by them and their proud institutions
Kids Who Make Threats Are Likely to Be Violent, Study Shows
Children and adolescents who threaten violence are significantly more likely to behave violently than those who do not make threats, according to a study of more than 9,000 youngsters reported in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association. [For the complete citation, see "AIRhead Research Review" in AIR 6:6.]
Contact: Judith Bailey, 216-368-4442 < jcb4@po.cwru.edu>
Ways People Cope with People They Don't Like
Most people are forced to deal with people they dislike either in family or work related situations on a daily basis. So how do people deal with [them]? A University of Missouri-Columbia communication professor has some answers.... [D]istancing behaviors people use include:
-- Avoiding questions-- Avoid asking the other person questions
-- Deceiving-- Lie to the other person, especially on information about the self in order to avoid intimacy
-- Humoring-- Treat the other person as eccentric in some way and merely tolerate her or his behavior
-- Ignoring -- Fail to acknowledge the other person's presence
-- Rejecting -- Actively reject a person from a conversation
-- Speed -- Speed up interactions and get it over with as quickly as possible
Contact: Rajah Maples Wallace, 573-882-3346 <wallaceRD@missouri.edu>
Strength of Belief in Marriage Intensifies Sense of Loss When It Ends
[A] new study by University of Iowa sociologists... find[s] that the negative effects of a marital loss on depression are greater for people who believe in the permanence of marriage than for those who do not. In addition, the positive effects of a marital gain on depression are greater for those who believe in the desirability and importance of marriage than for those who do not. The study is published in the June [1999] issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Contact: Robin Simon, PhD (319) 335-2485 <robin-simon@uiowa.edu>
(Thanks to Giovanni Valerio for bringing this last item to our attention.)
© Copyright 2000 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
This HotAIR feature first appeared in Volume
6 Issue 6 of the print magazine. For a complete list of web site featured
articles, see What's New.