This month, updates from:
Human behaviour, health policy and (successful) climate change mitigation.
Psychology:
A recent Cornell University study found that intelligence officers compared to college students were more swayed by the framing of problems. The researchers say this is a sign of irrational decision making because the agents were more prone to “treating equivalent outcomes differently based on superficial wording.” In short, “they were more willing to take risks with human lives when outcomes were framed as losses rather than as gains.”
Read study details:
Intelligence agents more prone to irrational decision making than students (British Psychological Society’s Research Digest)
Health Policy:
Over several decades, the U.S. has relentlessly fought tobacco use. The smoking rate has been dropping for decades and this year reached a low of 18% among people over age 18.
Read more:
Tobacco Companies Hook New Smokers (Wonkblog)
Environment:
This visualization shows how global temperatures have risen from 1950 through the end of 2013.
The Montreal Protocol adopted by 196 countries to counter ozone depletion and its consequences is a success story of multinational efforts to mobilise and neutralise human harm on the environment.
Watch further:
How it works: Fixing the Ozone Layer (@AJEarthrise via Youtube)
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