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April 2008

A March 24 Associated Press news feature highlighted the career of Lloyd Johnston, director of the ISR Monitoring the Future Study since it began in 1974. As a 33-year-old grad student, Johnston, in collaboration with ISR research scientist Jerry Bachman, developed the idea for the study - which has received more than $120 million in funding and is widely regarded as the gold standard for information on teen substance use.

The March 16 New York Times Magazine cited research by ISR psychologist Norbert Schwarz and colleagues in an article titled "Rumor's Reasons." Schwarz found that repeating a claim, even if only to refute it, makes it more likely that the claim will be seen as true. The research helps explain why political smear tactics can be so successful, and why rebuttals are often ineffective.

Westerners focus on a central figure's expression while Japanese take everyone into account. That was the central finding of a study covered March 18 by the New York Times, conducted by former U-M student Takahiko Masuda, now at the Univ. of Alberta, and ISR faculty associate Phoebe Ellsworth. Part of Takahiko's doctoral dissertation, the work was supported by the Culture & Cognition Program.

"One-Third of Seniors Have Mental Decline," said a March 18 headline in the Washington Post, reporting the latest findings from the ISR Health & Retirement Study. The findings come from a special supplement to the HRS - the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study (ADAMS). Duke University researcher Brenda Plassman and U-M's Ken Langa collaborated on the study, which was also cited in a March 28 column in the Boston Globe titled "McCain's senior moment." The column by Ellen Goodman contemplated 71-year-old candidate John McCain's recent slip, confusing Shi'ites and Sunnis, and the characterization of this gaffe as a "senior moment" by 64-year-old commentator Brit Hume. Goodman concluded with a quote from Golda Meier: "Being 70 is not a sin. It's not a joke either."

March 2008

A study by Ken Langa, a researcher with ISR and the U-M Medical School, received major news coverage in February, including stories in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Reuters and USA Today. The study, based on data from the ISR Health and Retirement Study, found that memory loss and other cognitive impairment were becoming less common in older Americans.

SRC economist Richard Curtin was quoted in a February 17 Associated Press story on growing economic insecurities. "Over the past decades, whether inflation was much higher or lower, or incomes grew faster or more slowly, there has never been such a wide divergence in the experiences " separating richer households from poorer ones, Curtin was quoted as saying.

Research by SRC economist Matthew Shapiro and U-M colleague Joel Slemrod was cited in a Feb. 5 San Francisco Chronicle article titled "Spending Rebates Is Not Likely." The study, conducted in 2001, found that only about 22 percent of American households surveyed planned to spend most of their tax rebates. A follow-up study conducted in 2002, showed that higher-income households were more likely to report that they would spend most of any tax rebate.

In a Feb. 3 New York Times article titled "16 Ways of Looking at a Female Voter," the work of CPS Director Nancy Burns was cited in support of the view that "gender consciousness" has little power to stimulate political action, and that women will not necessarily support a female candidate.

The Today Show on NBC News, MSNBC, Science Daily, and the Philadelphia Daily News ran stories in mid-February about SRC researcher Kira Birditt's study. The study found that we're likely to see our relationships with children and best friends less negatively over time, but we're more likely to see our spouses as irritating and demanding.

February 2008

RCGD's Brad Bushman appeared on ABC News 20/20 on Jan. 25, in a segment on "Anger in America." Bushman talked about his research on the link between narcissism and anger, and the segment included footage of an experiment conducted by the Aggression Research Group. For more information on the story, see the 20/20 website.

CPS political scientist Vince Hutchings commented on the Michigan presidential primary on the Jan. 15 edition of the CBS Evening News. Hutchings was also quoted in other election coverage, including a Jan. 11 article in The Guardian.

CPS political scientist Arthur Lupia was quoted in a Jan. 16 Boston Globe story about the impact of Mitt Romney's status as a native son in the Michigan primary.

