Mini blag roundup

I've been a bit slow blagging for a week or two (not counting today). I'm not heading for another prolonged layoff, and I haven't been incapacitated with digrizfizzes. I've just been pre-occupied with various affairs in meatspace. Also I've been semi-working on a few pieces that are taking longer than expected.

To help fill the dead air, here's a roundup of a few things I've read that are well worth looking at.

First, over at Not Exactly Rocket Science (a fine blog if you don't know it) you'll find the following:

(1) A good write up of an interesting and careful study showing how self-reported race classification was sensitive to changing socio-economic status.

(2) A good, if ultimately rather depressing, piece on how 'absolutists' are less capable of rational compromise, although more responsive to symbolic incentives.

(3) A very interesting piece on a genetic variation that is associated with different levels of aggression in response to perceived provocation. [This Achewood on Morally Challenging Hot Sauce is more relevant that you might think until you read the aggression article.]

Then at the British Psychological Society Research Digest (also a good one to keep an eye on) are these:

(1) An account of a study of the rhetoric of the (far right) British National Party, and how it's like a conspiracy theory.

(2) A study confirming that you really do spend more when using credit than you do with cash, and when you're sad. Cash/Credit study (sad)

(3) A very interesting study finding that training in face discrimination reduces magnitude of the effect on the race Implicit Association Test (IAT):

And finally over at Epiphenom, a report of a study showing that spiritual guidance actually reduces success in substance abuse treatment.