NPR'sInvisibiliais a show about the invisible forces that control human behavior which first debuted in 2015. All this week we're airing episodes from the just released season 3 of the show in our time slot. Catch up below if you miss the broadcast.

Monday - Emotions

It feels like emotions just come at us, and there is nothing we can do. But we might have it backwards. In our first episode of the new season, we examine a provocative new theory about where emotions come from. It will change how you feel, and how you feel about your feelings. And ultimately it will give you more control over your life. Hosts Alix Spiegel and Hanna Rosin explore this theory through an unusual and tragic legal case involving a car accident and the death of a child.

Tuesday - Reality

How is it that two people can look out the window at the same exact thing and see something completely different? This is a question many of us are asking after the latest election. In this episode, we talk to umpires in training, who firmly believe that what they see is whats real. And we visit a small community in Minnesota, called Eagles Nest Township, that has a unique experience with the reality divide: some of the people in the town believe that wild black bears are gentle animals to be fed and befriended, while many others take a more traditional view on the human-bear relationship. This leads to conflict and, ultimately, a tragic death. Then we meet a young man who is taking extraordinary steps to break out of his own reality bubble.

Wednesday - The Culture Inside

Is there a part of ourselves that we dont acknowledge, that we dont even have access to and that might make us ashamed if we encountered it? We begin with a woman whose left hand takes instructions from a different part of her brain. It hits her, and knocks cigarettes out of her hand and makes her wonder: who is issuing the orders? Is there some other me in there I dont know about? We then ask this question about one of the central problems of our time: racism. Scientific research has shown that even well-meaning people operate with implicit bias - stereotypes and attitudes we are not fully aware of that nonetheless shape our behavior towards people of color. We examine the Implicit Association Test, a widely available psychological test that popularized the notion of implicit bias. And we talk to people who are tackling the question, critical to so much of our behavior: what does it take to change these deeply embedded concepts? Can it even be done?

Thursday - Future Self

What do you want to be when you grow up? This is a question we ask children, and adults. In American culture the concept of the future self is critical, required. It drives us to improve, become a richer, more successful, happier version of who we are now. It keeps us from getting blinkered by the world we grew up in, allowing us to see into other potential worlds, new and different concepts, infinite other selves. But the future self can also torture us, mocking us for who we have failed to become. We travel to North Port, Florida, where the principal of a high school did something extreme and unusual to help his students strive for grander future selves - a noble American experiment that went horribly wrong.

Sunday - An Encore Presentation of Emotions

Continued here:
Word of Mouth Presents Invisibilia Season 3 - New Hampshire Public Radio

SAN FRANCISCO At Facebook, mere "sharing" is getting old. Finding deeper meaning in online communities is the next big thing.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is no longer satisfied with just connecting the world so that people can pass around baby pictures and live video or fake news and hate symbols. So the Facebook founder wants to bring more meaning to its nearly 2 billion users by shepherding them into online groups that bring together people with common passions, problems and ambitions.

Much like the creation of Facebook itself arguably the largest social-engineering project in history that shift could have broad and unanticipated consequences. Facebook will apply the same powerful computer algorithms that make its service so compelling to the task of boosting membership in "meaningful" groups to more than a billion people within five years.

If successful, that would also encourage people to spend more time on Facebook, which could boost the company's profits. While Facebook doesn't currently place ads in its groups, it said it "can't speak to future plans." Advertising is virtually Facebook's only source of revenue; it brought in almost $27 billion dollars in 2016, 57 percent more than the previous year.

The shift comes as Facebook continues to grapple with the darker side of connecting the world, from terrorist recruitment to videos of murder and suicides to propaganda intended to disrupt elections around the world. For Zuckerberg, using his social network to "build community" and "bring the world closer together" two phrases from Facebook's newly updated mission statement is a big part of the answer.

"When you think of the social structure of the world, we are probably one of the larger institutions that can help empower people to build communities," Zuckerberg said in a recent interview at the company's offices in Menlo Park, California. "There, I think we have a real opportunity to help make a difference."

Zuckerberg outlined his latest vision at a "communities summit" held Thursday in Chicago. It's the company's first gathering for the people who run millions of groups on Facebook, a feature the company rolled out years ago to little fanfare. Facebook is also rolling out new administrative tools intended to simplify the task of screening members and managing communities in hopes that will encourage people to create and cultivate more groups.

Facebook groups are ad hoc collections of people united by a single interest; they offer ways to chat and organize events. Originally conceived as a way for friends and family to communicate privately, groups have evolved to encompass hobbies, medical conditions, military service, pets, parenthood and just about anything else you could think of.

To Zuckerberg, now 33, the effort to foster meaningful communities reflects his recent interest in ways Facebook can make the world a less divisive place, one that emerged following the fractious 2016 presidential election.

He has previously talked about the need to bring people together in both a lengthy manifesto published earlier this year and during his commencement address at Harvard University last month.

Data-driven to its core, Facebook has quantified "meaning" so it can be sure people are getting more of it. And what Facebook aims to maximize is the time people spend in its online groups. Whenever someone spends at least 30 minutes a week in a group, Facebook classifies it as "meaningful." The company estimates that 130 million of its users are in such groups; it aims to boost that to over a billion by 2022.

Facebook has already been tweaking its algorithms to recommend more groups to users. Those changes have increased the number of people in "meaningful" groups by 50 percent over the past six months, Zuckerberg said a testament to the power of algorithms on human behavior.

Of course, anything that keeps people coming back to Facebook also gives it more opportunities to learn about their interests and other personal details that help it sell advertising, according to analysts.

"It's really simple economics: If users are spending time on Facebook, they're seeing more ads," said eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson. "Increasing user engagement is a necessity for Facebook."