CPS communications expert Mike Traugott got his fair share of election-related press coverage, as well. Stories in the Jan. 16 Detroit Free Press and Jan. 15 Agence France Press on the Michigan race quoted Traugott on the impact of voter turnout could have on Romney's chances of winning the race. Traugott was also profiled in the debut Issue of Dome Magazine, a new on-line newsmagazine covering Michigan politics and policy.

PSC demographer Ron Lesthaeghe commented on an Associated Press analysis showing that U.S. births increased in 2006 to the highest since 1961, near the end of the Baby Boom. The analysis, reported by the Jan. 17 Washington Post as well as AP outlets around the world, found that U.S. fertility rates varied by region, with American women in the Midwest, South and certain mountain states having more children than those in New England. In the mountain states, Lesthaeghe noted, religion--including Evangelical Protestantism and Momonism--may be an important factor in fertility.

January 2008

"Marrying for Love...of Money," was the headline of a Dec. 14 article in The Wall Street Journal that quoted PSC sociologist Pam Smock. Smock, who has conducted many studies on marriage, divorce and cohabitation, commented on a poll that found two-thirds of women and half of men said they were "very" or "extremely" willing to marry for money. "I'm a little shocked at the numbers," said Smock. "It's kind of against the notion of love and soul mates and the main motivations to marry in our culture." Smock noted that her own research has shown that it's more likely that a couple will marry if they have money, and if the man is economically stable.

SRC psychologist Stephanie Brown was cited in the Dec. 24 Los Angeles Times and in the Dec. 18 USA Today in articles on the benefits of giving. Brown's work has shown that people who give support to others were less likely to die over a five-year period than people who didn't help others. She speculates that helping someone you feel a connection to — a friend, neighbor or relative — may stimulate the production of oxytocin, a hormone is stimulated by touching someone we love, and that facilitates social interactions, including the bonding of mother and child.

RCGD's Randy Nesse was quoted in a Dec. 3 article in The Times about a new book maintaining that psychiatry has transformed normal sorrow — a nautral emotion that is vital to well-being — into depression that requires medication. The article noted that Nesse "once speculated that economic booms and busts were becoming more extreme because so many stressed out investors and traders were on Prozac, which blunted their sense of caution. When the gambling is heavier, Nesse argued, the bubbles are more voluminous and the busts more spectacular."

Research on senior drug coverage by ISR economists Helen Levy and David Weir, funded by the ISR Michigan Retirement Research Center, was cited in the Oct. Kiplinger Retirement Report. "More than 90 percent of seniors age 65 and older have prescription drug coverage, compared with 75 percent in 2004, the report noted.

December 2007

RCGD psychologist Richard Nisbett's op-ed article, "All Brains are the Same Color," ran on Sunday, Dec. 9, in the New York Times. Nisbett, who organized this fall's Group Dynamics seminar series on intelligence, reviewed research on racial gaps in I.Q. and academic achievement and concluded that "the difference has environmental, not genetic, causes" and that "interventions at every age from infancy to college" can reduce these gaps, "sometimes by substantial amounts in surprisingly little time."

Annual findings from the SRC Monitoring the Future Study, headed by psychologist Lloyd Johnston, were released by the White House Dec. 11 and reported by major national print and broadcast media, including Associated Press and Reuters. Johnston participated in a DC press conference on the results, showing that overall, illicit drug use by American teens continued to decline in 2007, and that teen smoking was also down.

Watching violent television shows and playing violent video games are a powerful public health threat, warned RCGD director L. Rowell Huesmann, in a study released Nov. 28 that was covered by media around the world, including The Guardian, The Times of India and the Washington Post. The study reviewed 50 years of research on the impact of violent media, including work conducted by Huesmann and ISR colleague Brad Bushman. To learn more, read the U-M news release and listen to a podcast with Huesmann.

