December 5, 2007, 8:50 PM CT

Early Voters Hold Most Power in Primaries

As voters in Iowa and New Hampshire prepare to head to the polls for the 2008 presidential primary season, new research by two Brown University economists shows just how much power these early voters hold. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Brian Knight and Nathan Schiff demonstrate that early voters have up to 20 times the influence of voters in later states when it comes to candidate selection.

Two Brown University economists have, for the first time, quantified the substantial effects of winning early in the race for the presidential nomination. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Brian Knight and graduate student Nathan Schiff demonstrate that voters in early primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire have up to 20 times the influence of voters in later states in the selection of candidates.

Knight and Schiff developed a statistical model that examines how daily polling data responds to returns from presidential primaries. In the model, candidates can benefit from momentum effects when their performance in early states exceeds expectations. For example, Knight and Schiff observed that in 2004, John Kerry benefited from surprising wins in early states and took votes away from Howard Dean, who held a strong lead previous to the beginning of the primary season. As per their research, Schiff and Knight predict that if states other than Iowa and New Hampshire had voted first in 2004, the Democratic nominee may have been John Edwards, rather than John Kerry......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

December 4, 2007, 10:38 PM CT

Green morality

We can disguise environmentally harmful practices and dress them up in words to help ease our consciences, argues Albert Bandura of the Department of Psychology at Stanford University, but such practices will have a negative impact on the planet and the quality of life of future generations, no matter how we label them.

Writing in the Inderscience publication International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, he explains that we must stop attempting to disguise our actions and switch on our environmental conscience to save the world.

As consumers we are repeatedly bombarded with messages telling us to consider the environment and to save energy in the face of global climate change. However, much has been made recently of the fact that personal economic savings on energy consumption might be offset by increased consumption of goods and services. What may at first appear to reduce the level of ecological harm that we cause, may in effect be cancelled out and possibly lead to even greater harm.

Moreover, a number of of us pursue practices that are detrimental to the environment but which we justify by a kind of moral disengagement. This frees us from the constraints of self-censure and we defend our actions on the basis that such practices are somehow fulfilling worthy social, national, or economic causes and, as such, offset their harmful effects on the future of our planet......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

December 4, 2007, 10:15 PM CT

Greater parental guidance for noisy toy use

The High School Musical Rockerz Jammin Guitar and the Cheetah Girls In Concert Collection Doll may be what kids want most this holiday season, but if parents aren't careful about how these and other popular toys are used, a season of joy might turn into a lifetime of hearing loss for their children.

In measuring the loudness of a number of desired toys, University of California, Irvine scientists warn that a number of emit sounds at decibel levels high enough to cause permanent hearing damage if not used properly. The scientists tested the loudness of popular toys and observed that many them reach decibel levels of 100 or more, equivalent to the sound of a power saw, subway train or power mower.

This doesn't make these toys unsafe, they say.

"All the toys we tested are safe when used as they are designed," said Jeff Carroll, graduate researcher in biomedical engineering who tested 17 toys. "But kids don't always use toys as they were designed, and some of their sound levels can be dangerous. So it's advisable for parents to offer greater guidance for their proper and safe use".

The High School Musical Rockerz Jammin Guitar, which is recommended for children age 3 and up, topped the list at 106 decibels, followed by the Cheetah Girls In Concert Collection Doll (104 decibels), Hannah Montana In Concert Collection Doll (103 decibels), VTech V.Smile Baby (103 decibels), CAT Motorized Dump Truck (102 decibels) and Tickle Me Elmo (100 decibels). Sound levels were measured approximately one inch from the speaker on each device, much closer than they should be used......... Posted by: Gina      Read more         Source

December 4, 2007, 9:59 PM CT

A company's good reputation can be a bad thing

Consumers expect a lot from high-equity brands such as Disney or Apple. When such brands fail us perhaps by providing a product that doesnt work or service that is sub-par we may be particularly disappointed. Our evaluations of formerly high-stature brands may even dip below those of low-equity brands. However, a new study from the Journal of Consumer Research finds that this drop in esteem may not always be inevitable after a failure. The study also reveals that, surprisingly, a high-equity brand fares better when the failure is severe.