Virtual communities "can fill a fundamental need we have for a sense of belonging, much like eating or sleeping," said Anita Blanchard, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who's studied them for 20 years.

Her research has also shown that online communities can make people less intolerant of opposing viewpoints. "They get you out of your own clothes and make connections across the U.S., making you realize you can get along with people with different beliefs," she said.

For Sarah Giberman, an artist and parent who lives in Arlington, Texas, a meaningful group is one "that serves a need in your life, that fills some space that would otherwise feel vacant."

"I spend a lot more time on Facebook because of the groups than I would otherwise," she said. "Especially with the current sociopolitical climate, I'm not comfortable being very open in my regular newsfeed."

Continued here:
Facebook pushing users toward groups - nwitimes.com

A video clip posted this month on YouTube and other sites shows a wild condor, having just flown down from the sky, walking toward and embracing a man in a very moving way. It is capturing attention worldwide and raising some intriguing questions about animal behavior.

According to the text accompanying the video, the man a cattle rancher named Edgardo, who lives in Loncopu, Argentina discovered the condor on his patio at home back in March. The bird, then an infant, suffered from a leg injury and had somehow become separated from his parents. Edgardo cared for and fed the condor, who recovered and flew off, but who returns to his rescuer regularly.

Edgardo can be heard in the clip greeting the bird enthusiastically then remarking "it has been a while" since the last visit. When the footage was posted on Facebook by the organization Breathing with Peace, this comment was included: "Without forgetting the man, the animal always visits his rescuer in gratitude."

I found the video clip quite wonderful to view, because in it I see the result of human kindness and the genuine mutual affection between bird and human.

Going beyond affection, though, is the claim of gratitude by the bird a reasonable one?

Condors are vultures, a type of raptor. As it happens, just a week ago I spent a fantastic afternoon observing the rescued raptors and interacting with environmental educators at the Vermont Institute of Nature Science in Quechee.

I sent the condor video clip to VINS environmental educator Anna Autilio, who had shown me around last week (she is also a friend). I remarked to her by email that I didn't think the behavior shown by the condor was the result of imprinting, because the bird had left the man for the wild; I asked if she thinks that gratitude could be a possible explanation for the condor's behavior.

Autilio replied:

"The big thing is, I don't see why we would rule out imprinting. According to the description in the video, this man rescued the bird when it was 'a baby.' Does the condor now breed, that is, have a condor mate and raise condor chicks? Or does the 'frequent' visitation imply that this bird has taken Edgardo as its mate and will remain in the general vicinity hoping one day Edgardo will lay an egg? Is it unable to recognize other condors as mates because it was raised by a person? That would be the sad part.

The condor is definitely soliciting neck rubs. In the wild, this would be allo-preening between mates, a ritual done after mating, as a greeting, or during a changing-of-the-guard at incubation. You can even see the condor nibbling Edgardo's shirt and hands as he may be trying to reciprocate the neck rub, or demand more.

Gratitude is not a word I would use it implies the condor knows Edgardo was responsible for its healing. But does the condor feel extreme affection for Edgardo? Yes!"

(I learned my lesson some time ago in always seeking a bird expert when trying to interpret bird behavior.)

What we're left with, then, is a clear indication of emotion felt by the condor, but too many unanswered questions to point toward gratitude.

The condor video is only the tip of the animal-gratitude iceberg. Media stories of the "rescued whale says thank you" variety are pretty common, including this famous one from back in 2005 in which rescuers disentangled a humpback whale from crab pot lines in the waters off California.

After being freed, the whale moved through the water with exuberance. This behavior alone might well be an expression of joy or relief, having nothing directly to do (from the whale's point of view) with the rescue divers in the water. Some of the behavior struck the rescuers as intentionally directed towards them, though, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

"When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers ... it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one."

Because I work on animal emotion, experience tells me that suggestions like this are often met with charges of anthropomorphism even regarding big-brained mammals. Yet, let's break it down a little.

Expressing gratitude requires the cognitive ability to link an event (an individual animal's being helped in some way) to the agent of that event (the person or other animal who carried out the help). Based on what I know of cetaceans, elephants, and non-human primates, I believe this capacity probably does exist in individuals of some species whose survival depends on being able to make complex learned associations or, in some cases, to take the perspective of others.

In an article published earlier this year in Greater Good magazine, Malini Suchak reviews experiments with apes and monkeys showing that they engage in reciprocity, or the returning of favors in such a way that might well indicate they are grateful to their social partners.

In one experiment, for instance, chimpanzees were given a food-related task that required a partner to perform:

"The chimpanzees were more likely to help another chimpanzee in need of a partner if that chimpanzee had also helped them in the past. Reciprocity seemed more important than friendship and skill in their choices."

(A new chimpanzee study reported just last week adds even more evidence that reciprocity is crucial in chimpanzee dynamics.)

Suchak concludes:

"Although we are not yet at the point where we can 'speak chimp' well enough to understand their expressions of gratitude, the behavior of our closest relatives certainly suggests that we humans are not alone in the importance we place on gratitude. The research suggests that, in all likelihood, our propensity for gratitude really does have deep evolutionary roots, and it will be up to us to find out how deep they go."

In his book The Bonobo and the Atheist, primatologist Frans de Waal recounts expressions of gratitude in chimpanzees also, including a historical one involving Wolfgang Kohler, whom de Waal describes as "the German pioneer of tool use."

"Two chimps," writes de Waal, "had been shut out of their shelter during a rainstorm when Kohler happened to come by and found the apes soaking wet, shivering in the rain. He opened the door for them. But instead of hurrying past him to enter the dry area, both chimps first hugged the professor in a frenzy of satisfaction."