October 2007

ICPSR Director Myron Gutmann was cited in the Oct.11 issue of Nature in an article titled "Data sharing threatens privacy." Gutmann warned that a repetition of a recent AOL gaffe, making data on user search behavior available for analysis without ensuring that user identities could not be determined, could lead to a damaging public backlash against access to electronic data sets.

David Featherman, who directs the U-M Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society (CARSS), commented on former Department of Education Secretary Diane Ravitch's take on The No Child Left Behind act in an Oct. 8 New York Times Letter to the Editor. "Unless we advance the science and thus increase the sophistication and number of evidence-based tools in the hands of teachers, no new law is likely to accomplish more than we now achieve..." wrote Featherman.

Research by Norbert Schwarz on how the mind misremembers - explaining why rumors never die - was covered Sept. 4 by The Washington Post and other news media. "The research is painting a broad new understanding of how the mind works," the Post reported, and why subconscious rules of thumb sometimes bias the brain into thinking that false information is true.

Brad Bushman is scheduled to appear on ABC News 20/20 on Friday, Nov. 30, in a segment on violent video games. For more on Brad's research on this topic, see a recent issue of the ISR Update (pdf)

"Landmark Health Study Will Track Metro Kids," was the headline on an Oct. 5 Detroit Free Press article about the National Children's Study. The U-M arm of the study is headed by ISR affiliates Daniel Keating and Michael Elliott, working with ISR Survey Research Operations.

September 2007

Research by Lloyd Johnston and Monitoring the Future colleagues on childhood obesity was covered in a wide range of news media starting on September 25. Among them: USA Today, Reuters, MSNBC, and the Washington Post. For more information, read the news release.

NPR's web-based "Bryant Park Project" included an interview with Helen Levy on poverty and expansions to children's health insurance on August 25 show.

Vince Hutchings appeared September 25 on Al Jazeera News, speaking about the anniversary of the Little Rock school desegregation case and the amount of segregation that still exists in society today.

Rich Curtin and James Jackson were cited in September 25 UPI coverage of their survey of consumer attitudes toward Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, part of a larger Dept. of Transportation grant to the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Institute.

Lisa Neidert was cited as a source for a September 13 Slate Magazine article. Titled "How to Make More Babies," the article led with news of the official Day of Conception in Russia's Ulyanovsk Province, offering prizes to couples who produced a baby in nine months. Neidert provided background about the population decline taking place in Russia, and in many European and Asian nations.

Mansoor Moaddel's research on Iraqi attitudes, showing a rising sense of national identity, was cited in the September 8 issue of The Economist. Though sectarian conflict is increasing, he says, "It would be a mistake to think that this bloodlust represents widespread sentiment among Iraqis as a whole...the Iraqi public is increasingly drawn toward a vision of a democratic, non-sectarian government for the country."

August 2007

The Aug. 15 edition of USA Today cited data from the ISR Panel Study of Income Dynamics analyzed by Frank Stafford and Elena Gouskova showing that today's Americans in their 20s were having a harder time economically than young adults in the past. To read more about their analysis, which also shows that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, see the news release.

A series of articles on the white-collar job market in the July Chicago Tribune quoted Richard Price on the emotional impact of lay-offs and fear of layoffs among affluent, college-educated workers.

The July 15 issue of the Washington Post quoted Health and Retirement Study economist Robert Willis in an article on safeguards for aging investors. Willis noted that people need to recognize "that the person I am today, I might not be in the future."

ISR Director James Jackson was quoted in a July 15 Boston Globe article on racism that reviewed the growing field of research on how racism literally hurts the body.

The Washington Post and many other media outlets reported the findings of a study by Rucker Johnson and Bob Schoeni showing that underweight babies have a host of problems in mid-life. They earn less and age at a more rapid rate. To learn more about the study, see the news release.

