Pinker on Gladwell
An eye-opening review of Malcolm Gladwell’s book “What the dog saw” by Steven Pinker – I will be much more careful of accepting Gladwell’s conclusions from here on. From the New York Times:
Malcolm Gladwell, Eclectic Detective
Suffering leads to belief in god
It seems misery loves supernatural explanations…
Excerpt from “Bering in Mind”’s God’s in Mississippi, where the gettin’ is good:
…. In an article soon to be published in Personality and Social Psychology Review , Harvard psychologists Kurt Gray and Daniel Wegner argue that human suffering and God go hand-in-hand because our evolved cognitive systems are inherently unsatisfied with “sh*t happens” types of explanations (that is to say, reality). The main gist of their argument is that, since we’re such a deeply social species, when bad things happen to us we immediately launch a search for the responsible human party. In being morally vigilant this way–in seeking to identify the culpable party–we can effectively punish blameworthy, antisocial people, thus preserving our group’s functional cohesion and preserving each individual’s genetic interests. That’s all fine and dandy, say Gray and Wegner, when someone punches us in the face, steals from us or sleeps with our girlfriend; but when our misfortune is more “abstract” (think cancer or a tsunami) and there’s no obvious single human agent to blame, we see the hand of God.
Jared Diamond on the environment
An essay by Jared Diamond, from Time magazine, August 26, 2oo2:
Lessons from Lost Worlds
Beware of videoconferencing
Sounds like videoconferencing is not a good way to make a sale or establish trusted relationships. It may have a great deal to do with eye-contact and head-bobbing. (After you read the article, you can check out cocodex.com.)
From 07.30.2006 Discover magazine:
Jaron’s World: Heads-Up
Why your next telephone may come mounted on a neck.
Bad behaviour promotes bad behaviour
Now it’s proven: signs of vandalism promote more vandalism. From The Economist:
Can the can
From The Economist print edition
The idea that graffiti-spraying and other forms of low-level delinquency promote further bad behaviour has now been tested experimentally
Read more »
Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated
From the journal Intelligence, Volume 37, Issue 3, May-June 2009, Pages 294-304:
Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated
Abstract
Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated. The evidence is based on 1254 community college students and 1600 foreign students seeking entry to United States’ universities. At the individual level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with SAT, Vocabulary, and Analogy test scores. At the national level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with measures of education (e.g., gross enrollment at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels) and performance on mathematics and reading assessments from the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) project. They also correlate with components of the Failed States Index and several other measures of economic and political development of nations. Conservatism scores have higher correlations with economic and political measures than estimated IQ scores.
Video games can make you a better person
The social games, that is. I’d love to see those made compulsory in school…
From The Economist print edition:
The behavioural effects of video games
Good game?
May 28th 2009
Playing video games can make you a better person
What not to name your kid
Juvenile delinquency and glass ceilings caused by first names? Hmmm….
———————————————————–
Why Curly is a stooge and Justin a golden boy
Among the wealth of research on the importance of given names, a new study correlates first names with criminal behaviour
MICHAEL VALPY | From Monday’s Globe and Mail | June 9, 2008 at 4:44 AM EDT
A Jarrit by any other name might be a brain surgeon.
About
Although it started out as a means of practising expressing myself, this blog is turning out to be more of a compendium of interesting information I come across. One of these days I’ll have to actually write something as opposed to cut and paste. 
