Anthropology

Chimps Develop Traditions: How Grass In Ears Started A New Fashion Trend

Chimpanzees are copycats but sometimes it is more than copying, it becomes new traditions particular to only one specific group of these primates, according to a paper in Animal Cognition.  In 2010, Edwin van Leeuwen of the Max Planck Institute for Psycho ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 5 2014 - 9:07am

Many People Would Rather Do The Wrong Thing Than Nothing

In business, the saying goes there are good decisions, bad decisions and no decisions, and they are in that order of being problematic. This lacks common sense to some; how can doing the wrong thing be better than doing no thing? Companies who don't ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 4 2014 - 12:49pm

Teen Dating Violence: Girls More Likely To Be Aggressors And Victims

When did teen dating get so violent? It used to be the kind of thing that was a plot linchpin for movies but now estimates are that 1 in 6 young people report acts like punching, pulling hair, shoving, and throwing things.  ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 7 2014 - 12:36pm

Science Of The Swarm: Crowdsourcing Crowd Behavior

Sociology is too uncontrolled to be meaningful science but controlled scenarios don't lead to realistic behavior.  The Virtual Environment Navigation lab at Brown University thinks they can bridge the gap between them. They have developed a wireless ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 7:30am

The Ulterior Motive In Baboon Grooming

Social animals often develop relationships with other group members to reduce aggression and gain access to scarce resources. In wild chacma baboons the strategy for grooming activities shows a certain pattern across the day- they have ulterior motives.  ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 13 2014 - 11:00am

Women and Authority

A recent article by Nury Vittachi, Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that’s not a joke, received rather a lot of comments.  Among these were a few about the place of women in the world: however these tended to be lost among the welter ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Jul 15 2014 - 5:41pm

Sexual Harassment Common In Academic Field Expeditions

A new survey analysis finds that in just about about any field where there are academics and field work, there is going to be sexual harassment and even assault. Yes, surveys, the bane of the scientific method. The authors analyzed survey results of 666 p ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 16 2014 - 10:18pm

Many Species Or One?

I’ve often wondered about the Scopes trial, and wanted to read a good account of it.  I was recommended the account by Edward J. Larson in When Science and Christianity Meet, edited by DC Lindberg and RL Numbers (ISBN 0226482162). .  It’s a very informati ...

Article - Robert H Olley - Jul 29 2014 - 5:12pm

Goal Attainment: We Often Don't Like Early Victories

If most people run a race, they cheer after they cross the finish line. It is a culturally acceptable psychological reward for all of the training and preparation and execution of the plan. But what happens when that script isn't followed? If you lea ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 28 2014 - 1:00pm

Seniors At Risk Of Financial Abuse- Often By Family

Millennials are redefining adulthood by living at home and getting supported by their parents longer than ever- and in the future it may turn into outright exploitation. It used to be that family watched out for shysters out to bilk their parents but now ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2014 - 12:38pm