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Training class increases time fathers spend with children and on housework, improving mothers' access to work

A one-off training session increased how much time fathers spent with their children and on chores by about two hours a week, reports a new study from the University of Tokyo. A team in Japan provided male employees and their managers with either information on positive office attitudes toward paternity leave or a work-life balance training session. The former corrected common misconceptions, but fathers who attended the training reported real behavioral change. This unexpectedly freed up 3.6 hours of time that mothers used for their own work. The study shows how small workplace interventions can have wider positive impacts for families and businesses.

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Describing past relationship as a story may help women process breakups

Breaking up with a loved one is often a painful life experience, one that is difficult to recover from. Researchers from SWPS University, however, suggest that a simple step can help. Writing down the story of a past relationship increases the effectiveness of thinking about the past and future in close relationships. It is also associated with a better understanding of the causes of relationship breakdown, they write in the journal PLOS One.

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Q&A: Do high-pressure environments encourage moral disengagement?

Why do individuals and organizations sometimes rationalize decisions that conflict with their stated values? According to Leah P. Hollis, professor of education policy studies in the Penn State College of Education, the answer may lie in "moral disengagement"โ€”a psychological process through which people justify actions that might otherwise conflict with ethical or institutional standards.

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Screens dominate the dinner table, with 77.6% of parents using devices

Food has always had a unique way of bringing people together. It becomes especially evident during family mealtimes, when children and adults gather around the table to share more than just a meal. They share stories, catch up on their day and discuss issues they are dealing with. The scene at the dinner table has, however, changed. People still sit together, but attention often shifts away from the conversation to the devices in their hands.

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'Youniversalism' measures growing reliance on personal truth

It has often been suggested that we now live in a "post-truth" world. People increasingly rely on their own feelings as a yardstick for what is true. Psychologists at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have now developed the "Youniversalism" scale to allow them to measure people's belief in subjective and experiential truths. The research is published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

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'Contaminated' cultures: Can conservation protect nature while excluding Indigenous peoples?

At an international heritage symposium in Japan, I heard a word that stayed with me: "contaminated." The discussion concerned whether Indigenous peoples needed to be named explicitly in a new World Heritage framework. One argument was that Indigenous cultures had changed through contact, survival and adaptation, and therefore no longer required distinct recognition. I found that deeply troubling.

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Data suggest 'red flag' laws are linked to sustained reductions in arrests

Individuals subject to extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), or "red flag" laws, were significantly less likely to be arrestedโ€”including for violent and firearm-related offensesโ€”while the orders were in effect than in the six months before. Strikingly, the drop in arrests did not end when the orders expired and continued for months afterward, according to a new study published in PNAS Nexus.

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Older LGBTQ+ people fear discrimination in housing and care settings, but one simple intervention is effective

The Life House Impact Project, led by Dr. Georgia Bowers, Professor Andrew King and Dr. Richard Green, worked with older LGBTQ+ people to document their real concerns about housing and social careโ€”and then brought those experiences into training for the people responsible for that care. The report shows that the proportion of staff who said they regularly or always met their LGBTQ+ service users' needs rose from 55% to 85% in the weeks following the training.

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Dominance-oriented views of masculinity widespread among young men, finds study

Half of young men in Switzerland are concerned that "real men" are increasingly being marginalized in society. A large-scale study by the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at the University of Zurich (UZH), in collaboration with mรคnner.ch, shows how prevalent restrictive and dominance-based concepts of masculinity are. These ideas go hand in hand with misogyny, a propensity for violence and opposition to gender equality. Prevention efforts should start in schools.

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