"Work-Family Conflict Dogs Air Force Women" was the headline of an Aug. 19 Washington Post article about a study by Penny Pierce and Amiram Vinokur that found a link between work-family conflict and PTSD. "We were surprised to find that work-family conflict is an independent and significant predictor of PTSD, above and beyond combat exposure," said Pierce, who presented the preliminary findings of the study in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. Lisa Lewandowski also presented study findings on reenlistment intentions. Read more in the news release.

July 2007

"How Racism Hurts – Literally," was the headline in a July 15 story in The Boston Globe that reviewed the growing body of research documenting the effects racial discrimination has on physical health. "We don't know all the internal processes," ISR Director James Jackson was quoted as saying. "But we can observe an effect, and we need to find out what's going on."

Psychologist Pam Davis-Keane was quoted in the June 17 Ann Arbor News and other media about a study exploring the impact fathers have on their daughters' interest in science and math. For more information on the study, see the U-M news release: "How dads influence their daughters' interest in math."

The July 1 online edition of the Chicago Tribune cited ISR psychologist Richard Price in an article headlined "Layoff fears part of 'new normal.' The article, first in a series examining changes the U.S. market, discussed the impact of large-scale job loss among well-educated, affluent professionals.

"Underweight Babies Carry Big Burden," said the June 19 Washington Post, reporting on a study by U-C Berkeley's Rucker Johnson and ISR economist Bob Schoeni, showing that low birth weight increases the risk for a host of adult problems, including dropping out of high school, earning less and aging at a more rapid rate during midlife. To learn more about the study, see the U-M news release "Born to Lose: How Birth Weight Affects Adult Health and Success."

May 2007

"Baby Boomers Appear to Be Less Healthy Than Parents," was the front-page headline in the April 20 Washington Post. The article reported on early findings from the ISR Health and Retirement Study, suggesting that the first wave of boomers may be the first generation of Americans to enter retirement in worse health than their parents were. ISR economist David Weir, co-director of the HRS, was quoted in the article.

The March 22 issue of Scientific American.com reported on research on seasonal changes that affect mood and behavior -- "Spring Fever." The work of PSC's David Lam, showing how seasonal birthrates fluctuate, was cited in the article.

Research by Helen Levy was cited in an April 5 Los Angeles Times op ed article titled "Universal healthcare's dirty little secret." The article reported that Levy and University of Chicago colleague David Melzer reviewed academic studies, and found no link between health insurance and better health.

April 2007

SRC's Lloyd Johnston, director of the Monitoring the Future Study, contributed to the five-part NPR series "The Forgotten War" about the war on drugs. The series ran the week of April 2 on "All Things Considered."

Psychologist Jacque Eccles and colleagues at Yale and U-T Austin challenge the myth of the overscheduled child, according to a March 16 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Analyzying data from the ISR Panel Study of Income Dynamics and other studies, Eccles and colleagues find evidence that taking part in organized activities is helpful, not harmful, to young people's development.

The Associated Press, The Detroit News and other media outlets reported in mid- March on the start of a new study of how deployment affects the stress levels of men and women in the U.S. Army. The study is being conducted by ISR researchers Penny Pierce and Amiram Vinokur.

March 2007

SRC's Monitoring the Future Study, directed by Lloyd Johnston, was cited in the Feb. 6 USA Today and other publications in stories about the dangers of using marijuana and rise in teen use of prescription painkillers.

The March 7 issue of ScienceDaily.com reported on new research by RCGD's Brad Bushman showing that reading violent scriptures increases aggressive behavior, especially among believers.

"Numbers Drop for the Married With Children," said the headline of a March 4 article in the Washington Post that quoted PSC's Pam Smock on the decline in marriage among poorer couples.

United Press International reported on a study by RCGD psychologist Denise Sekaquaptewa that showed how implicit stereotypes affected the math performance of college-age women.

February 2007

The Feb. 6 issue of The Wall Street Journal cited ISR surveys of Iraqi attitudes, conducted by Mansoor Moaddel and Mark Tessler, in a column suggesting that many Iraqis support the values of democracy, liberalism and secularism. Read more about the ISR study in the news release in the news section of the ISR website.

