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Is Religion Just An Assortment of Gut Feelings?
The vast majority of the planet’s 7 billion people ascribe to some kind of religious belief—that is, a faith in things that cannot be proven. This makes no sense from a scientific and psychological point of view, because supernatural beliefs—in contrast to our evolved thinking in general—serve no apparent purpose. They don’t help us comprehend and navigate the world. Why would the human mind create them, and allow them to persist? Two cognitive psychologists now offer an intriguing explanation for this philosophical puzzle. Nicolas Baumard of the University of Pennsylvania and Pascal Boyer of Washington University in St.
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People most remember events from late adolescence and early adulthood
The Washington Post: Our 20-somethings are having a moment. They’re inspiring self-help guides, television shows, Tumblrs-turned-handbooks, major newspaper and magazine think pieces on why they do what they do (or don’t do). The current crop of young adults are recession-squeezed, peculiarly savvy and adrift, connected and lonely, knowing and naive. But what is it with 20-somethings in general? And why are we so fixated on this no man’s land between childhood and stable adulthood? A little-known but robust line of research shows that there really is something deeply, weirdly meaningful about this period.
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The Philosophy of Data
The New York Times: If you asked me to describe the rising philosophy of the day, I’d say it is data-ism. We now have the ability to gather huge amounts of data. This ability seems to carry with it certain cultural assumptions — that everything that can be measured should be measured; that data is a transparent and reliable lens that allows us to filter out emotionalism and ideology; that data will help us do remarkable things — like foretell the future. ... But Thomas Gilovich, Amos Tversky and Robert Vallone found that a player who has made six consecutive foul shots has the same chance of making his seventh as if he had missed the previous six foul shots.
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The Upside of Power
The Wall Street Journal: We’ve all heard about the loneliness and corruptions of power, but two new academic works suggest that maybe it isn’t really so bad. First, psychologists at UC Berkeley found that people in power are more resilient in the face of rejection than are the rest of us. Researchers reported on five experiments pointing in this direction. In one, volunteers were assigned high or low positions in a workplace and told they weren’t invited to a party. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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Study: Each Generation Is Happier Than the Last
The Atlantic: You'll be happier in the future than you are now, a new study in the journal Psychological Science found, but your overall well-being also depends on when you were born, and what you've lived through. "Well-being" is a pretty nebulous measure, but it definitely sounds like something you would want to strive for.
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Diet-Soda Mixers Can Lead to Quicker Intoxication
TIME: The study, which compared Smirnoff Red Label plus Squirt (a lemon-lime soda with no caffeine) with the vodka with Diet Squirt, found that the diet cocktail increased BAC by 18%. That’s almost as much as having an additional standard drink and was enough to tip people from being under the legal limit for driving to being unsafe to drive. “One of the key things we found was that even though BAC peaked 18% higher in the diet condition, [participants] didn’t feel any more intoxicated and they didn’t feel any different as to how willing they were to drive a car,” says the study’s lead author Cecile Marczinski, who is an assistant professor of psychology at Northern Kentucky University.
