First-borns get more quality time with parents, study shows
Joseph Price, a graduate student in economics at Cornell, has found that a first-born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with a parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family. (Dec. 22, 2006)

New book explores research methods of positive psychology
'The Oxford Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology,' edited by Cornell's Anthony Ong, explores research methods for studying hope, laughter, resilience and other aspects of positive psychology. (Dec. 14, 2006)

CU to offer graduate concentration combining law and psychology
To prepare scholars who will contribute original research in human development and the law, and psychology and the law, Cornell will offer a new graduate concentration called Law, Psychology and Human Development, beginning next fall. (Dec. 14, 2006)

New book asks, 'Why Aren't More Women in Science?'
A new book edited by Cornell professors of human development Stephen Ceci and Wendy Williams explores the reasons why more women don't go into science or engineering. (Dec. 13, 2006)

New program gets elders to collaborate in courses
A line of textile-based products to help the elderly was developed in a course this past semester. The products were developed not only by students but also by senior citizens in the community. (Dec. 13, 2006)

Hotel School class explores ethics in the workplace
Students must think about ethics and data management because they will need to make decisions involving them in the workplace, says Assistant Professor Erica Wagner, who teaches Introduction to Information Systems. (Dec. 8, 2006)

$5.5 million grant goes to ADA program in ILR School
The U.S. Department of Education grant will enable the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center-Northeast ADA Center to research how to improve employment and community living for the disabled. (Dec. 5, 2006)

Why teens do stupid things
Research Notebook: Teens take a lot of risks, but not because they think they're invulnerable or haven't thought about the consequences. They just decide the benefits says Cornell's Valerie Reyna in a new study. (Dec. 4, 2006)

Cornell's Brumberg plays role in book and HBO film, 'Thin'
One out of seven women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa will die, writes Professor Joan Jacobs Brumberg in her introduction to Lauren Greenfield's 'Thin,' the title of a new book and a related HBO documentary. (Nov. 27, 2006)

Cornell events in New York City tackle pounds and pain
CU in the City: In October, Weill Cornell researchers presented a symposium on weight control and a conference on issues related to chronic pain. (Nov. 27, 2006)

Jeffrey Hancock tries to get to the truth behind online fibbery
Getting at the truth about the language of lies and how and under what circumstances we weave our tangled webs is much of the stuff of Jeff Hancock's research. (Nov. 15, 2006)

Psychology professor studies split-second responses
Melissa Ferguson's specialty is 'automaticity' -- the study of the ways in which people process information about their social environment in a relatively non-conscious or unintentional fashion and the influence of that processing on their behavior. (Nov. 15, 2006)

Julian Bond speaks on the future of civil rights
With many blacks succeeding professionally, remaining civil rights problems are more difficult to attack than in the past because Americans have tended to freeze the status quo, said NAACP chairman Julian Bond, in a Nov. 9 lecture. (Nov. 14, 2006)

Public forums and balancing media reports are vital, scholar says
Without public forums -- or opportunities to argue against biased media reports -- we tend to develop polarized opinions, warned First Amendment scholar Cass Sunstein, in a Nov. 8 lecture. (Nov. 14, 2006)

Bonuses boost performance 10 times more than merit raises
Giving a 1 percent raise boosts performance by roughly 2 percent, but offering that same money instead in the form of a bonus for a job well done should improve job performance by almost 20 percent, finds a new Cornell study. (Nov. 13, 2006)

Street fashion exhibit launches collection
An exhibit of street fashion -- ensembles put together from thrift and vintage stores -- is on display until May. Exhibitors are looking for more donations to help build a study center for street style. (Nov. 13, 2006)

The bigger the meal, the more we underestimates its calories
We consistently underestimate things as they get larger. A study by Cornell's Brian Wansink finds that people -- regardless of body size -- do that with meals in estimating calories, too. The trouble is that heavy people tend to eat a whole lot more of these big meals. (Nov. 1, 2006)

Cutting down on 'mindless eating' is focus of new book
The average person makes more than 200 food-related decisions every day, day in and day out -- yet isn't aware of 90 percent of them, says Cornell marketing professor Brian Wansink in his new book, 'Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.' (Nov. 1, 2006)

Library partners with Microsoft to put public domain books online
Cornell University Library has signed a partnership with Microsoft Corp. that will add books published before 1923 to its online collections, making 'checking out' books even easier. (Oct. 20, 2006)

Leaders are made, not born, as they learn to build teams, take risks
The Leadership Initiative in the College of Human Ecology teaches that we are all born with the potential to lead, but that most leadership traits require effort and experience to develop. (Oct. 17, 2006)

