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Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?
The New York Times: Is free will an illusion? Some leading scientists think so. For instance, in 2002 the psychologist Daniel Wegner wrote “It seems we are agents. It seems we cause what we do… It is sobering and ultimately accurate to call all this an illusion.” More recently, the neuroscientist Patrick Haggard declared , “We certainly don’t have free will. Not in the sense we think.” And in June, the neuroscientist Sam Harris claimed , “You seem to be an agent acting of your own free will.
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The Brain Acts Fast To Reappraise Angry Faces
If you tell yourself that someone who’s being mean is just having a bad day—it’s not about you—you may actually be able to stave off bad feelings, according to a new study which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Having someone angry at you isn’t pleasant. A strategy commonly suggested in cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is to find another way to look at the angry person. For example, you might tell yourself that they’ve probably just lost their dog or gotten a cancer diagnosis and are taking it out on you. Stanford researchers Jens Blechert, Gal Sheppes, Carolina Di Tella, Hants Williams, and James J.
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Seriously, Men Only Think They’re Funnier
The New York Times: The Gist: Men aren’t much funnier than women. They just think they are. The Source: “Who’s Funny: Gender Stereotypes, Humor Production, and Memory Bias” by Laura Mickes, Drew E. Walker, Julian L. Parris, Robert Mankoff, Nicholas J. S. Christenfeld, published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. The funniest thing about men and humor may be how funny men think they are. According to a recent study by Laura Mickes, a postdoctoral researcher in the psychology department of the University of California, San Diego, men are perceived to be only slightly funnier than women in a blind test, in which the sex of the joke teller was not disclosed.
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Beautiful people more productive: study
Sydney Morning Herald: A new book written by an economics professor at the University of Texas-Austin concludes that beauty brings many real benefits. Daniel S Hamermesh has studied the economics of beauty for about 20 years. In Beauty Pays, which was published recently by Princeton University Press, he concludes that attractive people enjoy many advantages while those who are less attractive often face discrimination. Using his research and worldwide studies he's collected, Hamermesh notes that beautiful people are likely to be happier, earn more money, get a bank loan with a lower interest rate and marry a good-looking and highly educated spouse.
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Want to lose weight? Shut your mouth
CNN: Anita Mills was 382 pounds when a family doctor gave her four simple rules to lose weight: 1. Eat 8 ounces of food every 3 hours 2. No sugary drinks 3. Do not skip meals 4. Do not tell anyone what you're doing Now 242 pounds lighter, Mills credits that last tip for helping her through the most difficult months of her weight loss journey. Not having someone questioning every bite or trying to persuade her to relax on weekends helped her focus on the goal. Read the whole story: CNN
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Did journalism sink your 401k? And more surprising insights from the social sciences
Boston Globe: Learning to love the rules We all chafe against the rules sometimes, but new research suggests that restrictions are a lot easier to accept than the possibility of restrictions. In one experiment, people read about the prospect of lower speed limits that were either certain to happen or likely to happen. If the lower limits were certain, people had a more positive attitude about them, whereas if the lower limits were likely but not certain, people were more negative. In another experiment, people read about the prospect of a ban on cellphone use while driving.
