The current study examines changes over time in a commonly used measure of dispositional empathy. A cross-temporal meta-analysis was conducted on 72 samples of American college students who completed at least one of the four subscales (Empathic Concern, Perspective Taking, Fantasy, and Personal Distress) of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) between 1979 and 2009 (total N = 13,737). Overall, the authors found changes in the most prototypically empathic subscales of the IRI: Empathic Concern was most sharply dropping, followed by Perspective Taking. The IRI Fantasy and Personal Distress subscales exhibited no changes over time. Additional analyses found that the declines in Perspective Taking and Empathic Concern are relatively recent phenomena and are most pronounced in samples from after 2000.

When resting, flamingos often lay their heads along their backs. While in this position they must curve their necks to either the right or left of their midline. Observations of captive Caribbean flamingos at the Philadelphia Zoo (Philadelphia, PA, USA) were conducted in order to determine if individual birds would display consistent preferences in neck-resting position over multiple observations. While individual birds were shown to vary greatly in regards to the strength and direction of their preferences, a significant flock-level preference towards neck resting to the right was obtained. Analysis of individual flamingos revealed that 5 out of 17 birds displayed preferences that significantly differed from chance, with each of these birds preferring to rest their necks to the right. From the present data we can conclude that flamingos display behavioural laterality of neck-resting position at both the level of the group and that of the individual.

All people have to complete dull tasks, but individuals who feel entitled may be more inclined to perceive them as a waste of their "precious" time, resulting in the perception that time drags. This hypothesis was confirmed in three studies. In Study 1, participants with higher trait entitlement (controlling for related variables) thought dull tasks took longer to complete; no link was found for fun tasks. In Study 2, participants exposed to entitled messages thought taking a dull survey was a greater waste of time and took longer to complete. In Study 3, participants subliminally exposed to entitled words thought dull tasks were less interesting, thought they took longer to complete, and walked away faster when leaving the laboratory. Like most resources, time is a resource valued more by entitled individuals. A time-entitlement link provides novel insight into mechanisms underlying self-focus and prosocial dynamics.

No abstract

No abstract