That phrase "a frenzy of satisfaction" strikes me as fitting for explaining what the condor in Argentina does with Edgardo, too. Perhaps that is enough as a takeaway message, along with, of course, the strong positive difference that human compassion toward other animals can make.

Barbara J. King is an anthropology professor emerita at the College of William and Mary. She often writes about the cognition, emotion and welfare of animals, and about biological anthropology, human evolution and gender issues. Barbara's new book is Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat. You can keep up with what she is thinking on Twitter: @bjkingape

See original here:
Video: What Is This Wild Condor Doing? - NPR

Cutline :Stock photo

That happy medium.

You know, that nebulous line between hunger and gluttony, exercise and self-punishment, having one drink and having one too many.

For some, it can feel like navigating a narrow channel.

But by finding the happy medium, or a route of moderation, one can avoid many of life's potential problems, from extra pounds to alcohol abuse.

"For a human being to be healthy, you eat right, exercise, socialize," says Dr. Sharon Braun of the Community Counseling Center. "You improve your mind."

Stock photo

The problem, surprising even to Braun, who helps individuals navigate life for a living, is how few follow a healthy path.

She cited a report published in U.S. News and World Report where just 2.7 percent Americans were graded as having healthy lifestyle habits from data on more than 4,700 people. The study assessed the four general principles of healthy living -- a good diet, moderate exercise, not smoking and keeping body fat under control.

The study, typical of standard lifestyle advice given by doctors, did not even address areas of behavior where moderation, if not exercised, can lead to problems on countless fronts.

"If you asked 10 individuals, you would probably get 10 different answers," Braun says about common areas where people have trouble exercising moderate behavior. "Some of which include gambling, shopping, eating, video games, exercise, perfection, drinking, drugs, hoarding, violence, sexual obsession, smoking, tattooing and so on. Some of these behaviors are addictions and some are compulsions."

She says the difference between excessive behavior and compulsive behavior lies in choice and control.

While both are problematic, Braun views moderate behavior as the opposite of excessive behavior.

Moderate behavior, she says, can be achieved through "experiential learning," and identifying behaviors that affect an individual positively or negatively. While trial and error is involved, she says "mindfulness" also plays into recognizing whether behavior is a good fit or not -- whether it's beneficial or detrimental.

That mindfulness helps individuals determine their limits and choose not to go beyond, which she defines as "moderate behavior."

That self-awareness can help in identifying situations, knowing personal tendencies and developing strategies to moderate behavior.

When mindful, there can be simple, practical approaches to moderation.

For example, in the pursuit of healthier eating, Charlotte Cervantes, an instructor of dietetics at Southeast Missouri State University, recommends being mindful of portion sizes.

"One of the biggest things that we will say to people who are wanting to lose weight or moderate their intake is pay attention to the plate you're eating off or the bowling you're eating off, because if they're enormous, then you're going to fill them up," Cervantes says.

She says using a smaller plate, and filling it, looks more visually appealing and satisfying than the same portion on a smaller plate.

She recommends questioning the size of the cup used when using higher-calorie drinks like milk. Mindfulness also comes into play when sitting down with a box of healthy food, only to consume multiple servings that pile up calories.

Braun says knowing oneself allows choices to be made, rather than imposing self-discipline.

For Cervantes, it's healthy choices.

"In terms of restaurant food, I think a good thing to do is usually if you get a plate, just immediately pack up half of it to go," Cervantes says. "Restaurant portion sizes are so big and you're probably only hungry for half of it, but you'll kind of stuff yourself to capacity because it's there. I'd say put half of it in a to-go box, and if you're really hungry at the end of that meal, then kind of get into it. If not, then you have a meal for tomorrow."

Applied to the rest of life one will find, like leftovers, moderation serves well for the future.

See the rest here:
Moderating diet and behavior can lead to a healthy, well-balanced life - Southeast Missourian

President Donald Trump, center, speaks as first lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence listen at the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, June 22, 2017. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

President Donald Trump, center, speaks as first lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence listen at the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, June 22, 2017.

Moments into his highly anticipated on-camera briefing Wednesday the first after a seven-day absence Trump press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about the persistent rumor that he will soon transition into a new role within the White House communications team one that removes him from the spotlight and into a less visible position.

He opted for an indirect response to a very direct question: "I'm still here."

But, he added, "It's no secret we've had a couple of vacancies including our communications director who's been gone for a while. We've been seeking input from individuals as far as ideas that they have. We've been meeting with potential people that may be of service to this administration."

To say that the Trump administration has "a couple of vacancies" is an understatement. Although that may technically be true for the beleaguered, combative and sometimes flummoxed communications team, a slew of leadership positions across an array of departments remain unfilled five months into Donald Trump's presidency. To put it in perspective, using data culled by the Center for Presidential Transition and reported by the Washington Post, by this point in his first term, President Obama had confirmed 151 top political appointees, whereas Trump only has 43 in place.

It is not that the White House is not trying to fill the posts. Or that these are not lucrative positions. In fact, the role of press secretary has opened the door to top-dollar broadcasting deals for many of Spicer's predecessors. Ari Fleischer, who served under President George W. Bush, and Jay Carney, who served under President Obama, both ended up at CNN. Robert Gibbs, another Obama alum, joined NBC News and MSNBC as a contributor, while Dana Perino, who was on President George W. Bush's staff, left the White House for Fox News where she remains as the co-host of The Five.

But amid the investigations, low approval numbers, and notoriously capricious nature of the president it's been challenging for the White House to lure takers.

So perhaps it is time for the Trump administration which has promised to run the government more like a business to remove the political from "political appointees" and ask, "How does an organization entice top-tier talent when it is embroiled in chaos?"

In other words, WWHRD: What would human resources do?

