Editor's Selections: Casinos, Hazing, and Psychosis in the City

By Jason G. Goldman on February 21, 2012

Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week.

Why are casinos so good at taking your money? Sure, most of the games favor the house, but there's more to it than that. Brad Voytek explains how casinos distract.

Hazing is a problem for many college, military, and other sorts of membership-based organizations. If we can better understand how and why hazing happens, Amie Gordon argues at Psych Your Mind, maybe we can begin to understand how to address the problem.

"Abundant evidence exists," Sandeep Gautaum writes at The Mouse Trap, "that psychosis is more prevalent in urban areas as compared to rural areas." Find out more about why this might be the case.

That's it for this week... Check back next week for more great psychology and neuroscience blogging!

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Jason G. Goldman

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, The Washington Post, The Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.