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Many of this year's top headlines captured the stretching, breaking, and debating of rules. Some stories ended in punishment, others in celebration. All managed to spark discussion.
By Danielle Zhu published November 4, 2014 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016
- Four thrill-seekers were arrested in March for climbing to the top of One World Trade Center and BASE jumping to the streets below—a feat publicized on YouTube. Charges included burglary and reckless endangerment.
- The highest courts of Australia and India authorized a third gender option— neither male nor female—for use in official documents this spring. The world's sixth- and seventh-largest countries, respectively, follow similar rule changes in Pakistan, Nepal, and Germany.
- The manipulation of content by Facebook and OkCupid, for research, left some users feeling used this past summer. Facebook altered the feeds of nearly 700,000 people; OkCupid skewed some of its match ratings. Psychological studies frequently rely on deception, but as PT Blogger Susan Krauss Whitbourne points out, the academic ethics code requires "full disclosure about the study's purposes after it's been conducted."
- Uruguayan soccer star Luis Suárez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder during a World Cup match in June, resulting in a four-month playing ban and a fine. It was Suárez's third biting incident. "Suárez needs peak levels of arousal for his brain to perform its magic," writes PT blogger Ian Robertson, "but if arousal gets too high, it can tip the person over into muddled thinking and consequent strange behaviors."