It turns out hiring and recruiting experts have a lot to say on the subject, including Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the Wharton Business School where Trump took a handful of undergraduate classes and director of the Center for Human Resources.

What Trump or his advocates should be doing, according to Cappelli, is appeal to a perspective employee's sense of patriotic duty and self-interest.

Here is his pitch: "You're serving your country. The job won't last that long. Administrations don't go on forever, but afterwards, you will be more valuable."

At the end of the day, he added, that is the kind of offer employers, regardless of industry, should make whenever they're courting an in-demand candidate.

Ultimately, Cappelli argued, "it's a pretty good bet for somebody to take over an organization that everybody knows is in big trouble and that expectations are really low."

It would help for interested yet tentative applicants to think of the troubled company as a "sinking ship."

"If you get on board it and it sinks, nobody blames you," he laughed. "If it's sinking and something nice happens and it turns around you get all the credit!"

But he cautioned that there is such a thing as a company that is too far gone. Remember Enron? If somehow a jobless executive had been bamboozled into taking a job at the energy giant when it was already mired in lawsuits and fraud charges, there would be no way to recover professionally.

He called walking into that situation "a losing proposition." One in which it is "more likely you're going to be tarred by the brush."

Cappelli suggested the most well-suited type for a job at an organization in crisis and under a boss who is unfazed by completely reversing course on any given endeavor, is someone with a military background. "People who are used to accepting direction and executing orders for the good of the greater mission," he said. And perhaps, most importantly, "they're used to falling on their swords for superiors."

But Rom Brafman, co-author of the best-selling book, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, disagrees with that analysis and believes the opposite is true.

The candidate most likely to thrive under these circumstances, Brafman contended, is one who is flexible and creative because they can more easily adapt to unforeseen changes. For someone like this, he continued, chaos is a terrific trigger for innovation.

"Chaotic systems have gotten a very bad rap," he said.

A mercurial boss could be a great thing, he advised. "If somebody's telling you that one day something is good and one day something is bad, that creates the opportunity to go with either direction."

He said the benefits of unstructured systems are two-fold: unlike a structured organization, one that is in turmoil is more tolerant of deviations from the norm and, even in cases where they may not be officially condoned, a motivated worker-bee can typically go unnoticed and on task while the rest of the hive buzzes around trying to save their own jobs.

So, why then, aren't more start-up types clamoring to work for the new administration? Brafman's answer is what behavioral economists call it loss aversion. It is the idea that "losses generally have a much larger psychological impact than gains of the same size."

His example involves finding a hundred dollar bill. That would bring most anyone a certain degree of joy, but psychologists have found that losing the same amount of money is two and half times more upsetting.

That, he explained, is what is preventing talented and potentially interested applicants from throwing their hat in the Trump White House's ring. They are more fearful of being tainted by the administration's reputation or the possibility of failure than the unknown possibilities of success.

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What Would Human Resources Do?: Some Advice For Trump As He Recruits And Staffs Up - NPR

SAN FRANCISCO | At Facebook, mere sharing is getting old. Finding deeper meaning in online communities is the next big thing.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is no longer satisfied with just connecting the world so that people can pass around baby pictures and live video or fake news and hate symbols. So the Facebook founder wants to bring more meaning to its nearly 2 billion users by shepherding them into online groups that bring together people with common passions, problems and ambitions.

Much like the creation of Facebook itself arguably the largest social-engineering project in history that shift could have broad and unanticipated consequences. Facebook will apply the same powerful computer algorithms that make its service so compelling to the task of boosting membership in meaningful groups to more than a billion people within five years.

If successful, that would also encourage people to spend more time on Facebook, which could boost the companys profits. While Facebook doesnt currently place ads in its groups, it said it cant speak to future plans. Advertising is virtually Facebooks only source of revenue ; it brought in almost $27 billion in 2016, 57 percent more than the previous year.

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

The shift comes as Facebook continues to grapple with the darker side of connecting the world, from terrorist recruitment to videos of murder and suicides, to propaganda intended to disrupt elections around the world. For Zuckerberg, using his social network to build community and bring the world closer together two phrases from Facebooks newly updated mission statement is a big part of the answer.

When you think of the social structure of the world, we are probably one of the larger institutions that can help empower people to build communities, Zuckerberg said in a recent interview at the companys offices in Menlo Park, Calif. There, I think we have a real opportunity to help make a difference.

Zuckerberg outlined his latest vision at a communities summit held Thursday in Chicago. Its the companys first gathering for the people who run millions of groups on Facebook, a feature the company rolled out years ago to little fanfare. Facebook is also rolling out new administrative tools intended to simplify the task of screening members and managing communities in hopes that will encourage people to create and cultivate more groups.

COME TOGETHER

Facebook groups are ad hoc collections of people united by a single interest; they offer ways to chat and organize events. Originally conceived as a way for friends and family to communicate privately, groups have evolved to encompass hobbies, medical conditions, military service, pets, parenthood and just about anything else you could think of.

To Zuckerberg, now 33, the effort to foster meaningful communities reflects his recent interest in ways Facebook can make the world a less divisive place, one that emerged following the fractious 2016 presidential election.

He has previously talked about the need to bring people together in both a lengthy manifesto published earlier this year and during his commencement address at Harvard University last month.

MEANING, FACEBOOK STYLE

Data-driven to its core, Facebook has quantified meaning so it can be sure people are getting more of it. And what Facebook aims to maximize is the time people spend in its online groups. Whenever someone spends at least 30 minutes a week in a group, Facebook classifies it as meaningful. The company estimates 130 million of its users are in such groups; it aims to boost that to over a billion by 2022.

Facebook has already been tweaking its algorithms to recommend more groups to users. Those changes have increased the number of people in meaningful groups by 50 percent over the past six months, Zuckerberg said a testament to the power of algorithms on human behavior.

