What happened this June

June 30th, 2014 § 0 comments § permalink

This month:

The written word, the emerging web and trusting in diversity.

 

Does the written word hold power?

Ok, it’s not power per se, it’s authority. An experiment of interesting design has found that written words can empower authority.

Children were given the choice of following verbal instruction or instruction that originated in written word. Children who couldn’t yet read were indiscriminate. But Corriveau’s team found that once children are literate, “they rapidly come to regard the written word as a particularly authoritative source of information about how to act in the world.”

In my own opinion there is now a large quantity of hearsay masquerading as fact, so I must hope this is not entirely a bad thing.

As soon as they can read, children trust text instructions over spoken information (BPS Research Digest)

 

Emerging Global Web:

IMG_3086

Light rail train platforms in Bangkok, Thailand, with gateways bedecked in digital advertisement. Source: Manil

A behemoth of a slideshow but only in number of slides. Each is colourful and concise, peering into the variety of ways internet is used today. The manner in which developing populations have harnessed the internet has leap-frogged its purpose in developed regions. A conversation I had with my expatriate friend who recently visited from Shanghai illustrated one reason why.

According to him, smartphone usage is not skewed towards younger populations as it tends to be in other places. Being older is an insufficient reason to abstain because the internet is now heavily relied on for daily commerce and communication. Also, more trust in online services allows people to purchase more freely. The caveat being that once that trust is lost, it is much more difficult to recover.

The Emerging Global Web (via Slideshare)

 

Diversity and trust:

So does diversity help to build trust or destroy it? While usually an excellent topic to trot out for animated dinner discussion in support of multicultural societies, the jury is in and…

On its own diversity was not enough. “(J)ust to live side-by-side in the same community” is insufficient, however when combined with meaningful face-to-face interaction, it’s a recipe for trust.

Does Diversity Undermine Community Trust? (Association for Psychological Science)

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