Zehaf-Bibeau, the Islamist convert who recently killed a Canadian military reservist on duty in Ottawa, Canada, represents a type of attacker rarely discussed--a person so obsessed with an overvalued idea that it defines their identity and leads them to commit violence without regard for the consequences. Although it appears that the assailants in Paris had more ties with terrorist organizations, the individuals still fit the description of people acting on overvalued ideas.
Culture
Evidence from some wrongful-conviction cases suggests that suspects can be questioned in ways that lead them to falsely believe in and confess to committing crimes they didn't actually commit. New research provides lab-based evidence for this phenomenon, showing that innocent adult participants can be convinced, over the course of a few hours, that they had perpetrated crimes as serious as assault with a weapon in their teenage years.
that patients admitted to hospital from care homes are commonly dehydrated on admission and consequently appear to experience significantly greater risks of in-hospital mortality.
Old and infirm people are at increased risk of dehydration, especially if they require assistance with drinking and, left to themselves, may not drink enough to avoid dehydration. Dehydration leads to high sodium levels, which can have severe consequences and which are an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality.
A new paper offers an explanation for why women fear face-to-face crime more than men, despite being less likely to experience it. The findings by Laurel Watson from the University of Missouri-Kansas City support the belief that women may have a greater fear of crime due to the potential of also being raped during these encounters. The researchers also found that sexual objectification plays a role in the ever-present perceived risk and fear of crime in women of both European-American and African-American descent.
Helicopter parenting may not be the best strategy for raising independent kids. But a healthy measure of clinginess and overprotectiveness could actually be advantageous when rearing dogs and cats, according to new research from UC Berkeley and California State University, East Bay.
A Web-based survey of more than 1,000 pet owners nationwide analyzed the key personality traits and nurturing styles of people who identified as a "cat person," a "dog person," "both" or "neither."
State higher education performance funding is falling short of its intended goals of raising student retention and degree completion rates at community colleges, according to new research published today in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. The results focused on Washington State's Student Achievement Initiative (SAI)--widely recognized as a model for performance accounting systems in the United States--and are in line with recent results in Tennessee and Pennsylvania indicating that performance funding has not improved retention and graduation rates.
A common claim about getting people to understand one another - or the plights of the handicapped - is to 'walk a mile in their shoes'. But using simulation to walk in the shoes of a person who is blind -- such as wearing a blindfold while performing everyday tasks -- has negative effects on people's perceptions of the visually impaired, according to a new paper.
Sometimes the response to the outbreak of a disease can make things worse -- such as when people panic and flee, potentially spreading the disease to new areas. The ability to anticipate when such overreactions might occur could help public health officials take steps to limit the dangers.
With "fresh" and "healthy" emerging as food industry buzz words, it's easy to wonder if frozen foods—which almost inherently fail conjure connotations associated with either fresh or healthy products—still appeal to the majority of American consumers.
In light of recent recommendations for widespread hepatitis C screening, researchers are calling for clinical trials to determine if that screening would result in greater benefit or harm.
Though the recommendations have vocal support from some experts and advocates, no studies have yet established whether such screening would result in greater benefit than harm to patients, three physicians and an investigative medical journalist explain in the Jan. 17 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Bisexual women are more likely to experience poor mental health and mental distress than lesbians, according to new research published in the Journal of Public Health.
Bisexual women were 64% more likely to report an eating problem and 37% more likely to have deliberately self-harmed than lesbians.[1] They were also 26% more likely to have felt depressed and 20% more likely to have suffered from anxiety in the previous year than lesbians.[2]
The gender stereotype is that women want commitment and men want lots of flings - psychologists have been trying for a century to make the a function of biology. But a study of the Makushi people in Guyana upends that, with men more likely to seek long-term relationships because women are in short supply.
Also debunked is the conventional view that when men outnumber women, there are more likely to be male-male fights and increases in sexually transmitted diseases.
Just looking at somebody shivering is enough to make us feel cold, according to a new paper.
Volunteers who watched videos of people putting their hands in cold water found their own body temperature drop significantly.
The research by scientists in the Brighton and Sussex Medical School shows that humans are susceptible to 'temperature contagion'.
The Ebola epidemic in Liberia could likely be eliminated by June 2015 if the current high rate of hospitalization and vigilance can be maintained, according to a new model developed by ecologists at the University of Georgia and Pennsylvania State University.
Because of a federal rule, kids throw away millions of dollars of fruits and vegetables every single day at school.
But a new study shows a simple, no-cost trick that should leave federal policy makers saying, "Why didn't I think of that?"
When recess takes place before kids sit down to eat - instead of after - fruit and vegetable consumption increases by 54%.