Relationships and Going Places

In the first experiment, 322 participants watched, listened, or read one of six communicators’ opinions about controversial political and social topics — war, abortion, and music — that they either supported or opposed. A second experiment tested whether the same effect held true for communicators' own written speech. Once again, observers dehumanized communicators with differing political beliefs, but their responses were more favorable when they saw or heard the speech being presented than when they read the speech. more »

Ever wonder what happens to all those battered bicycles chained to street poles or abandoned on bike racks, with rusting pedals, bent frames and missing tires or handlebars? In Denver, they're sold at auction. In New York City, they're sent to a scrap recycling center. And in Chicago, they're handed off to a nonprofit that donates many of them to developing countries where people may have no transportation. Bike Walk Wichita reconditions them for free and the police distributes them to homeless people who have jobs but no transportation. more »

There may be dates involved; evenings that include uncomfortable high heels (me), dreaded auditions and boring biographies (both) — all while my mind is zeroing in on his comb-over, toupee, paunch, age spots, or other blots. (He is likely doing the same when it is my turn to drone. How can she be so short? Why does she tolerate those wrinkles? Hasn't she heard of hair dye?) Who needs a man? I would toss at my daughters or friends who wondered/worried at my inclination to cuddle with Netflix rather than seek a male in my widowed life. more »

Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War is an account of a daring rescue mission that occurred on the precipice of World War II. It tells the story of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, a Unitarian minister and his wife from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who left their children behind in the care of their parish and boldly committed to multiple life-threatening missions in Europe. Over two dangerous years they helped to save hundreds of imperiled political dissidents and Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi occupation across Europe. more »