Of course, anything that keeps people coming back to Facebook also gives it more opportunities to learn about their interests and other personal details that help it sell advertising, according to analysts.

Its really simple economics: If users are spending time on Facebook, theyre seeing more ads, said eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson. Increasing user engagement is a necessity for Facebook.

COMMUNITY COLLAGE

Virtual communities can fill a fundamental need we have for a sense of belonging, much like eating or sleeping, said Anita Blanchard, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who has studied them for 20 years. Facebooks plan to connect people with like-minded fellows sounds like a fine idea, she said.

Blanchards research has also shown online communities can make people less intolerant of opposing viewpoints. They get you out of your own clothes and make connections across the U.S., making you realize you can get along with people with different beliefs, she said.

For Sarah Giberman, an artist and parent who lives in Arlington, Texas, a meaningful group is one that serves a need in your life, that fills some space that would otherwise feel vacant.

I spend a lot more time on Facebook because of the groups than I would otherwise, she said. Especially with the current sociopolitical climate, Im not comfortable being very open in my regular newsfeed.

More:
Facebook wants to nudge you into 'meaningful' online groups - Online Athens

What is the psychology of living in a densely populated place? If you think of New York or Los Angeles, you might be inclined to imagine the fast life, unrestricted sexuality, street gangs, and hordes of uncaring people rushing toward a dystopian future. But a recent series of studies conducted by Oliver Sng, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, suggests a different picturepopulation density is associated with a slow lifestyle.

Fast versus slow life histories

As an undergraduate, Sng developed an interest in studying human behavior in evolutionary perspective. Before going to graduate school to study social psychology, in fact, he spent two years observing a group of long-tailed macaques at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Biologists studying animal behavior have distinguished between a slow as opposed to a fast life history strategy. A slow life history means reaching sexual maturity at a later age, having fewer offspring, and investing heavily in each of those offspring (elephants, for example, dont begin having calves until well into their teens, and they nurse each one for several years). This compares to a fast life history, which, conversely means producing a large number of offspring as quickly as possible, and investing relatively little in each one (some small mammals in Madagascar, called tenrecs, start having offspring a few months after birth, for example).

Source: Oliver Sng, used with permission

Among animals other than humans, high population density is associated with a slow life history strategy. This makes sense because if there are a lot of ones own species around vying for resources, offspring are especially likely to need their parents to help them out.

What about humans?

When I was a young assistant professor, I taught a class in environmental psychology, which included a section on density and behavior. In those days, psychologists were convinced that nothing good could come of crowding. Environmental psychology textbooks would typically describe research on what ethologist John B. Calhoun called the behavioral sinka dystopic state of social pathology that resulted from crowding. Calhoun placed a large group of rats in a 10 by14 foot four-room enclosure, and provided them sufficient food and water to allow them to reproduce to their hearts content. The prolific little creatures reproduced quite freely, and were soon as crowded as New Yorkers on a subway at rush hour. The animals began exhibiting numerous forms of pathology, ranging from extreme social withdrawal to violence, rape, and cannibalism.

Calhouns research was widely publicized, fueled by the implication that the behavioral sink applied to human beings as well.

But not all the research supported this picture of density doom and gloom. After reviewing the findings in this area, psychologist Jonathan Freedman concluded that research with human beings has not supported earlier belief about the negative consequences of high density, and that, in fact, psychologists had misinterpreted and over-interpreted a few dramatic and non-representative studies of animals (such as Calhouns behavioral sink study).

After Freedmans review, research on the psychology of density became less popular. But Sng, working with Steve Neuberg, Michael Varnum, and I, decided to revisit the phenomenon in light of later developments in life history theory. The results were reported recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The first study in the series was an analysis of archival data from different societies around the world. In Sngs native Singapore, every square kilometer is filled up with 7,987 people. That is 30 times more people than youd bump into if you took a stroll around the United Kingdom (at 261 people per sq. km.)and 249 times the density of the United States (at 32 folks per square kilometer). Despite its extremely dense population, Singaporeans hardly live the hard-paced sexually unrestricted lifestyle, though.They are generally well-behaved and hard-working, and they invest a lot in their small families (20 percent of the national budget goes to education). And Singapore isnt alone in this regard. In general, countries with higher density were found to have lower fertility rates, lower rates of teen pregnancy, longer lifespans, more emphasis on planning for the future, less promiscuous behavior, and more children enrolled in pre-school (indicative of more investment in children). These relationships held even after taking into account a variety of alternative factors, such as economic development, urbanization, and population size. This is consistent with the prediction that density would be associated with a slower life history in human beings, as it is in other species.

A second study compared different states in the United States, and found that states with higher density had lower fertility, less teen pregnancy, later age at first marriage, more children enrolled in preschool, more young people obtaining college degrees, longer lifespans, and more participation in retirement plans. Again, all this is evidence for a slower life history in places with higher density.

The paper also reports two experimental studies in which people were presented with various cues to crowding, such as a news article (purportedly from the New York Times) titled The Crowded Life: Too Many Too Much. The article stated that:

Throughout the United States, people are becoming increasingly familiar with long lines, big crowds, and giant traffic jams. Theres a good reason for all this overcrowding. According to statistics released by the U.S. census this year, population densities are growing at an unprecedented rate. In almost every U.S. state, population densities are increasing rapidly

Participants were then given a series of choices, such as:

Would you prefer 1) to have $100 today, OR 2) $140 ninety days from now?

and:

Would you prefer to: 1) have ONE child and invest all your resources in that one child OR 2) have MULTIPLE children and split your time and resources across all of them.

The results indicated that people who had been primed to think about crowding made more choices associated with a slower strategychoosing fewer children and long-term rather than short-term payoffs, for example.

