Word: trait
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...simplistic to blame greed for the financial mess. The fault is a broader human trait: the reluctance or inability to consider the downside of a situation that has so many attractive features. The financial products at issue were profitable, and people were getting houses. Any problems that arose would be taken care of tomorrow. Wonderful invention, tomorrow! Kenneth Viste, Boise, Idaho...
...devoured several people over the last several months. When we took a boat trip on the lake late one afternoon, we got to see crocodiles sunning themselves on the shore, including one specimen more than 12 ft. long - most of it jaws. Cuteness is a nice evolutionary trait, but when it comes to long-term survival, you can't beat fear...
...particular interest is a 2005 psychology paper published in Science by Alexander Todorov of Princeton and his colleagues, which concludes that “rapid, unreflective trait inferences can contribute to voting choices,” rather than deliberative reasoning. In trials the researchers vindicated their hypothesis: Almost 72 percent of Senate race outcomes were successfully predicted simply by showing a sample of the electorate pictures of the candidates for whom they could vote for milliseconds at a time, and asking them to make snap judgments on those candidates’ competence...
...fulfilling promises to his leftist supporters, the status of the African National Congress (ANC) party, once the continent's most respected organ of national liberation, has been irreversibly diminished by the infighting of the past few years. Under Nelson Mandela, the ANC peerlessly wielded its moral authority. But that trait also encouraged leaders to think they were above reproach, an attitude that found its fullest expression in Mbeki, who often acted as if he had no reason to explain himself and simply asked people to take his decisions on trust. That trust wilted, thanks to ANC scandals over corruption, incompetence...
...there is a trait linking the members of this brainy pantheon, it may be optimism. "I don't think I've ever met a fellow who's cynical," Fanton says. "I'm struck by what good, humble people they are." He notes that some fellows (like physician Paul Farmer, 1993) have donated their winnings, while others have shared it with colleagues. History is littered with intellectual giants - think Nietzsche or Van Gogh - whose minds buckled under the weight of their thoughts. But Fanton says the vast majority of MacArthur Fellows are sunny and energetic, propelled by the belief that they...