Were you nice to your little sister when you were growing up? Today in The Conversation Canada, a trio of researchers from the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto write about their new research into how siblings play a role in the development of empathy.

“We found that children who are kind, supportive and understanding influence their siblings to act and behave in similar ways,” write Sheri Madigan, Jennifer Jenkins and Marc Jambon. “And if one sibling is struggling to be empathic but has a sibling with strong empathy skills, they manage to become more empathic over time.”

The authors also provide a sidebar article on how parents, teachers and caregivers can encourage young children to be more empathic.

It may not have received a lot of attention outside of Ontario, but there’s a three-ring circus going on within the province’s Provincial Conservative Party these days. Paul Thomas of Carleton University provides an excellent summary of how and why the party is looking for a new leader just a few weeks before the provincial election that everyone thought they would easily win.

And finally, we’ve got another in our series of Olympic stories. Nicole Forrester of Ryerson University, an Olympian and a registered mental performance consultant, explains why athletes who dominate their sport often come up short at the Olympics. Most fans accuse them of “choking,” but Prof. Forrester explains there are many other complex and complicated reasons to explain why a top athlete fails on the biggest stage in sports.

Regards,