Novel diversity programs offer promise, new study finds
A Cornell-led consortium has authored a white paper, 'Eliminating Racial Disparities in College Completion and Achievement,' for the Teagle Foundation. (Oct. 17, 2006)

How a cookbook can be a science communication tool
From appetizers to desserts and every dish in between, Nancy Longnecker's cookbook, 'Passion for Pulses: A Feast of Beans, Peas and Lentils From Around the World,' offers legume-rich recipes with a side of science. (Oct. 17, 2006)

Four area studies programs receive $7 million in federal funding
Four Cornell area studies programs have been designated National Resource Centers with grants totaling a little more than $750,000 per year through 2010. They also have been awarded $1 million a year in Foreign Language and Area Studies grants. (Oct. 16, 2006)

Hotel School's roundtable finds human resources vary widely
Companies use very different ways to determine and carry out their human resources priorities, according to the third Human Resources Roundtable at the School of Hotel Administration, Sept. 28-29. (Oct. 16, 2006)

Gary Evans receives honorary doctorate from Stockholm University
Professor Gary Evans, an environmental psychologist in the College of Human Ecology, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Stockholm University, Sept. 29. (Oct. 3, 2006)

Daddy data: Conference focuses on new trends in fatherhood
Family studies specialists from a variety of disciplinary perspectives devoted six sessions to current research on fatherhood and what that title means for men during conference at Cornell, Sept. 21-22. (Sept. 29, 2006)

Program to build 'critical mass' of women in science, engineering
To increase the number of women faculty in engineering and the sciences, Cornell will use a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to work on recruiting, retaining and promoting more women in leadership positions. (Sept. 25, 2006)

Multitasking is no problem, but double talk overwhelms us
Research Notebook: We can listen to a car radio and drive while keeping an eye on changing traffic conditions -- separate complex tasks completed without much trouble. But if two people are talking to us at the same time, our perceptual frequencies get jammed, says a new study. (Sept. 25, 2006)

Industry experts offer free job hunting advice online
Job hunters can now use a free searchable database that's like having a virtual army of consultants at their command. Cornell's eClips Career Corner offers thousands of short video clips with advice on interviewing, writing a resume, networking and more. (Sept. 19, 2006)

Therapeutic Crisis Intervention curriculum wins national award
Cornell's Family Life Development Center's Therapeutic Crisis Intervention curriculum has won the 2006 Quality Award from the National Staff Development and Training Association. (Aug. 25, 2006)

Editor advises community college leaders to demand attention
Scott Jaschik '85, editor of the Web-based Inside Higher Ed, gets more than 100 pitches a day for stories from colleges and universities. Yet, very few are from community colleges. He wants to change that, but not by getting their press releases. (Aug. 17, 2006)

Cohabitators are traditional, contrary to alternative living style
Research Notebook: Although cohabitors are not conventional in that they live together without being married, they tend to be traditional when it comes to paid work and domestic labor as well as men being the initiators in dating and living together, Cornell studies find. (Aug. 14, 2006)

Angst and the rail commuter: longer the trip, greater the stress
Research Notebook: Scientists know that the longer your drive to work, the more likely you are to feel frustrated and irritated and to experience physiological stress. The same is true for rail commuters, a Cornell researcher and his colleague have found. (Aug. 4, 2006)

Urban Semester: Immersed in New York's diversity
The College of Human Ecology's Urban Semester program in New York City offers undergraduates intense, face-to-face encounters with individuals, young and old, who exemplify a life well lived. (Aug. 3, 2006)

Native-born blacks more likely to marry whites than other blacks
Breaking away from previous marriage and cohabitation studies that treated the U.S. black population as a monolithic culture, a new Cornell study finds significant variations in interracial marriage statistics among U.S.-born blacks and black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. (July 25, 2006)

CU study finds connection between sound and meaning in words
A new Cornell study describes a series of linguistic experiments showing that the sounds (phonology) of a word can indicate whether it is a noun or a verb. An article on the subject will appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (July 25, 2006)

People with a sweet tooth eat more fruit, study finds
People who like sweets eat more fruit than salty-snack lovers, and people who love fruit eat more sweets than vegetable lovers do, according to two Cornell analyses. Such links could help nutrition educators to better target their messages. (July 12, 2006)

Using body mass index skews analyses on obesity rates
Research Notebook: Using body mass index skews analyses on obesity rates. (July 3, 2006)

The power of wishful thinking: It influences what people see
Research Notebook: What people desire, hope, fear or wishfully think can influence how they perceive visually ambiguous stimuli, according to a new study by Cornell psychologist David Dunning and graduate student Emily Balcetis. (July 3, 2006)

