Weekly Newsletter

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

                                                                 George Bernard Shaw

FRIDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Having an abusive boss can do more than ruin your workday, it can also harm your family life, new research suggests.

The study, published online and in the winter issue of the journal Personnel Psychology, included 280 full-time employees and their partners who completed online surveys.

The Baylor University researchers found that the stress and tension an abusive boss causes an employee also affects the worker's partner, their relationship and the rest of the family.

However, the longer the employee-partner relationship, the less effect the abusive boss had on the family. The researchers also found that having more children at home meant greater family satisfaction for the employee.

"These findings have important implications for organizations and their managers. The evidence highlights the need for organizations to send an unequivocal message to those in supervisory positions that these hostile and harmful behaviors will not be tolerated," study author Dawn Carlson, a professor of management and chair of organizational development at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor, said in a university news release.

Abuse by a boss may include tantrums, rudeness, public criticism and inconsiderate action, the study authors pointed out.

"It may be that as supervisor abuse heightens tension in the relationship, the employee is less motivated or able to engage in positive interactions with the partner and other family members," study co-author Merideth Ferguson, an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship, said in the news release.

Businesses and other organizations should encourage workers to use employee assistance programs or other resources, such as counseling and stress management, to find ways to reduce the impact an abusive boss has on the family, the study authors said.

More information

The American Psychological Association offers tips on managing your boss.

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Whether it's talking on cellphones, fiddling with food and drink or doing some last-minute grooming, a large majority of adult drivers in the United States admit to being dangerously distracted while behind the wheel, a new poll shows.

According to the new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll, most adults who drive on a regular basis admitted to having at some point engaged in distracting behaviors, be it eating/drinking (86 percent), talking on a non-hands-free cellphone (59 percent), setting their GPS device (41 percent), texting (37 percent) or applying makeup (14 percent).

Large minorities of drivers also admitted to driving while less than fully alert. For example, a quarter of respondents said they have driven after having two or more drinks, and 44 percent said they've felt sleepy while driving, "sometimes even momentarily dozing off." Smaller percentages (7 and 12 percent, respectively) said they drive this way "sometimes or often."

"The number of drivers who engage in potentially dangerous, in some cases extremely dangerous, behaviors while driving is terrifyingly high, particularly when you remember that every 1 percent of drivers polled represents more than one-and-three-quarters of a million people," said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll.

"While we have some information on how dangerous some of these behaviors are (driving after drinking, talking on cellphones, falling asleep, texting) we can only speculate as to the numbers of accidents and deaths that are caused by the many millions of people who drive while setting their GPS, eating or drinking, surfing the Internet, watching videos, combing their hair, reading or applying makeup," added Taylor.

Prior research has examined the dangers of distracted driving, with one 2010 study finding that texting alone was implicated in more than 16,000 deaths from 2001 to 2007. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, also found that auto deaths involving cell phones and texting while driving rose 28 percent between 2005 and 2008.

According to the new online poll, which surveyed more than 2,800 U.S. adults between Nov. 10 to 14, distracted driving isn't just limited to cellphone use. Other major distractions include:

• Eating/drinking: 86 percent said they had done it at some point, and 57 percent said they do it "often or sometimes."
• Setting/changing GPS: 41 percent have ever done it while at the wheel, while 21 percent do it more frequently.
• Sending/receiving text messages: 37 percent have done so, and 18 percent do it regularly.
• Reading a map: 36 percent admitted doing so, and 10 percent do it often or sometimes.
• Combing/styling hair: one in five drivers acknowledged doing this at least once; nearly 1 in 10 does it more regularly.
• Applying makeup: 14 percent have done it at least once, 7 percent say they do it frequently.
• Surfing the Internet: 13 percent have done so while driving, and 9 percent do it often/sometimes.
• Watching videos (on a mobile device or in-board system): 7 percent say they do this "often or sometimes."

Certain drivers were more apt to indulge in risky distractions than others, the poll found. For example, drivers over the age of 65 were less likely than their younger counterparts to engage in distracting behaviors. And when it came to gender, men were more likely than women to drive while drowsy, consult a GPS navigation system, look at maps, drive after drinking alcohol, surf the 'Net or watch videos.