To summarize, these results suggest that human beings, like other animal species, adopt a slower life history when they are living in high density conditions. Does this mean that everyone living in New York and Los Angeles starts having children later, has small families, and focuses on long term rather than short-term payoffs? Obviously not. But on average, there are relatively more slow strategists in places with high populations as compared to low populations. It remains an interesting question why some people living in big cities still adopt a faster life history strategy.

Douglas T. Kenrick is author of:

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Why Are Crowded City Dwellers Living the Slow Life? - Psychology Today (blog)

Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian

A new state law requires hospitals to have a protocol when releasing mentally ill patients from emergency rooms.

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Gov. Kate Brown held a ceremonial signing ceremony Friday for new laws to help the mentally ill.

Hospitals in Oregon will no longer be able to release patients who come into the emergency room in mental health crisis without taking steps to prevent suicide and find treatment.

The new state law is another thread in the patchwork of care for the mentally ill, who often fail to get proper treatment even when their behavior escalates into an emergency.

The state requires hospitals that admit patients for mental health treatment to have a protocol at discharge to assess suicide risk, the capacity for self-care, the need for outpatient treatment, a transition plan, and a timetable for follow-up appointments.

Erasing an exemption

But hospitals that do not provide mental health treatment, like Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria and Providence Seaside Hospital in Seaside, were exempt in a compromise to get the mandate through the state Legislature in 2015.

Hospital administrators had argued that doctors and nurses were not equipped to counsel the mentally ill on top of the stressful, around-the-clock demands of an emergency room.

Basically, we didnt buy that, said state Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, D-Portland, one of the chief sponsors of the new law. Thats not an acceptable answer to say, We cant do it. You dont send somebody home who had a heart attack and say, Sorry, we dont have any help for you.

The new law, signed by Gov. Kate Brown in early June, takes effect this fall.

Hospitals will have to provide copies of emergency room release policies for patients in mental health crisis to the Oregon Health Authority. The Health Authority will compile the information in a report to the Legislature in January on the progress and potential barriers in carrying out the law.

Another new law signed by Brown requires public and private health insurers to cover behavioral health assessments and medically necessary treatment for people in mental health crisis, a mechanism to help finance care.

These bills ensure that when Oregonians reach out for help in a behavioral health crisis, they can access a broad range of mental health professionals, emergency services and critical support systems, Brown said in a statement Friday after a ceremonial signing with advocates for the mentally ill. Now, Oregonians in their most vulnerable moments will have the tools they need to recover, without undue financial burden.

Crisis response

Columbia Memorial and Providence Seaside work with Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare Clatsop Countys mental health contractor on crisis response to the mentally ill. A crisis respite center that opened last summer in Warrenton is also intended as an alternative to emergency rooms or, in more severe circumstances, the county jail. The hospitals are a partner in the crisis respite center.

CMH has been following this practice already and we are glad to have the state make this the standard policy for everyone. Trece Gurrad, the vice president of patient care services at Columbia Memorial, said of the emergency room protocol in an email.

Janiece Zauner, the chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at Providence Seaside, said in an email that we are working on developing innovative, sustainable solutions that actively engage community resources to meet the needs developed in these policies. We are beginning the work in each ministry this summer, and hope to have community-based solutions identified later this fall, before the legislation takes effect.

Caring for patients with behavioral health needs is a priority, and we will be working on how best to implement targeted strategies in support of people in need.

Tragedies

Social workers, police officers and prosecutors who regularly encounter the mentally ill recognize the challenge for emergency room doctors and nurses. But some have observed that hospitals at times seem unprepared to handle people in a behavioral health crisis and unable to link patients to treatment.

Tragedies, like the suicide of Carrie Barnhart, who jumped from the Astoria Bridge in 2015 after several interactions with police, Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare and Columbia Memorial involving her schizophrenia and depression, have drawn attention to treatment gaps. Barnharts family has filed a $950,000 lawsuit against Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare and Columbia Memorial alleging negligence.

Another suicide Susanna Gabays Vicodin overdose in 2010 inspired state action. The 21-year-old University of Oregon student from Mosier, who struggled with depression, had a psychotic breakdown and was placed in a hospital psychiatric unit on suicide watch. She killed herself just before a counseling appointment a month after her discharge.

Her parents, Jerry and Susan Gabay, said the hospital did not disclose their daughter was on suicide watch and told them she may or may not have another psychotic episode, not enough information to alert them of suicide risk.

The 2015 law that set a protocol for hospitals when discharging mentally ill patients also clarified medical privacy to help avoid leaving loved ones in the dark. Patients are encouraged to authorize hospitals to disclose information to caregivers, such as prescribed medications and behavioral warning signs that demand immediate medical help.

Follow-up appointments must be scheduled within seven days after discharge, or hospitals must document why the seven-day goal is not possible.

The law was named the Susanna Blake Gabay Act.

Jerry Gabay, who now serves on the board of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Oregon, said he and his wife learned that medical providers are reluctant to talk with families about mental health in a way that would be shocking if you came in with a broken hip.

Research

New research released in April found that suicide risk among emergency room patients in mental health crisis is reduced if they receive suicide screening from an emergency room doctor, guidance at discharge and follow-up phone calls. The study, led by Ivan Miller, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University in Rhode Island, showed a 30 percent decline in suicide attempts among patients who received interventions over a 52-week follow-up period.

Its very important, particularly with people in a fragile mental state, and super important if they may be suicidal, to want to have done an adequate assessment of their mental health condition, which is not always done. And in my personal experience, with my daughter, it was not done, when I was there anyway, Gabay said.

So you need to have an adequate assessment of what is the problem here. And then dont just release them and say, Hey, good luck. Give them a little bit of a transition. Have some plan about what youre going to do. Make an appointment for them to see somebody.

