What happened this February

February 28th, 2014 § 0 comments § permalink

This month:

Electric cars, social psychology and the minimum wage.

 

Electric vehicles:

Seen at Granville Island, Vancouver.

Following Tesla’s ongoing success, the electric vehicle market is looking to get more crowded. Competing interests were attempting to take control of Fisker Automotive, which has now gone to Wanxiang which is a China-based multinational car parts manufacturer.

How Wanxiang could revive electric carmaker Fisker (Quartz)

 

Social psychology:

An analysis of girls’ performances in school chess tournaments identified a trend that girls lost more often to boys than was expected, given their skill ratings and those of their prior opponents.

A lack of female role models sometimes leads to potentially damaging stereotype threats, one that is best remedied earlier on. If the threat can be resolved before adulthood girls will better maximise their potential.

Girls underperform when they play chess against boys – real-life evidence of stereotype threat? (via British Psychological Society Research Digest)

 

Minimum wage:

While it’s too late for Walmart to shake off its public image of a “exploitative employer” at the lower income brackets, other firms can still enact pre-emptive policies. The clothing retailer GAP committed to increase minimum wages within the next 11 months across its umbrella that includes Old Navy and Banana Republic.

Why Wal-Mart should support a higher minimum wage (Quartz)

Spam prevention powered by Akismet