Michelle L. Roehm (Wake Forest University) and Michael K. Brady (Florida State University) look at how failure affects high-equity brands brands that are well-known, with loyal customers and a good reputation. They find that immediately after the consumer learns about a problem, the high equity brand is at a disadvantage.

Perhaps the most provocative message arising from our data is the idea that despite its a number of advantages, higher brand equity can sometimes be a burden, the scientists write.

However, if the problem is severe, the high equity brand may actually fare better, the scientists found. In a severe failure situation, customers focus on how theyre going to deal with the problem and what they need to do to get on with their plans for the day, rather than re-evaluating the quality of the brand they chose. The authors describe this as a reduction in cognitive resources and think that this explains some of the protection offered to the high equity brand in cases of more severe failures......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

December 4, 2007, 9:57 PM CT

Film enjoyment is contagious

Loud commentary and cell phone fumbling may be distracting, but new research from the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that the presence of other people may enhance our movie-watching experiences. Over the course of the film, movie-watchers influence one another and gradually synchronize their emotional responses. This mutual mimicry also affects each participants evaluation of the overall experience the more in sync we are with the people around us, the more we like the movie.

When asked how much they had liked the film, participants reported higher ratings the more their assessments lined up with the other person, explain Suresh Ramanathan and Ann L. McGill (both of the University of Chicago). By mimicking expressions, people catch each others moods leading to a shared emotional experience. That feels good to people and they attribute that good feeling to the quality of the movie.

In a series of experiments, the scientists had participants watch a video clip. Some of the participants watched alone, some with other people whose expressions could not be seen due to the presence of a partition, and some with other people whose expressions could be seen. The participants had a joystick they used to indicate their feelings at each moment.

While assessments did not line up by secondpeople liked or disliked specific scenes in the film as per their own tastes the scientists observed that people watching a film together appeared to evaluate the film within the same broad mood, generally tracking up or generally tracking down. In another study, the scientists videotaped participants and observed that synchrony of evaluations can be traced to glances at the other person during the film and adoption of the observed expressions......... Posted by: Gina      Read more         Source

December 4, 2007, 9:45 PM CT

Labeling keeps our knowledge organized

A popular urban legend suggests that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow. As a culture that faces frigid temperatures year-round, it is important to differentiate between things like snow on the ground (aput) and falling snow (qana). Psychology experts are taking note of this phenomenon and are beginning to examine if learning different names for things helps to tell them apart.

In a study appearing in the recent issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Carnegie Mellon University scientists Gary Lupyan and David Rakison, and their colleague James McClelland of Stanford University asked whether all other things being equal, learning names for unfamiliar items or people really makes it easier to learn to categorize them.

In a series of experiments, college undergraduates played a game where they were asked to imagine that they were explorers on planet Teeb while subtly distinct aliens would appear individually on a computer screen in front of them. Their goal was to categorize these aliens into two types: those to be avoided and those to be approached.

Participants pressed different keys to indicate which aliens they believed they should approach and which should be avoided. After each response, they would hear a buzz or a beep to let them know if their response was correct......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

December 3, 2007, 10:23 PM CT

Fate might not be so unpredictable after all

Why does it take so long for soul mates to find each other" How does disease spread through a persons body" When will the next computer virus attack your hard-drive".

A new theory published last month in Nature on the statistical concept of First Passage Time, or FPT, may provide the key to answering at least a few of these questions, says theory co-author Prof. Joseph Klafter from Tel Aviv Universitys School of Chemistry. And the answers may lead to breakthroughs in medicine, mathematics, the environment, and elsewhere.