Cohabiters, especially poor women, are unlikely to wed
Research Notebook: Cohabitation is unlikely to lead to the altar, especially for poor and minority women. A new Cornell study reports that one-half of all cohabiting unions end within a year and 90 percent within five years, mostly because couples break up. (July 3, 2006)

Most New Yorkers want to restrict immigration, survey shows
New Yorkers strongly favor restrictions on immigration, Empire State Poll results from the Cornell ILR School's Survey Research Institute show. (June 27, 2006)

Older mothers overwhelmingly choose daughters as caregivers
Older mothers are almost four times more likely to expect one of their daughters, rather than a son, to be their caregiver if they were to become sick or disabled, reports Cornell's Karl Pillemer in the August issue of The Gerontologist. (June 19, 2006)

Did the outreach really work? CU team to develop evaluation tools
The new 'Systems Evaluation' project at Cornell will develop tools to evaluate the effectiveness of the National Science Foundation's science, technology, engineering and mathematics education programs. (June 15, 2006)

Child soldiers are barrier to peace process
As long as children continue to be coerced into militias -- as they are by the thousands in Colombia, Sudan and dozens of other countries -- peace talks in those countries to settle armed conflicts are unlikely, assert two Cornell researchers. (June 9, 2006)

Self-injury is prevalent among college students, survey shows
About 17 percent of college students report that they have cut, burned, carved or harmed themselves in other ways, reports a new survey by Cornell and Princeton University researchers. Fewer than 7 percent of the students studied, however, had ever sought medical help for their self-inflicted physical injuries. (June 5, 2006)

Even one incident of self-injury is a call for help, experts stress
Even just one incident of self-destructive behavior is a harbinger of distress and should be addressed through interventions, say Cornell researchers Janis Whitlock and John Eckenrode. (June 5, 2006)

Cornell offers integrated support for students who self-injure
Experts at Cornell's Gannett Health Services assess all clients for self-injury and the risk of suicide, but need help from students, faculty and staff to identify students who may be trying to hide such behaviors as cutting, scratching and injuring themselves in other ways. (June 5, 2006)

Ties that bond: Evolving Family team brings people together
The Evolving Family, the 2004-07 theme project sponsored by the Institute for the Social Sciences at Cornell, forms collegial bonds while advancing research. (May 24, 2006)

Garden Mosaics Kit, including award-winning DVD, for sale
The Garden Mosaics Kit is now available for sale; it includes an award-winning interactive DVD and program manual for educators, a poster and many other science education tools, in an attractive, durable case. (May 8, 2006)

Internet data expands possibilities for social sciences research
Millions of bytes of data now streaming to Cornell from the massive Internet Archive will give social and information scientists an unprecedented playing field for research into social networks. (May 3, 2006)

Students give away money in Cornell course on philanthropy
Students in Brenda Bricker's Leadership in the Nonprofit Environment class get to give away money. Learning what philanthropists do, the students will give $10,000 to local nonprofit organizations, after soliciting and evaluation proposals from the community. (May 1, 2006)

Study finds kids who cut are finding each other on the Internet
Some 500 Internet message boards are bringing together adolescents who cut and burn themselves, for example, in a world that's invisible to adults but gives isolated teens a safe forum, reports a new Cornell study. (May 1, 2006)

Honeybee decision-making ability rivals any department committee
When 10,000 honeybees fly the coop to hunt for a new home, they have a unique method of deciding which site is right. And their technique, says Cornell biologist Thomas Seeley, includes coalition building until a quorum develops. (April 18, 2006)

Institute for Social Sciences announces third theme project
How the safety of 'Frankenfoods' and genetically modified organisms or World Bank economic advice become political hotbeds are examples of what the Cornell Institute for Social Sciences will explore in its third theme project: 'Contentious Politics: Science, Social Science and Social Protest.' (April 18, 2006)

Chris Barrett takes a collaborative approach to the world's poor
Chris Barrett, an international professor in Cornell's Department of Applied Economics and Management, published two books in 2005 that focus on food aid and the social economics of poverty. (April 18, 2006)

Do children need two parents for stability and well-being? Not necessarily
The effects of cohabitation, the gender of parents and living in stepfather vs. stepmother families were some of the topics explored in the April 7-8 conference 'Marriage and Family: Complexities and Perspectives.' (April 10, 2006)

New consensus workshop model tackles issues of aging
A new consensus workshop model, developed at Cornell University, brings researchers and practitioners together to share their knowledge and to agree on research priorities, practice recommendations and dissemination methods concerning issues facing the elderly. The most recent one, March 6, focused on social isolation. (April 5, 2006)

