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Daniel Kahneman: ‘We’re beautiful devices’
The Guardian: The Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman lives in an airy penthouse on the 14th floor of an apartment block in downtown Manhattan, not far from the Eighth Street subway station. But never mind that for a moment. Instead, without thinking too hard about it, try answering the following question: roughly what percentage of the member states of the United Nations are in Africa? (I'll wait.) The correct figure isn't what's important here.
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Better Scientific Research
The New York Times: “Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research” (news article, Nov. 3) discussed my concerns about current scientific practices within the context of a critique of psychology. I believe that the practice of publishing only a portion of collected data can enable scientists to present a biased perspective, even inadvertently (as I discuss in a recent Nature commentary). However, neither such biases nor the entirely different case of outright fraud are unique to psychology. Both are problems faced across disciplines. Indeed, psychology should be applauded for detailing how current scientific practices can lead to erroneous conclusions.
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One-Day Holiday and Christmas Shopping Plan
Real Simple: 8 a.m. Fuel up. It’s hard to shop sensibly when your blood sugar is crashing, so skip the bagels, the donuts, and the sugary breakfast cereals, says Keri Glassman, a registered dietitian in New York City and the author of The Snack Factor Diet ($14, amazon.com). Choose a meal loaded with fiber, protein, and healthy fats—like oatmeal made with skim milk and almonds. Find healthy breakfast recipes here. Don’t dress just for comfort. When people are feeling insecure, they tend to buy more, according to Darren Dahl, a professor of applied marketing research at the Sauder School of Business, in Vancouver.
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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.