Research on the roots of animosities between Los Angeles Latinos and Blacks by Vincent Hutchings and UCLA’s Lawrence Bobo, an ISR alum, was cited in a Jan. 7 Los Angeles Times op ed piece arguing that longtime prejudices, not economic rivalry, are to blame for continuing Black-Latino tensions.

The Jan. 16 issue of The New York Times quoted two ISR research scientists in a front-page article reporting that for the first time, a majority of U.S. women were living without a spouse. The researchers: PSC demographer Bill Frey and sociologist Pamela Smock.

January 2007

On December 22, 2006, The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and other major news media carried articles about the Monitoring the Future Study results showing teen use of illicit drugs continued to decline but prescription drug abuse has remained stable. As a result, "prescription drug abuse represents a larger part of the total problem," said MtF director Lloyd Johnston.

On January 10, NBC Today Show co-host Meredith Viera did a piece on research by School of Public Health psychologist Dan Kruger, an ISR alum, about the way people judge a man's potential as a cad or a dad by his face. The research also appeared in USA Today and other major national outlets. You can read the news release and listen to the podcast.

"This is Your Brain on Alien Killer Pimps of Nazi Doom," said the headline on the Dec. 11 Newsweek story about violent video games and their impact on adolescents. The article quoted ISR psychologist Brad Bushman, who said "In general, violent media increase aggressive thoughts and there's good reason to believe participatory violent videogames have a stronger effect than violent TV programs of films."

December 2006

Boys Mow Lawns, Girls Do Dishes: Are Parents Perpetuating the Chore Wars? In a Dec. 7 column, Wall Street Journal Work & Family columnist Sue Shellenbarger cited SRC economist Frank Stafford and a new analysis of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics—Child Development Supplement showing that boys between ages 10-18 are more likely than girls to get paid for doing housework, even though boys spend an average 30 percent less time doing chores.

CPS political scientist Ted Brader was quoted in the Nov. 1 issue of Newsday discussing how positive and negative ads influence voters. Brader spoke about the topic at the annual conference of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

More U.S. Blacks attempt suicide than previously thought, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 31, based on an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association by U-M researcher Sean Joe and colleagues. The study analyzed data from the National Survey of American Life, directed by James Jackson, which is the first to look at mental health among African Americans and Caribbean Americans.

October 2006

More than one-fifth of U.S. workers who expected to retire early are still working at age 62 and older, according to an analysis of Health and Retirement Study data by SRC researcher Philippa Clarke, reported in the August 31 edition of The Washington Post. "Retirement is now a moving target," Clarke said.

A September 8 article in The New York Times headlined "AIDS Cited in the Climb in South Africa's Death Rate" cited PSC demographer Barbara Anderson, who led an analysis showing that death rates for adults of virtually all ages and both sexes rose sharply from 1997 to 2004.

"In Politics, Aim for the Heart, Not the Head." That was the headline of a September 18 article on rational vs. emotional appeals in political persuasion that appeared in The Washington Post. CPS researcher Nick Valentino was quoted in the article, noting that campaigns are more successful at shifting people's attentions to different issues, rather than shifting their positions on any given issue.

September 2006

The ISR Health and Retirement Study was cited in the Aug. 28 Dallas Morning News in an article titled "Save less for your old age."

The Aug. 28 issue of U.S. News & World Report carried an item on Iraqi surveys conducted in 2004 and 2006 showing a striking level of distrust of U.S. intentions among major Iraqi ethnic and religious groups. The surveys, part of the World Values Study, were conducted by Ronald Inglehart, Mark Tessler and Mansoor Moaddel, an ISR researcher who is also affiliated with Eastern Michigan University.

In the Aug. 21 Washington Post, data on teen time use from the ISR Panel Study on Income Dynamics was cited in a feature titled "Too Few Overachievers: Academically Stressed Students Aren't the Country's Norm."

