ROAD RAGE: When the Los Angeles Times did a story on road rage in the Pacific Northwest, they turned to Harborview’s Roland Maiuro for a comment: “There’s no question that the Northwest is overrepresented with this problem,” Maiuro said. “Part of this has to do with growth in the area, congestion in the area, poor design of roads that were not designed to move people efficiently. So you have things here that you don’t see in other parts of the country. We also have people who are accustomed to driving as they please on the road, and not having to be close and interacting intimately with other drivers. This is the great Pacific Northwest and people like their space here, and it’s being taken away from them.”

MEMORIES AS EVIDENCE: Recovered memories that had been repressed are not sufficient evidence to convict someone of a crime, experts told the Vancouver Sun in an article recently. Among those quoted was Psychology Professor Elizabeth Loftus, who said “You have to ask whether . . . the torture and persecution of innocent people on the basis of such flimsy evidence justifies that. Without corroboration, there is little that can be done to help even the most experienced evaluator to differentiate true memories from ones that were suggestively planted.”

MARITAL HAPPINESS: Psychology Professor John Gottman’s recent study on marriage got a wide distribution from the Los Angeles Times. “If you want to change marriages,” Gottman is quoted as saying, “you have to talk about the emotionally intelligent husband. Some men are really good at accepting a wife’s influence, at finding something reasonable in a partner’s complaint to agree with.” ¶