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New study - Rich Man, Poor Man: Study shows body language can indicate socioeconomic status

Can body language signal socioeconomic status? Some new research seems to indicate "yes." (Remember all research needs to be looked at with caution.) From a news release at Association for Psychological Science:

Socioeconomic status (SES) is determined by a number of factors such as wealth, occupation and schools attended. SES influences the food we eat, hobbies we participate in and can even have an impact on our health. People with an upper SES background can often be accused of flaunting their status, such as by the types of cars they drive or how many pairs of Manolo Blahniks they have in their closet. It is easy to guess someone's SES based on their clothing and the size of their home, but what about more subtle clues? Psychologists Michael W. Kraus and Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley wanted to see if non-verbal cues (that is, body language) can indicate our SES.

To test this idea, the researchers videotaped participants as they got to know one another in one-on-one interview sessions. During these taped sessions, the researchers looked for two types of behaviors: disengagement behaviors (including fidgeting with personal objects and doodling) and engagement behaviors (including head nodding, laughing and eye contact).

The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological

ABA Section of Dispute Resolution: Agenda for April 15 - 18 meeting

Click for the agenda: ADR: Building Bridges to a Better Society [pdf]. If you go to the conference, I hope you attend the workshop on Saturday, April 18, from 8 to 9:30 AM, given by Gary Friedman and Jack Himmelstein. They will be presenting about their new book Challenging Conflict: Mediation Through Understanding. The description of their program:

Many forms of conflict resolution place the principal responsibility and authority for resolution in the hands of the professionals. In the Understanding-Based approach to mediation, the mediator seeks to work directly and simultaneously together with the parties and their counsel throughout the mediation in an effort to support the parties finding their resolution to their conflict. This panel will focus on the core principles and methodology of this non-caucus approach designed to empower parties and reach mutual and creative solutions. The Understanding-Based approach is the focus of the recent book, Challenging Conflict: Mediation Through Understanding, authored by Jack Himmelstein and Gary Friedman, published by the Section in cooperation with the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation.

Friedman and Himmelstein will be joined on the program by Carrie Menkel-Meadow. More about the book here. And click for Nancy Hudgins's review of the book.

Upcoming program on lawyer/psychiatrist collaboration and therapeutic jurisprudence

From the Web site of Professor Bruce J. Winick:

During the 162nd Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association being held in San Francisco May 16-21, 2009, Professor  Winick will present his paper entitled “New Opportunities for Attorney/Psychiatrist Collaborations at its symposium entitle d “Working with Lawyers.”

Abstract:

Attorneys traditionally have consulted with psychiatrists on a variety of forensic issues. These include assessments of competency to stand trial and legal insanity in the criminal process, issues of mental suffering in civil damage suits, and issues relating to child custody in divorce litigation. A number of newly emerging areas for attorney/psychiatrist collaboration are emerging. This presentation examines some of these, all occurring in contexts that arise from the increasing influence of therapeutic jurisprudence in lawyering.

Therapeutic jurisprudence is an interdisciplinary field of legal scholarship and law reform that focuses attention on the psychological wellbeing of those affected by law, legal processes, and the way

Blog Glob: Will the Blackberry Sink the Presidency?

Excerpt:

Interruption overload can impair higher cognitive functions, too, starting with decision making. It takes time to bring your mind back to the task you left when the BlackBerry called, which means (if that task was listening to someone, for instance) you have missed more than occurred during just the seconds it took to read an e-mail. People take about 15 minutes to productively resume a challenging task when they are interrupted even by something as innocuous as an e-mail alert, scientists at Microsoft Research and the University of Illinois found in a 2007 study. The delay may reflect how long it takes to reactivate memories about the task and to "refocus cognitive resources that may have been usurped" by the interruption, they reported. If this delay causes you to miss key information, then you are basing a decision on incomplete knowledge, something even BlackBerry lovers understand. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, for instance, was spotted last year typing on his BlackBerry as he gaveled the debate on the Senate floor. "I've got a lot of traffic and action going on, and it helps me keep track of it all," he said. But he turns it off during crucial hearings and meetings, recognizing that it impairs his concentration and could make him miss key information.

Interruptions can also derail brain processes that sort incoming signals. Information first lands in short-term memory, but if it is to stay with you for the long term it must be encoded—put in the right mental file drawer. That process requires a few minutes, and, if interrupted, can be short-circuited. "Being forced to divert attention to interrupting messages," scientists in Finland concluded in a 2004 study, "can cause memory loss" and "decreased memory accuracy." If new information is not indexed correctly, some of what the brain has stored about, say, TARP will be inaccessible; it's there, but you've failed to construct the neuronal road map needed to find it.

