Word: socialism
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...sometimes they go in the opposite direction, using animals to see whether certain theories apply only to humans. A new paper in Science does exactly that, investigating whether a widely documented human phenomenon - the fact that we tend to prefer people who behave the same way we do in social interactions - exists in other species...
...that our affinity for it may have roots in our evolution. What has never been precisely understood, though, is why we like to be parroted so much. One theory is that mimicry somehow promotes safety in groups of animals by binding them together - that mimicry is a kind of social glue. (Read what fat-bellied monkeys tell us about our own social stress...
That hypothesis certainly supports the human tendency toward reflexive imitation, a term coined in the 18th century by Adam Smith to describe the psychological act of putting yourself in someone else's shoes and experiencing their feelings - you wouldn't do that unless you were after some sort of social bond. Some years later, in 1999, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published an influential paper showing how socially bonding the act of mimicking can be, even when people aren't aware they're being imitated. In the study, psychologists Tanya Chartrand, who is now at Duke, and John...
...Optional Coverage of Nurse Home Visitation Services" certainly doesn't sound controversial. The initiative, which has existed in various forms at the state and local level for decades, would fund programs that "provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains...modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices; [and] skills to interact with their child." Most similar programs have nurses visit the homes of low-income parents, usually before and after the birth of their first child, to teach them about nutrition, anger management and other parenting issues. ("Read "Ezekiel Emanuel, Obama...
...others words, home nurse visits are exactly the kind of pro-family policy that social conservatives would embrace. And they have. The home visitation provision in health reform legislation was modeled on a bill authored by Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri. Bond went through a parenting education program in Missouri when his son was born three decades ago and has been a fan of the idea ever since. "Being a parent is hard work," he says, "and babies don't come with directions." (Read TIME's exclusive health-care interview with President Obama...