New KPC baby

People, we have a new mascot! Noah Smith, one of my favorite bloggers, sent us this great impersonation of Baby Patton and we are proud to fly him on our masthead!

If you'd like to be memorialized in this fashion, send your photo to me or Mungowitz and we will see what we will see.

(As always, KPC employees and their families are not eligible for this promotion)

Voice

The Sound of Power: Conveying and Detecting Hierarchical Rank Through Voice 

Sei Jin Ko, Melody Sadler & Adam Galinsky
Psychological Science, forthcoming

Abstract: The current research examined the relationship between hierarchy and vocal acoustic cues. Using Brunswik’s lens model as a framework, we explored how hierarchical rank influences the acoustic properties of a speaker’s voice and how these hierarchy-based acoustic cues affect perceivers’ inferences of a speaker’s rank. By using objective measurements of speakers’ acoustic cues and controlling for baseline cue levels, we were able to precisely capture the relationship between acoustic cues and hierarchical rank, as well as the covariation among the cues. In Experiment 1, analyses controlling for speakers’ baseline cue levels found that the voices of individuals in the high-rank condition were higher in pitch and loudness variability but lower in pitch variability, compared with the voices of individuals in the low-rank condition. In Experiment 2, perceivers used higher pitch, greater loudness, and greater loudness variability to make accurate inferences of speakers’ hierarchical rank. These experiments demonstrate that acoustic cues are systematically used to reflect and detect hierarchy.

(Nod to Kevin Lewis)

What's your super-power?

Bill Clinton's is the ability to inhabit his wife's body at critical junctures:

Amitai Etzioni:  "You don't need to buy this"  The "curse" of consumerism.


He's right about one thing:   I don't buy it.  Tell it to poor people anywhere...hey, guy, you don't need that car, that bicycle, that refrigerator.

Typical rich guy view of "consumerism."  What a santimonious goofball.

Silver linings

The Venezuelan government is on an unsustainable treadmill. They are running a sustained inflation rate of between 25-30% per year. People complain about higher prices, so they institute price controls and nationalize "offending" companies. Both actions tend to reduce supply, so customers then face shortages and long lines for the products. The NY Times has a good article on the situation.

But as they say, there's always a silver lining. Some citizens are getting healthier:

Waiting in line to buy chicken and other staples, Jenny Montero, 30, recalled how she could not find cooking oil last fall and had to switch from the fried food she prefers to soups and stews.


 “It was good for me,” she said drily, pushing her 14-month-old daughter in a stroller. “I lost several pounds.”