Collaboration in mind: Cognitive studies at Cornell
The Cognitive Studies Program at Cornell explores the complexities of the mind and human brain with the involvement of more than 75 faculty members across several diverse disciplines. (March 15, 2006)

Cornell offers nation's first Ph.D. program in apparel design
Cornell University is the first school in the United States to offer a Ph.D. program in apparel design, an applied science that embraces design, technology, physical sciences, the humanities and social sciences to meet basic human needs for clothing. (March 15, 2006)

Fashionistas in Ithaca include 'princesses,' 'hip-hops,' 'hipsters'
Ithaca may be more than 200 miles from the fashion hub of New York City, but according to an undergraduate ethnographic research project, it has its own fashion subcultures, including 'princesses,' 'neohippies' and 'hip-hop homeboys.' (March 15, 2006)

Judgments of moral blame can distort memory of events, study finds
Thinking that a person is dishonest or immoral can change how you remember objective facts, prompting you to recall the person's behavior as worse than it really was, finds Cornell Professor David Pizarro. (March 13, 2006)

'Wild' nature play before age 11 fosters adult environmentalism
Children with plenty of opportunity to play in nature before age 11 are more likely to grow up to be environmentalists than other children, says Cornell University environmental psychologist Nancy Wells and research associate Kristi Lekies. (March 13, 2006)

Planning students work at service, study projects over winter break
City & Regional Planning and Historic Preservation and Planning students spent winter break in group study projects that ranged from cleaning out flooded houses in New Orleans to archiving local political history in Vermont to studying sustainable development along the Panama Canal. (February 24, 2006)

Library has anti-slavery collections, black alumni papers and more
February is Black History Month. Yet Cornell's library plays a year-round role supporting Africana studies with its wide array of resources that document the experiences of African-Americans. (February 22, 2006)

Nanobiotechnology Center educates children and parents
Elementary school children all over the United States have been learning about incomprehensibly tiny things by walking through and playing with very large and colorful things in a traveling science museum exhibition created by Cornell University's Nanobiotechnology Center and through the center's programs in public schools. (February 18, 2006)

Research priorities set roadmap for reducing worldwide hunger
If science can fly a rocket to Pluto, it can relieve worldwide hunger and poverty, but no one's doing it, said Cornell University's Per Pinstrup-Andersen, an international expert on world hunger, at the 2006 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (February 17, 2006)

Americans growing more skeptical about GE food
The public is pretty evenly split about how they feel about genetically engineered foods but has grown slightly more skeptical over the past three years, said James Shanahan, Cornell associate professor of communication, at the 2006 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (February 17, 2006)

CCE program helps grandparents who are raising children again
Millions of grandparents are doing it all over again: raising children. And help is available with Cornell Cooperative Extension's 'Parenting a Second Time Around' program, which provides support, parenting skills and critical legal information and communication skills to grandparents as well as other relatives raising children. (February 17, 2006)

It's immoral that hunger is not declining and it feeds terrorism
Despite all the rhetoric, just as many people are hungry in the world today as 15 years ago and nothing's going to change if we continue business as usual, said Cornell University's Per Pinstrup-Andersen, an international expert on world hunger, at the 2006 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (February 17, 2006)

Candy on the desk is candy in the mouth, study finds
A study by Professor Brian Wansink finds people eat more than twice as much candy that is in clear containers on their desks than candy in opaque containers six feet away. What was surprising was that women consistently overestimated how much candy they ate when they had to get up to get it. (February 1, 2006)

Constas gets grant to launch new professional society
A new professional organization, the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, that will have its own peer-reviewed journal is being launched by Cornell's Mark Constas, associate professor of education, with $725,000 from the U.S. Department of Education. (February 1, 2006)

Hundreds of free workshops throughout New York give energy tips
To give consumers low- and no-cost energy tips to save money, Cornell Cooperative Extensions associations offered more than 335 free workshops in 30 counties in New York state. Another 135 workshops are scheduled for the upcoming months. (February 1, 2006)

$1.86 million grant will fund research and training positions in peace studies
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded a $1.86 million grant to Cornell's Peace Studies Program to provide additional research and training in science and security studies. (January 16, 2006)

Record numbers of Mexicans settling in upstate N.Y. remain marginal
A study by Cornell sociologists Max Pfeffer and Pilar Parra finds that Mexican farmworkers are settling in upstate New York in record numbers, but most are marginalized and not mainstreaming into community life. A growing underclass could lead to unemployment, poverty and other social problems. (January 5, 2006)