The survey also turned up a puzzling disconnect: While big percentages of drivers agree that distracting behaviors are dangerous, many still engage in them.

For example, 77 percent thought that texting increases the odds of a car accident "a lot." Forty-four percent thought the same about talking on a (non-hands-free) cellphone, and two-thirds thought it was dangerous to apply makeup while driving.

One highway safety expert called the poll findings troublesome.

"Despite all of the attention paid to cell phone distractions in the past few years, this survey highlights the broader problem that drivers do a lot of things behind the wheel that distract them," said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va. "People have driven distracted long before there were cellphones."

Some 39 states plus the District of Columbia have already enacted laws regulating the use of mobile devices in vehicles. But a recent study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that use of cellphones and other distractions while driving has actually risen over time, despite these efforts.

While technology has helped create new driving hazards, it might also be a means of minimizing the risk, too, Rader said. He pointed to "crash-avoidance technologies" that automakers are installing on vehicles. These on-board devices can sense a hazard ahead, such as the driver in front of you suddenly slamming on the brakes.

"New laws are not likely the answer," Rader said. "This survey points to the potential for technology to help bring drivers' attention back to the road at critical moments, no matter what is distracting them, whether they're reaching for a cup of coffee, trying to send a text message or just daydreaming."

More information

Find out more on the perils of distracted driving at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FRIDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Voters prefer male political candidates with a lower-pitched voice because it's seen as a sign of dominance and leadership, according to Canadian researchers.

The researchers manipulated archival recordings of U.S. presidents to create lower- and higher-pitched versions of each voice. The altered recordings were played to volunteers who rated the speakers' leadership potential, honesty, intelligence, dominance and attractiveness.

The volunteers were also asked which versions of the voices would win their vote both in peacetime and wartime.

In all cases, the volunteers preferred the lower-pitched voices, said the team in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The study was published online Nov. 16 in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

"We're looking at men's low voice-pitch as a cue to dominance, which is related to leadership," study lead author and graduate student Cara Tigue said in a university news release.

"Throughout our evolutionary history, it would have been important for our ancestors to pay attention to cues to good leadership, because group leaders affected a person's ability to survive and reproduce within a group. We're looking at it in a present-day, 21st-century context," she explained.

Voice pitch has long been considered a factor in a candidate's success, but the researchers said this is the first study to scientifically test the theory that voters prefer men with lower-pitched voices.

"People think we want to vote for men with lower-pitched voices because they're more attractive, but it's because people perceive them as better leaders and more dominant, not just because they're attractive," said David Feinberg, a psychology professor who supervised the study.

More information

The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery has tips on caring for your voice.

TUESDAY, Nov. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Creative thinkers are more likely to cheat than those who are less creative, perhaps because being an original thinker increases a person's ability to rationalize their actions, according to a new study.

Harvard and Duke University researchers conducted five experiments to determine whether creative people would cheat in situations where they could justify their dishonesty. The findings appear online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"Greater creativity helps individuals solve difficult tasks across many domains, but creative sparks may lead individuals to take unethical routes when searching for solutions to problems and tasks," lead researcher Francesca Gino of Harvard University said in a journal news release.

The participants' creativity and intelligence were tested and they were given a small amount of money just for showing up. In each experiment, they were given tasks or tests where they could get paid more if they took advantage of opportunities for cheating.

The chances to cheat were purposely staged by the researchers, but the participants didn't know that.

The study found that more creative people were much more likely to cheat and that there was no link between intelligence and dishonesty. For example, more intelligent but less creative people were not more likely to cheat.

"Dishonesty and innovation are two of the topics most widely written about in the popular press," the researchers wrote. "Yet, to date, the relationship between creativity and dishonest behavior has not been studied empirically. The results from the current article indicate that, in fact, people who are creative or work in environments that promote creative thinking may be the most at risk when they face ethical dilemmas."

More information

Nemours Foundation has more on children and cheating.