Futurity.org » Society & Culture

Better coaches teach character, not ego, to kids

Jason Cody-Michigan State — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:05:59 +0000

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Underserved youth athletes benefit more when their coaches emphasize self-improvement and caring over competition.

Playing in an atmosphere that focuses on player self-improvement versus player competition creates a sense of teamwork and develops initiative, social skills, and a sense of identity, report the authors of the study from Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports.

Thinking ‘time is money’ can spoil time off

Ken McGuffin-Toronto — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:18:04 +0000

U. TORONTO (CAN) — Do you pass the time—or spend it? The difference may affect how happy you are during leisure time, a new study shows.

People who put a price on their time are more likely to feel impatient when they’re not using it to earn money. And that hurts their ability to derive happiness during leisure activities.

Count votes by hand, and error adds up

David Ruth-Rice — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:07:53 +0000

RICE (US) — Counting votes by hand during a postelection audit or recount procedures may result in error rates of up to two percent, say researchers.

“These procedures are intended as a safeguard against computer and human error, but until recently, no research existed to tell whether these efforts helped or hurt the accuracy of the vote,” says Michael Byrne, associate professor of psychology at Rice University.

Online dating dumps the stigma

Susan Hagen-Rochester — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:32:05 +0000

U. ROCHESTER (US) — Online dating has become the second-most-common way for couples to meet, behind only meeting through friends, according to a new analysis of the industry.

The report reviews more than 400 psychology studies and public interest surveys, painting a picture of an industry that, according to one industry estimate, attracted 25 million unique users around the world in April 2011 alone.

For online news portals, credibility counts

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:48:37 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — The readers’ evaluation of online news portals like Google News depends on credible content, according to new research.

When readers access a story from a credible news source they trust through an online portal, they also tend to trust the portal, says S. Shyam Sundar, professor of communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State. Most of these portals use computers, not people, to automatically sort and post stories.

Caught in scandal, Wall Street plays blame game

Amy Hodges-Rice — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:23:09 +0000

RICE / UC IRVINE (US) — Companies under investigation tend to use others’ bad behavior to excuse their own.

Among corporations involved in the 2006 stock-option backdating scandal, those implicated earlier were more likely to dismiss their top executives than those that surfaced later on, according to new research from Rice University and the University of California, Irvine.

Rural hot spots point to terrorism threats

Neil Tickner-Maryland — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:02:06 +0000

U. MARYLAND (US) — Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but rural areas were hit, too, a new report says.

The largest number of events clustered around major cities:

Intervene early to cut college drinking

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:22:55 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — New tailored interventions can help prevent dangerous drinking during students’ first few weeks of college, a new study reports.

“Research shows there is a spike in alcohol-related consequences that occur in the first few weeks of the semester, especially with college freshmen,” says Michael J. Cleveland, research associate at the Prevention Research Center and the Methodology Center at Penn State University.

Homeless curb drinking with open alcohol policy

Molly McElroy-UW — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:08:00 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — According to researchers, it may be counterproductive to ban alcohol from housing for chronically homeless alcoholics.

A study of a controversial housing project that allows chronically homeless people with severe alcohol problems to drink in their apartments found that during their first two years in the building residents cut their heavy drinking by 35 percent.

When auditor fees jump, stocks tumble

Karen Nikos-UC Davis — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:57:40 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — Unexplained increases in a company’s auditor fees may foreshadow a future drop in stock prices, according to a new study.

“A rise in audit fees acts to deliver a precursory message about trouble within the company,” says one of the study’s authors, Paul Griffin, a professor at the University of California, Davis.