The June 30 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education featured an article on the happiness index developed by ISR economist Miles Kimball and colleagues.

April 2006

SRC economist Bob Schoeni's research on how much money parents give to adult children was cited in an April 20 New York Times article titled, "The Bank of Mom and Dad." The story was the most-emailed article in the Times the day after it ran.

SRC sociologist Sarah Burgard's study on the link between job insecurity and health problems was the subject of an April 4 feature in the Washington Post Health section.

PSC director Arland Thornton's work on developmental idealism was cited in an April 3 story in USA Today, titled "American Families Are Envied, Disdained."

PSC sociologist Pam Smock was quoted in an April 5 Lansing State Journal article titled "Living in Sin? Unmarried Couples Weigh the Pros and Cons of Sharing Their Hearts — and Their Households."

PSC demographer William Frey was interviewed on National Public Radio March 14 on new trends in race migration.

January 2006

In a front-page New York Times story on January 13 headlined, "Come October, Baby Will Make 300 Million or So," ISR demographer William Frey predicted who the 300 millionth American will be: "...a Mexican Latino in Los Angeles County, with parents who speak Spanish at home and with siblings who are bilingual," says Frey. "This is a far cry from the 200 millionth person who was born in the late 60s, probably a white son to middle-class suburbanites in Los Angeles or New York City."

The January 14 issue of The Economist cited ISR economist Matthew Shapiro's study on the impact of the 2003 tax cut.

ISR political scientist Mark Tessler was quoted in a Feb. 5 San Francisco Chronicle article on the rise of political Islam. "It's really very simplistic to think that free and fair elections is all you need to have to have democracy, and it's also simplistic to think that people vote for Islamist parties because they're fanatic, they're anti-American," said Tessler.

Teen smoking is a live time bomb in America, according to a headline in the Jan. 19 issue of the Capital Outlook. The article quoted ISR researcher Lloyd Johnston, citing data from the 2005 Monitoring the Future Study showing that the decline in teen smoking is starting to slow down.

Research suggesting why men report more lifetime sexual partners than women by visiting psychologist Norman Brown was featured in the Feb. 17 Washington Post.

December 2005

Lloyd Johnston, who heads the ISR Monitoring the Future Study, released the latest findings on teen drug use and cigarette smoking at a Washington, DC, press conference December 19. The results of the study, showing that teen smoking and use of many illicit drugs fell but prescription drug abuse rose, were cited in stories by the Associated Press, the New York Times, CNN, and others.

Research by Bob Schoeni on parent support for young adults was cited in the December 7 issue of U.S. News & World Report, in an article titled "The Parent Trap: Boomerang Kids."

ABC News.com featured Katherine Fiori, a Ph.D. candidate in developmental psychology and the ISR Daniel Katz Fellow, in a feature on loneliness. Her research showed that it doesn't matter how many friends you have; what matters is how you feel about your friends, regardless of the number.

On a related topic, the December 5 issue of the Los Angeles Times, reporting on day-care centers that mix generations, cited work by sociologist James House showing that isolation is as deadly to aged adults as cigarette smoking, increasing the risk of disease and reducing the odds that they'll be alive in five years.

November 2005

Political scientist Vincent Hutchings was quoted in the November 10 edition of the New York Times in an articled headlined "Turnaround Leads Mayor to a Surprising Victory" on the Detroit Mayoral election. "The criticism actually added legitimacy and luster to Kilpatrick's political identity," said Hutchings. "The more that other people criticized him, somehow the more authoritative he becomes. It demonstrated his ability to get under the skin of the power structure."

Psychologist Harold Neighbors spoke on race and mental health in Katrina's aftermath on the November 18 edition of National Public Radio's Morning Edition. NPR reporter Alix Spiegel noted that Neighbors has studied why Black Americans are uncomfortable with psychiatry--a hesitation grounded at least in part, in experience. "It seems that everybody has a story about an acquaintance, an aunt or an uncle or a cousin, who was either taken away involuntarily, or committed," said Neighbors. "Typically it might be a story about an interaction with the police. And those stories tend to circulate and contribute to a lot of reluctance to seek help for mental health problems."