The more brain power an interruption demands, the more disruptive it will be to the task it is pulling you away from. ...

Click to read the rest of "Will the Blackberry Sink the Presidency?" (Newsweek).

Sad but so true! Barriers to innovation and inclusion

Watch this video and see how many of the barriers you recognize. Let me know.

Oh, and did you laugh or cry?

RecessionWire.com: "The upside of the downturn"

Click on over to RecessionWire.com for some good information, "a user's guide to the recession." For example, you will find an interview of Matt Miller, author of The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity. Excerpt:

RW: What do you say to people who raise the specter of socialized medicine?

MM: That’s a big phony argument. There are plenty of ways to do market-based health care. Just look at the Holland and Switzerland models. Holland combines mandatory universal health insurance with competition among private health insurers. It doesn’t have to be all state-based. Canada and the UK are not the only models. The notion that you can’t do it in a way that’s market-based is a canard.

More about RecessionWire.com: "A Site Chronicles Ways to Adapt in the Downturn" (New York Times).

Blog Glob: "How Lawyers Can Lead Meetings By Managing Hostile Groups"

Excerpt:

[L]eading a meeting or giving a presentation that requires buy-in and consensus is not always easy for many attorneys. Mastering a few new practical skills for managing a difficult group can help.

... Contrary to popular wisdom, allowing a group to vent is not all that productive. Years of research demonstrate that people believe more strongly in the things they say out loud. As a result, “venters” tend to just get more entrenched in their positions. Moreover, as all people tend to be lazy language-users, you risk that some meeting members will just borrow the arguments of the venters without thinking them through.

Click to read the rest of "How Lawyers Can Lead Meetings By Managing Hostile Groups" (The Complete Lawyer).

Image credit: The Complete Lawyer.

An online music appreciation course: Takes you right from the beginning

Those of you who follow my Brains on Purpose blog know that I have been exploring the use of music in conflict resolution; see here and here. In doing so, I have been researching music and the brain. Today I was delighted to see this free online resource to help me (and you) learn more about music: Sound Reasoning.

“Sound Reasoning” is a web-based, introductory music appreciation course. It offers a new approach to music appreciation for adults, focusing on style-independent concepts. While the course concentrates primarily on Western classical and modern music, the concepts that are introduced apply to music of any style or era. The goal of “Sound Reasoning” is to equip you with questions that you may ask of any piece of music, thereby creating a richer and more comprehensive understanding of music both familiar and unfamiliar. Here are some additional features of the course.

1) ”Sound Reasoning” is completely listening based. No ability to read music is required.
2) The course assumes little or no musical background. A minimum of terminology is invoked.
3) Musical examples are interpolated directly into the text.
4) The course is interactive. A “listening gallery” with exercises follows each module, so that you may practice and refine your listening skills.
5) The modules may be studied in sequence or individually.
6)You may easily print a .pdf of any module.

To learn more about the course, you may read or listen to an interview of Anthony Brandt, PhD, the creator of "Sound Reasoning."

Blog Glob: "Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting"

Excerpt:

New research suggests that goal setting is a double-edged sword, and, if not well-calibrated, it can cause more pain than gain. According to HBS [Harvard Business School] professor Max H. Bazerman and colleagues, "The use of goal setting can degrade employee performance, shift focus away from important but non-specified goals, harm interpersonal relationships, corrode organizational culture, and motivate risky and unethical behaviors." Their working paper, "Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting," [PDF] offers a cautious approach to goal setting that managers should bear in mind throughout the year.

From HBS Working Knowledge.

Jazz musician files legal brief with rap lyrics—and wins his appeal

Read the story here (msnbc). And here are some of the lyrics.

"Regarding frivolous filings, one thing is clear. Notice to show cause and proper service before you appear."

"And if Industrial vs. Marquardt is any measure, it's the frivolous allegations, not the venue of your endeavor."

"A domestic relations exception, I was supposed to know. Appellee would know too, so why did he spend so much doe?"

"Appellee dissed 814.04 for his 3 grand justification. But he forgets that 977.08 puts the brakes on his compensation."

Hat tip to John Bolch of Family Lore. About using rap in legal briefs, Bolch writes, "I shall therefore be recommending this technique to fellow family lawyers."