Links - 18th February 2018 (2)

How to make conservatives liberal, according to a Yale psychologist - "when social scientists get liberal-leaning experiment subjects to think about their own deaths or make them feel threatened, some left-wingers adopt more conservative values. This phenomenon played out after 9/11 — researchers found that there was a "very strong conservative shift" in the US after the attacks, with more liberals supporting Republican President George W. Bush and favoring increases in military spending... Researchers have taken brain images of people with different political leanings and found that those who self-identify as conservative have larger and more active right amygdalas, an area of the brain associated with the expression and processing of fear. A 2011 study looked at MRI scans of self-described conservative young adults and found they had more grey matter volume in the right amygdala than their liberal counterparts. In 2013, another team of scientists expanded that research to show that conservatives generally have more activity in their right amygdala when taking risks than liberals do... The researchers behind the psychology experiment told a group of participants to imagine that they'd been granted a superpower by a magic genie and were suddenly as invincible as Superman"
Facebook Comments: "so people with a grasp on reality are more conservative but people that are convinced to believe they have magic power given to them from a genie are more liberal?"
"So, if I pretend that terrorism doesn’t exist; that Iran is trustworthy and peaceful; that N Korea is just bluster and hype - no real threat; than I am likely to vote Democratic. Yes - I can believe that."

Liberal colleges are recruiting conservative professors to 'stir up some trouble', Business Insider - Business Insider Singapore - "Alumni had been complaining that the school lacked political diversity. Some thought conservative students felt unwelcome. Administrators responded, and Hayward’s position as the school’s first “visiting scholar in conservative thought” was born... “I had kind of wanted to pick a fight with the identity-politics crowd who I think – increasingly recognized by liberals – are wrecking universities and stifling discussion,” he said, referencing his blog post he had written about gender identification, which upset some students. He pointed to what he called the “special studies” fields on campus – like ethnic and gender studies – which he believes are “badly politicized” fields lacking serious scholarly thought. “I went to some of the women studies department lectures and, frankly, found them appallingly lightweight in their intellectual level,” he said. “Part of me also thinks, let them have these separate studies department and they can all work at Starbucks when they get out with their degrees”... “The advantage of having a Steve Hayward at Colorado is not that he is presenting a conservative perspective, but that he is letting college students see that you can have a conservative who is not a monster, who doesn’t want to starve welfare children, who is thoughtful and also funny and good natured and a good teacher,” he said."

Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da - "The many theories about negotiation may work perfectly when you’re doing a deal with a company in your own country. But in today’s globalized economy you could be negotiating a joint venture in China, an outsourcing agreement in India, or a supplier contract in Sweden. If so, you might find yourself working with very different norms of communication. What gets you to “yes” in one culture gets you to “no” in another"... In most emerging or newly emerged markets, from BRIC to Southeast Asia and Africa, negotiators are unlikely to trust their counterparts until an affective connection has been made. The same is true for most Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. That may make negotiations challenging for task-oriented Americans, Australians, Brits, or Germans. Ricardo Bartolome, a Spanish manager, told me that he finds Americans to be very friendly on the surface, sometimes surprisingly so, but difficult to get to know at a deeper level. “During a negotiation they are so politically correct and careful not to show negative emotion,” he said. “It makes it hard for us to trust them”... One of the most confounding aspects of international negotiations is that in some cultures the word “yes” may be used when the real meaning is no. In other cultures “no” is the most frequent knee-jerk response, but it often means “Let’s discuss further”...
don’t make the common mistake of thinking that someone who speaks the language and has a parent from the culture will necessarily make a good cultural bridge. Consider this British manager of Korean origin: He looked Korean, had a Korean name, and spoke Korean with no accent, but he’d never lived or worked in Korea; his parents had moved to Britain as teenagers. His company asked him to help with an important negotiation in Korea, but once there, he quickly realized that his team would have been better off without him. Because he spoke the language so well, the Koreans assumed that he would behave like a Korean, so they took offense when he spoke to the wrong person in the room and when he confronted them too directly. As he observes, “If I hadn’t looked or sounded Korean, they would have forgiven me for behaving badly.”"
It's not just when propositioning women that one needs to consider that yes may mean no, or vice versa. Which is why the whole cup of tea thing and sexual consent is so ethnocentric
This also shows the perils of assuming racial origin brings racial understanding (a central point of the diversity agenda)

The Causes of Emigration from Singapore: How Much Is Still Political? - "Efforts to maintain a robust Singaporean economy have had to confront the serious challenge of substantial brain drain from the city-state. To address the negative effects of this problem, Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) has adopted a policy of increasing reliance on a foreign labor force. Meanwhile, the PAP appears to ignore the continued loss of human and intellectual capital. This study examines the main determinants of emigration from Singapore, specifically the political factors. The analysis is based on two primary data surveys that investigated what Singaporeans think about emigration: the 2006 Asian Barometer and the 2000–2002 Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia. Contrary to some previous empirical literature, data from these surveys indicate that anti–PAP and pro-democratic ideas strongly influence the decision of native Singaporeans to leave the island state. These findings likewise suggest that democratization and an expansion of business and technical education would be more effective in preserving economic growth than a policy of importing labor in the face of popular xenophobia."

