New research published in Health Economics indicates that a national prohibition of menthol cigarettes in the United States could increase the number of people who attempt to quit smoking but also support an illegal menthol cigarette market.

Urban versus rural. Penn State versus Michigan. Star Wars versus Star Trek. As social beings, humans gravitate toward groups. But sometimes group living can spur an “us versus them” mentality that causes conflict, especially when two groups are competing for the same limited resources, like money or a championship trophy. Anne Pisor, assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State and Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member, discusses her recently published paper on the “us versus them” mindset as well as the causes and how to overcome it.

Confidence. Persistence. Ingenuity. Conventional wisdom tells us these are some of the traits needed for success at the office. But within teams, less laudable characteristics – maintaining the status quo, for instance – might be just as desirable, according to new Rutgers research.

Cong Liu, an expert on organizational thinking at the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, reports in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology that teams with high rates of envy often ostracize their best performers, in turn leading those standout employees to sabotage productivity.