The University of Michigan Survey of Consumer Confidence, directed by ISR economist Richard Curtin, was cited in the November 9 issue of the Washington Post, in a piece by Robert Samuelson titled "Worry While You Spend" that explored why consumers are so confident at shopping malls and so glum in opinion polls. The article also appeared in the November 14 issue of Newsweek.

Psychologist Stephanie Brown was quoted in the November 6 issue of the Sunday Times, in an article titled "Men seldom make passes at women of the executive classes." Her research suggested that men prefer to have long-term relationships with women in subordinate jobs rather than women who are their colleagues or their bosses.

October 2005

ISR research scientist Scott Atran was featured in the October 8 issue of New Scientist in a special report on fundamentalism. "I certainly find very little hatred; they act out of love," he says. "These people are very compassionate." Atran's op-ed on the recent Bali bombings appeared in the October 5 New York Times, and he was interviewed on the same topic October 4 on National Public Radio.

"Smoking Makes You Dimmer, Study Says" That was the headline in the October 13 issue of the Daily Mail, one of many media reporting on a study by U-M researchers Robert Zucker and Jennifer Glass that found that smoking slows thinking speed and lowers intelligence. 'Perhaps the research will help give smokers one more reason to quit,' Glass noted.

Political scientist Ted Brader commented on the use of campaign attack ads in the October 17 issue of the Washington Post, in an article on the Virginia gubernatorial race. With the final weeks of the campaign expected to be dominated by death penalty ads and accusations of manipulation and lying, Brader pointed out that ads designed to elicit voter fear sometimes trigger a backlash against the ad's sponsor.

"Research is revealing fundamental differences in perception, logic and even models of reality between eastern and western cultures, with implications for business people trying to bridge the divide," reported the October 21 issue of the Financial Times, citing research by ISR psychologist Richard Nisbett and colleagues.

September 2005

Work by ISR research affiliate Sandro Galea on the mental health consequences of terrorism appeared in the September 3 issue of The Economist. Galea surveyed residents of Manhattan several times after the World Trade Center attacks, finding that the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder rose sharply after the attacks, then decreased steadily until about six months later, when the prevalence increased as the anniversary of the attack loomed.

The September 2 issue of The Times Higher Education Supplement cites ISR political scientist Ronald Inglehart and Harvard colleague Pippa Noris in an article titled "Alleluia! God Goes Global." Norris and Inglehart link religious belief to security and prosperty, but also note that even though advanced industrial societies have become more secular in the past half century, the world as a whole has more people with traditional religious views than ever before, and these religious traditionalists constitute a growing proportion of the global population.

Psychologist Oscar Ybarra is quoted in the September 6 Boston Globe on the positive role of social interactions in the workplace - and how the use of iPods and noise-blocking headphones may be counterproductive. "We found that the more people were interacting with others, the better they were doing cognitively," Ybarra said. While we're finding out about others, we're giving our brains a good work-out. Read the ISR news release.

Research by ISR economist Robert Schoeni on how much support adult children receive from their parents was cited in the October issue of Money Magazine in an article titled "How to Make Sure Your Kids Live Better Than You." Giving kids a leg up doesn't stop when they turn 21, Schoeni's work shows. In fact, the typical 25-to-34-year-old receives more than $14,000 a year from mom and dad. Read more about Schoeni's research in the ISR news release.

An article in the September 19 issue of Advertising Age explored how consumer confidence provides a window into the overall economy, citing the ISR Surveys of Consumers as a prime example. The surveys were started at ISR in 1946 and since 1976 have been directed by ISR economist Richard Curtin. For results from the September 2005 survey, see the ISR news release.