Prof. Klafter and colleagues from the University of Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris (where he has been visiting professor) are the first to have developed an analytical model that calculates the average arrival time the mean FPT of a randomly-moving object in a complex environment.

Understanding how randomly-moving objects arrive at a certain destination is no secret to researchers today. But no theory, until now, could predict the time it would take for an object to move between given addresses in a complex environment, like through the human body or the World Wide Web. Prior models only explained the passage of time when the event occurred in a homogenous environment, like in a vacuum or in a glass of water.

And in some instances, such as the movement of cancer cells in the human body, time is of the essence. The concept can best be understood by the question: How long will it take for a random walker to reach a certain destination"......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

December 2, 2007, 9:19 PM CT

Couples Put More Emphasis On Husband's Career

Sociological research has shown that when couples move, the husband's career gets a boost, while the wife's career suffers. A University of Iowa professor investigated the reason behind the phenomenon and discovered that couples tend to put more emphasis on the man's career, even if the wife works full-time and is college-educated.

"This is bad news for people who are interested in men and women having equal success in the labor force," said Mary Noonan, associate professor of sociology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "Even for highly educated married women with prestigious occupations, employment still suffers when they move, while the husbands' careers benefit. These women likely share the role of breadwinner, earning a significant part of the family income, but their career is still seen as secondary within the dynamic of the couple".

Kimberlee Shauman, associate professor of sociology at the University of California at Davis, and Noonan reported the findings on their study on family migration in a recent issue of the journal Social Forces. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, an annual survey that tracks families over a 30-year period, they examined the experiences of 5,072 working men and 4,120 working women between ages 25 and 59, all of whom were married. They compared the employment status and salaries of those who moved from one metropolitan area to another (655 men, 371 women) to those who stayed put......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

November 27, 2007, 10:30 PM CT

Violent TV, games pack a powerful public health threat

Watching media violence significantly increases the risk that a viewer or video game player will behave aggressively in both the short and long term, as per a University of Michigan study published recently in a special issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The study, by L. Rowell Huesmann, reviews more than half a century of research on the impact of exposure to violence in television, movies, video games and on the Internet.

"The research clearly shows that exposure to virtual violence increases the risk that both children and adults will behave aggressively," said Huesmann, the Amos N. Tversky Collegiate Professor of Communication Studies and Psychology, and a senior research scientist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).

In his article, Huesmann points out that U.S. children spend an average of three to four hours a day watching television. "More than 60 percent of television programs contain some violence," he said, "and about 40 percent of those contain heavy violence.

"Children are also spending an increasingly large amount of time playing video games, most of which contain violence. Video game units are now present in 83 percent of homes with children," he said.

As per research conducted by Huesmann and ISR colleague Brad Bushman, media violence significantly increases the risk that both children and adults will behave aggressively......... Posted by: Gina      Read more         Source

November 27, 2007, 10:19 PM CT

Performance of auto crash warning systems

Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed and tested a laser-based ranging system to assess the performance of automobile collision warning systems. Scientists in industry and at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will be able to use the NIST technology to accelerate the development and commercialization of safety systems that alert drivers to multiple, and sometimes virtually simultaneous potential crash hazardsboth from forward or side collisions as well as from running off the road. DOT believes that such warning systems could reduce substantially the number and severity of injuries to motorists and save lives.

Preliminary tests of prototype collision detection systems with the NIST technology have revealed both potential benefits of the systems and areas that need improvement.

As per DOT, of the 3.6 million rear-end, road departure and lane change crashes that occur each year in the United States, 27,500 result in one or more fatalitiesabout three-quarters of the nations yearly auto-related deaths. DOT estimates that widespread deployment of advanced integrated driver assistance systems may reduce such collisions by 48 percent. The department has formed a partnership with the automobile industry called the Integrated Vehicle Based Safety Systems (IVBSS) initiative to hasten deployment of advanced warning systems in the U.S. vehicle fleet......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source