December 14, 2023: Doorbell cameras don't stop crime, why some people choose ignorance, and these baby frogs pretend to be poop. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | In a growing number of cities, police departments, fire departments and other local government agencies are buying Ring video doorbells and offering them to residents for free or at a discount. They claim that the devices reduce crime. But several experts told Undark Magazine that evidence is lacking that doorbell cameras make neighborhoods safer. When the MIT Media Lab mapped all doorbell camera users in the Los Angeles area, they found that the cams have little to no impact on crime rates.
Why this matters: As more people install cameras to deter package theft, the result is a privately-owned surveillance network that operates without accountability, Max Isaacs, senior staff attorney for the New York University School of Law's Policing Project, told Undark. Police departments can request data from doorbell camera companies without warrants, and people turn their data over to authorities readily.
What the experts say: "The number of steps that it would take for video footage to be useful in a criminal case is pretty substantial," making them an unreliable source of evidence, says Ben Stickle, a criminologist based at Middle Tennessee State University who researches package theft and emerging crimes. "First, the camera must be functioning and placed at the best angle to capture the crime," he said. | | | Some people seem to willfully ignore facts and information. I think we are all guilty of a little willful ignorance–especially when the truth requires us to make inconvenient changes to our lives (try cutting out plastic from your life entirely!). Now researchers have shown that willful ignorance is common, with 40 percent of people in a recent study choosing "not to know" the consequences of their actions in order to free themselves of the guilt of doing what they want. The good news is that the scientists also found that about 40 percent of people are altruistic–they seek to learn the consequences of their actions to benefit others.
What they found: Some altruistic behaviors are carried out because people feel pressure to do what is expected of them, write Linh Vu and Margarita Leib, who both study ethical decision-making. "When given a chance, people may want to ignore the consequences of their actions. Ignorance shields people from knowing how their actions harm others and makes them feel less like a bad person."
A positive takeaway: Feeling that they are at risk of being considered a "bad person" seems to increase the tendency to be willfully ignorant, the study found. To counteract this, "if we can avoid putting a strong moral emphasis on decisions, it may make people feel less threatened and, as a result, less willfully ignorant," write Vu and Leib. | | | • These baby frogs disguise themselves as poop to gross out potential predators, until they're old enough to glide through jungle canopies. | 4 min read | | | A view from the subterranean excavation for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Credit: Sanford Underground Research Facility | | | • Getting samples back from Mars has been an expensive, high-risk, high-reward project. But now, with realization of the mission's actual cost and expanding timeline, Congress must commit to fully supporting the effort or risk tanking the rest of NASA's planetary science program, writes Christopher Wanjek, a Baltimore-based science writer, whose latest book is about the James Webb Space Telescope. | 5 min read | | | Rather than feel like horrible people for the unfortunate consequences of our actions, especially when it comes to the health of the planet, my advice is to create a list of small steps you can take to make better choices. These can be as easy as walking or biking to a store a half mile away instead of driving; or buying loose lettuce instead of the pre-made salad kits. Small things add up. | How are you liking this newsletter? Let me know how I can improve by emailing your ideas to: newsletters@sciam.com. Until tomorrow! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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