Most Work Conflicts Aren’t Due to Personality - "While few people would feel comfortable openly describing one another based on racial, ethnic, or gender stereotypes, most people have no reservations about explaining others’ behavior with a personality typology like Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (“She’s such an ‘INTJ'”), Enneagram, or Color Code (“He’s such an 8: Challenger”). Personality or style typologies like Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, the DISC Assessment, Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument and others have been criticized by academic psychologists for their unproven or debatable reliability and validity. Yet, according to the Association of Test Publishers, the Society for Human Resources, and the publisher of the Myers-Briggs, these assessments are still administered millions of times per year for personnel selection, executive coaching, team building and conflict resolution... The real reasons for conflict are a lot harder to raise — and resolve — because they are likely to be complex, nuanced, and politically sensitive. For example, people’s interests may truly be opposed; roles and levels of authority may not be correctly defined or delineated; there may be real incentives to compete rather than to collaborate; and there may be little to no accountability or transparency about what people do or say. When two coworkers create a safe and imaginary set of explanations for their conflict (“My coworker is a micromanager,” or “My coworker doesn’t care whether errors are corrected”), neither of them has to challenge or incur the wrath of others in the organization... unlike the Myers-Briggs which provides an “I’m OK, you’re OK”-type report, the Hogan Personality Inventory and the NEO are likely to identify some hard-hitting development themes for almost anyone brave enough to take them, for example telling you that you are set in your ways, likely to anger easily, and take criticism too personally. While often hard to take, this is precisely the kind of feedback that can help build self-awareness and mutual awareness among two or more people engaged in a conflict."
More on the MBTI and other similar things being crap

S M Ong: Here Today, gone tomorrow: Remember the time Mr Brown's column got suspended? - "what I remember most about the 17-year history of Today are two names, Val Chua and Mr Brown. They starred in separate (but linked) Today sagas that serve as chilling reminders of how individuals can be punished when the press (unwittingly?) missteps in the eyes of the state...
LKY's press secretary summoned Shaun Seow, Mano Sabnani, Rahul Singh [actually Rahul Pathak], Bachchan Singh and Val Chua for a tekan session at the Istana. He chided the newspaper for running provocative stories that are out of bounds. Today was asked to explain what service it does to the nation and why it shouldn't be closed down. Mediacorp was ordered to supervise Today more closely or it will be punished too. Also, all reports on local news must be written by locals, no foreigners allowed."

The dangers of being a bridesmaid in China mean some brides now hire professionals - "From the grassroots to renowned celebrities, Chinese bridesmaids are also vulnerable to verbal harassment, and physical and sexual abuse"

Fake news that groom in China died after being dropped on his head during wedding game - "the victim in question was actually one of the groomsmen who had been playing the game on behalf of the groom. The groomsman hit his head but did not die. Instead, he lost consciousness on the scene. The groomsman was subsequently sent to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion."
No wodner the groomsmen get frustrated and sexually harass the bridesmaids

Cologne Migrant Sex Attacks Dismissed as 'Entirely Debunked, a Case of Fake News' by Left-Green Leader - "Prominent British Green politics campaigner and former Green party leader Natalie Bennett has refused to accept that “anything significant had happened” on New Year’s Eve 2015/16 in Cologne, Germany"

When cleaner auntie says: Leave me some work to do - "I had slurped up my yong tau foo, and was picking up my bowl to take it to the foodcourt tray-return area when a cleaner auntie told me to put it back on the table. When I hesitated, wanting to help her, she said sharply in Mandarin: "Leave it. Leave me some work to do. Leave me my job."... While the younger and more educated among us can leave old jobs and old ways behind by picking up new skills, what will auntie do when robots wipe tables and wipe industries clean of jobs for people in her position?"

Jamal to eat ice-cream in protest against beer fest - "Datuk Seri Jamal Md Yunos will hold an “ice-cream eating protest” this Wednesday as a sequel to his ongoing crusade against the beer fest in Selangor... Jamal held a demonstration before the SUK gates, which saw him wrecking boxes of beer bottles with a sledgehammer after being barred from delivering them to Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azmin Ali."

Myanmar: How the military still controls the country, not Aung San Suu Kyi - "As a politician, Ms Suu Kyi must strike the delicate balance between reform and not upsetting the army, who could re-take the country at any moment using the power of the National Defence and Security Council... The Rohingya insurgency in Rakhine state has been a public relations dream for the army — with many who once railed against them now vocal in their support for the institution they see as a defender of the nation. While soldiers, police and vigilantes kill and burn, the bulk of the criticism is directed towards the only Myanmar name most people know outside the country — the deified Aung San Suu Kyi. The calls for her to speak up, to do more, have merit. But they should be understood within the wider context of her limited power and the political tightrope she must walk."
By protesting about her handling of the Rohingya issue, foreigners might just be dooming her

Swedish feminist: - Why is it so bad that a Muslim man has three wives? - "Feminist artist and writer Ulla Lundegård can not understand why it is so outrageous that Muslim men bring several wives when they come to Sweden. - It may even be that they live a much more interesting life than many Swedish couples do after thirty years of being married... She states that we must not let our "prejudices and established tradition-bound norms" stand in the way of how enriching it may actually be for a Muslim man to have a whole set of wives."

New Swedish children's book: Grandpa has four wives - "Normalization of polygamy is now being presented to small children in Sweden. With the new children's book, "Farfar har fyra fruar" (Grandpa has four wives), which comes in both a Swedish edition and a Somali edition "Awoowgay aabbo waxa uu qabaa afar xaas," small children, 3-6 years, can join Asli as she goes back to Somalia to meet her grandfather and his many wives... In addition to this book, Oscar Trimbel has also written a book that is normalizing the burka, called Mormor är inget spöke (Grandma is no ghost)"