Category: ideas

“When we are scanning for signs of danger in a relationship – such as abandonment – our brain often can’t distinguish between a real or imagined risk … The way we learn to respond to the threat of abandonment as young children actually changes the wiring of our brains.”

“Today’s biologists tend to be cautious about labelling any trait an evolutionary adaptation – that is, one that spread through a population because it provided a reproductive advantage. … When it comes to studying ourselves, though, such admonitions are hard to heed. So strong is the temptation to explain our minds by evolutionary ‘Just So Stories,’ Stephen Jay Gould argued in 1978, that a lack of hard evidence for them is frequently overlooked.”

“For terrible events, the key is to get enough distance before cracking jokes, the new study found. When mishaps are mild, on the other hand, it usually works best to joke about them right away.”

“Welcome to the modern science of politics, where voters have become lab rats in an ongoing cycle of controlled trials informed by principles from behavioral psychology. Once dominated by superstition and guesswork, campaigns today are now awash in data and insights that allow them to act on that data. As election day approaches, here are five ways that campaigns are using these new tools to sway voters.”

“In general, the “neural” explanation has become a gold standard of non-fiction exegesis, adding its own brand of computer-assisted lab-coat bling to a whole new industry of intellectual quackery that affects to elucidate even complex sociocultural phenomena.”

“The impulse to sympathize with a fictional character seems to be triggered in different ways for males and females.”

Seriously? Google? You’re killing dinner parties: “Google has just launched a ‘Bacon number’ search feature. Just add those magic words to a celebrity’s name (as in: ‘Tom Cruise Bacon number’) and get the answer (as in: ‘Tom Cruise’s Bacon number is 1’) and the reason (A Few Good Men).”

“If we can identify cues that subliminally aid recovery, ‘such as background smells or simply a firm, reassuring handshake from a doctor,’ then we could incorporate them into clinical practice. Likewise, we could try to reduce or eliminate people’s exposure to cues that can hamper recovery.”

“Why are some of us able to relax, while others stay on guard long after any danger has passed?” (Part of the answer may have to do with the brain’s natural pot-like chemicals.)

“People with a strong self-concept who were rejected produced more creative aliens than people from any other group, including people with a strong self-concept who were accepted.”