Interesting Links for 29-05-2012

[andrewducker]

• How does UK employee protection compare with other countries?
  (tags: Employment work law protection )
• Everyone cheats a little bit, but not so much that they feel bad about it. (Plus tips on how to make them do it less)
  (tags: cheating lies psychology behaviour honesty )
• Male boards tend to hire people that are like them.
  (tags: business employment gender )
• If you like Community then you have to read this hilarious spoof of the new showrunners
  (tags: viaJohnCoxon funny twitter community )
• World’s first heterosexual lolly launched
  (tags: funny )
• The Beard Trustworthiness Scale
  (tags: beards funny )
• Secret courts plans watered down, but not far enough
  (tags: liberty uk politics law )
• If people put their effort into writing better emails, rather than inventing a replacement, there wouldn't be a problem with it.
  (tags: email technology people )

Comments

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

I know Crosby's attempts at a playoff beard were the source of much hilarity a few years ago* but I didn't realise the whole patchy style had been named after him :)

* It's a little better now he's not 18 any more, but it's still kinda funny. Lucky for him that they got knocked out early this year really.

[kiffkin.livejournal.com]

Sub-headline: "research shows that everyone cheats a little"
Article: "One percent of people will always be honest and never steal."; "lots of people who cheat just by a little"; "many good people cheat just a little here and there"

Looks like at least one WSJ sub-editor is in the cheating category.

[andrewducker]

I think the "1%" is a finger in the air, and I think it's definitely erring on the side of naivety.

We have also found that about 2 percent of undergraduates we studied are pure non-cooperators. When they have an opportunity to share money with a stranger who has trusted him or her, non-cooperators keep all the money rather than share the largesse. The technical term in my lab for these people is "bastards."

Our evidence suggests that bastards' brains work differently. Their character traits are similar to those of sociopaths. They simply do not care about others the way most people do, and the dysfunctional processing of oxytocin in their brains appears to be one reason for this. Because bastards are out there, we still need government and personal enforcement of economic exchange.

From page two of this.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

Having participated in these kinds of studies, I think 2% is too low! I'd subjectively like to say it's more like 10%.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Perhaps these studies just prove that college kids need extra money.

I don't think I'd cheat on this type of study today, but when I was an undergraduate I certainly would have.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I wish people wouldn't go wildly off-topic in emails.

Eg, if I email about 'Hey let's go to the cinema' and a week later you want to email 'Can I borrow your book', start a new email rather than hit reply!

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. Makes it tricky to find things again.

Particularly in GMail, I'd have though, with its threading.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

My beard's on the questionable side of neutral, probably. (It's a Colonel Sanders but with full stubble.)

[andrewducker]

I'm clearly trustworthy - I vary between positions (1) and (3) depending on how lazy I'm being!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that the beards don't show a strong trend such that it would be possible to predict trustworthiness-- beard cliches are apparently completely arbitrary.