NAME FOR THAT
ITEM: Male subjects’ attraction to female interviewers may be caused by a previous high anxiety situation.
STUDY: “Some Evidence for Heightened Sexual Attraction Under Conditions of High Anxiety,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974
AUTHOR: Donald Dutton, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
OUTSIDE FUNDING: National Research Council
ITEM: When wanting and liking are uncoordinated, a person has miswanted.
STUDY: “Some Problems in the Forecasting of Future Affective States,” Feeling and Thinking: The Role of Affect in Social Cognition, June 2001
AUTHOR: Daniel Gilbert, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
OUTSIDE FUNDING: National Institute of Mental Health
Read the original story: “There’s a Name for Why We So Often Fail to Predict What Will Improve Our Future Happiness.”
RESEARCH GONE WILD
ITEM: People with schizophrenia are almost twice as likely to have been infected by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii.
STUDY: “Beyond the Association. Toxoplasma gondii in Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Addiction: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2015
AUTHOR: Arjen Sutterland, Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam
OUTSIDE FUNDING: Inserm, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, RTRS Santé Mentale, Agence Nationale pour la Recherche
Read the original story: “Research Gone Wild: Crazy Cats.”
IN THE PICTURE
ITEM: Consuming tea has been linked to better cognitive performance in older, community-living Chinese adults.
STUDY: “Cognitive Function and Tea Consumption in Community Dwelling Older Chinese in Singapore,” the Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging, 2010
AUTHOR: Lei Feng, Gerontology Research Program, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
OUTSIDE FUNDING: Biomedical Research Council; Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore
Read the original story: “Upriver, Downmarket: Luzhou, Sichuan, China.”
FIVE STUDIES
ITEM: Women who use long-acting birth control are more likely to stick with it, and less likely to get pregnant.
STUDY: “The Contraceptive CHOICE Project Round Up: What We Did and What We Learned,” Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2014
AUTHOR: Colleen McNicholas, Division of Clinical Research, Washington University School of Medicine
OUTSIDE FUNDING: Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
ITEM: In a survey of 774 18- to 29-year-old men and women, 45 percent were ambivalent about pregnancy—and, among men, this ambivalence lowered the likelihood of contraceptive use.
STUDY: “Pregnancy Ambivalence and Contraceptive Use Among Young Adults in the United States,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2012
AUTHOR: John Santelli, Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
OUTSIDE FUNDING: National Campaign to Prevent Teenage and Unplanned Pregnancy
ITEM: Nearly one-third of family health-care providers needed new training to insert an IUD before they’d feel comfortable recommending one, and less than half of family doctors were talking to their patients about long-acting birth control.
STUDY: “Evidence-Based IUD Practice: Family Physicians and Obstetrician- Gynecologists,” Family Medicine, 2012
AUTHOR: Cynthia Harper, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California–San Francisco
OUTSIDE FUNDING: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
ITEM: The majority of stories women had heard about birth control—whether from friends, family, or the media—were negative.
STUDY: “Bringing Patients’ Social Context Into the Examination Room: An Investigation of the Discussion of Social Influence During Contraceptive Counseling,” Women’s Health Issues, 2015
AUTHOR: Christine Dehlendorf, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California–San Francisco
OUTSIDE FUNDING: Society of Family Planning Research Fund, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
ITEM: Women who suspect that a doctor is trying to control their fertility or keep them from having children are less likely to use contraceptives that required sign-off from a health-care provider.
STUDY: “Conspiracy Beliefs About Birth Control: Barriers to Pregnancy Prevention Among African Americans of Reproductive Age,” Health Education & Behavior, 2005
AUTHOR: Sheryl Thornburn, Department of Public Health, Oregon State University
OUTSIDE FUNDING: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
ITEM: Low-income women who felt pressure from providers were less likely to
feel satisfied with Norplant, an early contraceptive implant for birth control.
STUDY: “Norplant Selection and Satisfaction Among Low-Income Women,” American Journal of Public Health, 1998
AUTHOR: Leslie Clarke, Department of Health Policy and Epidemiology, University of Florida
OUTSIDE FUNDING: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Florida Department of Health, Institute for Health Policy Research
Read the original story: “Five Studies: Why IUDs Are Poised to Become the Future of Birth Control.”
THE KIDS IN THE YARD
ITEM: The number of homeless children in the United States climbed by eight percent between 2012 and 2013, reaching about 2.5 million, a historic high.
STUDY: “America’s Youngest Outcasts: A Report Card on Child Homelessness,” the National Center on Family Homelessness at American Institutes for Research, 2014
AUTHOR: Ellen Bassuk, founder/senior technical advisor, Center for Social Innovation
OUTIDE FUNDING: The Oak Foundation, Marie C. and Joseph C. Wilson Foundation
Read the original story: “The Kids in the Yard.”
THE AGING ADVANTAGE
ITEM: Older workers have cognitive and emotional strengths that complement those of their younger counterparts.
STUDY: “Emotion and Aging: Experience, Expression, and Control,” Psychology and Aging, 1997
AUTHOR: Laura L. Carstensen, Stanford Center on Longevity, Stanford University
OUTSIDE FUNDING: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging
ITEM: In a test, performance differences were found between younger and older people when instructions explicitly emphasize memory, but there were no differences when learning was emphasized.
STUDY: “Instructional Manipulations and Age Differences in Memory: Now You See Them, Now You Don’t,” Psychology and Aging, 2001
AUTHOR: Tamara Rahhal, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts–Amherst
OUTSIDE FUNDING: National Institute on Aging
ITEM: The memory gap between younger and older Americans is significantly greater than that between younger and older Chinese.
STUDY: “Aging Free From Negative Stereotypes: Successful Memory in China and Among the American Deaf,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1994
AUTHOR: Becca Levy, School of Public Health, Yale University
OUTSIDE FUNDING: National Science Foundation
Read the original story: “The Aging Advantage.”
EVIL GENIUS
ITEM: A 1986 survey of cases involving homicides deemed “especially heinous” found no unifying themes differentiated them from non- heinous murders.
STUDY: “The ‘Especially Heinous’ Aggravating Circumstance in Capital Cases—the Standard-Less Standard,” North Carolina Law Review, June 1986
AUTHOR: Richard A. Rosen, School of Law, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
OUTSIDE FUNDING: North Carolina Law Center
Read the original story: “Evil Genius.”
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