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New laws help screen mentally ill for suicide - Daily Astorian

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We asked experts ranging from body-language specialists to evolutionary biologistsand the answer might surprise you.

Male-to-male greeting in America takes many forms. Theres the classic handshake. The fist bump. Dap. The head nod. The you-too-huh? shrug from across a baby shower.* But as the world of masculine salutations takes on new layers of complexityreaching its most evolved form in Clevelandthere is one fixed practice that remains something of a universal truth: When hugging, two (usually) heterosexual men will almost always pat each other on the back.

Start paying attention, and youll see it everywhere. We cant help it, as if it were a particularly pernicious tic or social crutch, like constantly checking your phone during dinner or hitting a vape. And though the most commonly accepted explanation is truethat a not insignificant part of it is born out of the admittedly primitive heterosexual norms that deem tenderness among males not masculine (more on that to come)there must be some deeper anthropological basis for slapping another guy on the back. And, according to experts, there is!

But first, we need to set the table: Why do we even hug?

*Honestly, I've only heard that this happens. Ive never been to a baby showerhavent even held a baby, while we're being open with one another. Seems like too much risk (dropping it) for a non-reward (holding a baby).

As forests receded, we were no longer forest-dwelling apes but upright hominids on a plain," says Mark Bowden, human-behavior and body-language expert. "We can now see a distance, and so we need clear signals that somebody is a friend or a predator. So open body language and open palmsimagine hands up, that big surrender gesturesomebody can see two miles away that you're not a threat."

This Look, Im not going to stab you with a spear measure is especially important to establish when the hominids happen to own penises.

Testosterone makes people more risk-tolerant," says Bowden. "So you will get more aggression the more testosterone [there is], not because the testosterone is making somebody more aggressive. What it's doing is lowering the idea of there being a risk in the first place [So] groups of males, on the whole, [have] a lot of behaviors to countermeasure the possibility of aggression.

And what's the best behavior to countermeasure the aggression when those two miles become no miles, and you're now faced with that guy you saw in the hazy distance 20-some minutes ago, across the plain? Sure, a handshake might work. But theres actual value in doing something more intimate to quash any suggestion that you're going to smack him with a cudgel and steal his collection of exotic sabertooth furs, like hugging. Take it from Richard Wrangham, who works in Harvards Department of Human Evolutionary Biology (and who e-mail-answered my strange request for comment after six zoos declined).

There is a general principle involved in animal alliances, such as male-male friendships in primates: If two individuals are to express feelings of mutual solidarity, the reliability of the signal is greater if it is genuinely somewhat stressful. For example, male baboons who like each other but want to be sure about each other's feelings touch each other's genitals: If A can do that to B, and B doesn't snarl back, A can be truly confident that B likes him.

[This theory] suggests that males would basically prefer not to pat or hug, because such close physical proximity is ultimately somewhat stressful (given that it is potentially dangerous to be so close to someone who could be a secret rival). However, the stress is worth tolerating if it leads to confidence in each other's feelings about each other.

All right, so we hug so that we know who the real ones are. And we do it in a very specific way, says Bowdenwith open palms around the shoulder blades. The open palm not only indicates the absence of a weapon, but the flat hand on skin is going to cause levels of oxytocin to go up, which will actually cause more of a connection. (And the upper back is very well-protected, versus the belly or sensitive small of the back, both of which would make you feel far more uncomfortable and intimate.)

I think what it's about is two males being able to show vulnerability, but not in so vulnerable a way that if there was attack or real aggression, they'd be in trouble, says Bowden.

The pat has that little of physical roughness to it, which is also consistent with men, says Adam Galinsky, a social psychologist who has a B.A. from Harvard, a master's and a Ph.D. from Princeton, and teaches at Columbia Business School and Kellogg School of Management. Men wrestle with each other. It has the unique masculine quality of rough play, with the distancing behavioryou're saying, I'm being intimate, but I'm not crossing the line into being too intimate. Over time it starts to feel like a "uniquely special male thing," and the hug then becomes a ritual.

But the pat! The pat can be used for a signal of release, adds Bowden. A lot of primates have this tapping out behaviorduring play-fighting, that's the I'm done. Let's not move this into the realm of actual grappling. Pat pat pat, and now we're out. Let's not prolong this too long. If you prolong it, there's risk of further intimacy or aggression.

Go get your bro and hold him close.

The pat is part physical foolishness and part signal of an embrace's terminationand it's now fully ingrained in male-greeting liturgy.

However, any form of greeting is not just about the two parties involved. Bowden argues that a gentle pat among friends, both visible and audible (the slight sound of hand-on-back), indicates to the surrounding groupwhether that be a bunch of primitive, aggressive cavemen gathered around a carcass on the African plains or a bunch of primitive, aggressive cavemen at a Patriots gamethat the newcomers hands are empty, and he is benign. Of course, sometimes the newcomer doesn't want to be benign. He will try to manipulate the optics of what should be a harmless exchange into some weird dick-swinging contest, an attempt to signal to the herd who the one true Daddy is. This type of toxic insecurity is also, unfortunately, where the homophobia creeps in.

Youre trying to figure out the tribal-social norms, says Bowden. What is the normality for a heterosexual man to be intimate with another heterosexual male? And how can you make sure that you, as the tribe, dont overstep those boundaries? Galinsky refers to these boundaries, too, saying the pat is an integrative solution that allows men to hug each other while not doing anything that would make the tribe uncomfortable. The need to establish heterosexuality ties back to the play-fighting/grappling aspect also: Look at us! Just a couple of dudes, roughhousing, being guys! And when you really overdo it...well, you just might be overcompensating.

