Extra Credit: Our pick of well-researched stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship. Brought to you each Tuesday from the editors of JSTOR Daily.
High deductibles, bad decisions (The Washington Post)
by Dan Gorenstein
Patients who have a high-deductible health plan make different decisions than those with better coverage. But that doesn’t mean they make smarter choices—even when they’re medical professionals themselves.
When Reno was a refuge for unhappy wives (Collectors Weekly)
by Ben Marks
Today, getting a divorce is pretty easy throughout the U.S. But back in the 1930’s, a county courthouse in Reno, Nevada was one of the few places you could end a marriage quickly and easily—as long as you made the city your home for six weeks. That created a unique local culture, and a source for a lot of pulpy stories.
The real Mr. Darcy (The Telegraph)
by Hannah Furness
Mr. Darcy has been a pined-after romantic figure for generations. But now, academics have looked back at the fashion and lifestyles of English noblemen in the 1790’s, and they’ve constructed a portrait of Mr. Darcy that’s a far cry from the familiar screen adaptations of Pride and Prejudice.
Cultivating the Amazon (The New York Times)
by Joanna Klein
The Amazon rainforest is just about the wildest natural landscape you could imagine, right? Not really. New research demonstrates just how much the Amazon as we know it is the result of thousands of years of human intervention—burning, weeding, planting, and transplanting—to create a “prehistoric supermarket.”
What compulsions mean (Longreads)
by Jessica Gross
Why do people hoard useless things, or keep their houses in a permanent state of perfect order, or check their phones constantly? Science writer Sharon Begley looks at the science behind compulsion—and the questions about what psychology can and can’t classify as a disease.
Have you seen a story online that does a good job of bridging the gap between the news and scholarship? Or something that seems particularly well-researched? Let us know and we may include it in next week’s roundup. Email us at jstordaily_submissions (at) jstor (dot) org.