You could see some extremes of quite big, aggressive play behavior in groups of males that want it very much to be known to themselves and others, Look, there's nothing homosexual going on here," says Bowden. "Now, we could drill into all kinds of reasons why they might want it to be very, very obvious. There's one school of psychology that says they're very unsure. They want to make it very physically clear, because psychologically they're a little bit on the boundary.

But, guys: It's 2017! Can we really not be tender with one another, without fear of feeling emasculated or castigated? Maybe it's time we update our tribal norms. I love a hearty back pat as much as the next guy, and if it's to signal the end of an embrace or a means of physical buffoonery among friends, that's cool. But if it's because you're afraid of a little physical affection? Leave that type of limited thinking to the monkeys, man. Go get your bro and hold him close.

"Once we become aware of this, it actually helps us understand where we stand with people or how we feel toward them," says Galinsky. "And it gives us a really powerful tool to increase the intimacy. If this is someone that I know that I always hug this one way, and I wanted to be more connected to them, what if I hugged them a little bit differently the next time? Would that actually help our relationship?"

You'll never know until you try. Just...probably don't grab him by the genitals, baboon-style.

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Why Do Guys Always Have to Pat Each Other on the Back When They Hug? - GQ Magazine

Before she was manicurist Jennifer on TNTs new summer series Claws, before she was Lindsey Salazar on Justified or Mackenzie on Saint George, Jenn Lyon was working hard in theatre. A graduate of North Carolinas School of the Arts, Lyon originated the role of Elsie in the world premiere of John Guares Are You There McPhee?. Shes worked with A.R. Gurney and Kenneth Lonergan, appearing in the latters Hold on to Me Darling, which was named one of the New York Times Best Plays of 2016. She made her Broadway debut in Tom Stoppards three-part extravaganza The Coast of Utopia, the most Tony-winning play in history, and returned to the Great White Way for Larry Davids sold-out hit Fish in the Dark in 2015.

Her years in theatre taught her bold choices are the best choices. A strong choice is not arbitrary, she says. Human behavior is so wild and weird and you can incorporate that: choices that kick you out of the norm, like Oh, what a weird thing to do, but also informs the text and reveals the content even more.

Now, she brings that daring to Claws. A show about good women caught in bad places with worse men, her character is struggling to stay afloat. Shes ten years sober, and we, as humans, go back again and again to these vices that sustain us or give us something, says Lyon. I just want [audiences] to know shes fighting against it. It may look like shes drowning, but shes trying really hard to swim.

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What was your first professional acting job? Jenn Lyon: My first professional gig, where I got my equity card, was a Polly Pen musical at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia called Embarrassment. I was right out of school. Id done like outdoor drama in North Carolina as a non-Eq, and worth it. I remember that first union job and I remember walking into the apartment and being so excited that I cried.

What was the stage show that you saw, at any age, that has most influenced you as an actor? Remember that Im from a little small town in North Carolina. When I was in second grade they took us to see an opera version of Cinderella and it was the most bizarre thing Id ever seen. When I look back on it, it was kind of a restoration comedyoutfits, white faces, huge up-dos and moles and fans and I just had never seen a world like that before and I was so transported (and upset with my classmates for talking during the performance). Something clicked inside of me where I was like, Man, I want to do something weird like this. When I would go see shows and I would sit in that dark place full of people that were doing this ritual, I just felt so at home.

Is there a stage moment that stays with you? [The Coast of Utopia] thats like 25 of the best actors ever. I can remember being really floored in rehearsal watching a scene between Billy Crudup and David Harbour and I was just so stunned at both of them, and Daves commitment to the work; hes just making these bold choices all the time and his seemingly effortless take on things. They both took up so much space and it really floored me. Also, watching Jennifer Ehle and Martha Plimpton brings up the similar sense of wonderment. And, on the beginning of The Trip to Bountiful at South Coast Rep in California and watching Lynn Milgram be onstage in her walking chair and viewing just incredible poignant themes, I dont know, it touches some chord inside of you that nothing else really does. Willem Dafoe said this thing about theatre being so magical because it evaporatesand it does. The record that exists of it is between you and the audience; thats it. I think that whole nature of it makes it so special.

The Coast of Utopia ran from Nov 27, 2006 - May 12, 2007 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, NY. Here are some photos from that production.

What has been the most rewarding onstage experience for you? It might be some of the regional theatre that Ive done. Ive gotten to do Born Yesterday twice, and that Ill never forget; I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of legends. All of New Yorks just been fucking great, but some of the best things Ive seen was in regional theatre.

Is there a particular collaborator, scene partner, director, or someone from theatre that made you better? Warner Shook, he directed The Kentucky Cycle on Broadway, directed me in Crimes of the Heart and I feel like it opened a space inside of me that wasnt open before. I also felt the same way about John Guare because his take on the world, like his eccentricity, is so profound and he is so prolific that getting to work with him and be with him, and shop with him at Trader Joes, it kind of changed my view of the world; seeing his view opened up mine. Hes like a magnet; when he starts to tell me a story, I wouldnt rather be anywhere else.

What are you bringing from your theatre and stage knowledge into this series? Going to the School of the Arts and doing theatre you learn how to break down a script. Fast. You learn how to pursue objectives, how to talk and listen, how to act with your whole body. I always check my own props. Theres a certain sense of self-government and independence that you get in the theatre because its so much scrappier than television. No ones offering you bottles of water, you do your own makeup, you are dependent on you. The sense of self-government and fearlessness comes from theatre.

What is your favorite part of doing TV thats different from theatre? Craft services. [Laughs] I cannot understand how glamorous it is. They have catered lunches; you go to lunch and theres salmon and quinoa. I cannot believe it.

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TNT's Claws Star Jenn Lyon Proves Her Theatre Cred - Playbill.com