Psychology

In ancient civilizations, rulers and nobles exchanged gifts as acts of prestige. Only when Assyria came into existence, and it had a need for manpower and resources to feed its conquering empire, did gifts turn into taxes and government become overlord of its people, who were moved from place to place and told what to do by elites. The legacy of centralized government being 'smarter' than communities evolved from there. If 10 families in a town want to build a road to improve commerce, it is almost a certainty that one family will object. They know if they don't pay but nine others do, they…

The Christmas period isn’t just for presents, sparkling lights and too much festive food – it’s also prime time for couples to get engaged. And for heterosexual couples, this is likely to happen in a specific way. The man will do the asking. Traditional views around marriage are changing. In 2021 in England and Wales, more babies were born to unmarried than married parents for the first time. And many women keep their own surname rather than changing it to their husband’s when they tie the knot. But wedding proposals are still considered a man’s job. Nevertheless, some women do choose to…

If you have done nothing wrong, do you want to be treated like a criminal? That was always the failure of Social Justice Social Science efforts like the Implicit Bias test; you're a racist, the test will show you how racist you are.  You may not hate anyone so it would be perfectly understandable if you resented being told you are a terrible human being and that if you believe you are not, you are a Fascist. Mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts may likewise do more harm than good. Nearly everyone believes that people should succeed on merit. Nearly everyone accepts that…

If cultural pundits can invent an Anthropocene Epoch then a Digital Epoch makes even more sense. In 2000, only in Japan did you see people on trains four inches from other humans chatting other humans on other trains, most of whom they'd never meet. Now that is everyone in the developed world. COVID-19 changed a lot of things, at least in the short term. In California, you could get a pot brownie on your way to a tattoo parlor but not get a haircut, and unless you were the Governor you couldn't eat in a fancy Napa restaurant with your friends unmasked. Since most Californians are not wealthy…

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) vegetarian advocacy group has a paper out arguing that common broiler chickens not only learn more than the obvious, like which bowl has food, they get happier learning.  Their marketing of the paper suggests they know who their key demographic is; middle-aged wealthy white women. And if you want them, you invoke "The Gilmore Girls", a show about a genius single mother with an equally intelligent daughter and they are best friends and talk really fast and use a lot of Proust references. The experiment is…

Last year, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued a health advisory on the use of social media by adolescents. This was based on mounting scientific evidence that social media has both benefits and risks for teens, and that parents and guardians needed better advice on how to balance the two. Social media platforms have yet to make meaningful changes in order to reduce the risks to the youth. The scientific evidence, on the other hand, has coalesced around various observations of what risks young people face when they use social media.  The Economics of Social Media…

Get-out-the-vote campaigns matter, which is why U.S. political parties encourage those in their tribe to vote by mail long before any controversies can change their mind. Voting is so predictable that about six percent of voters actually decide the election. Passion motivates, and that is shown by a new survey result which claims that undecided voters are also less likely to vote at all. Either they don't care - one party brags about their stock market gains while the other claims they'll be better for the economy - or they don't believe their vote matters. Like voters in California, unless…

Astrology is one of those things that makes no sense to literate people. The position of stars a billion light-years away determined your personality, but if you are in the eastern world that personality could be completely different than if you were born 2000 miles west? See: I was a Virgo this morning, now I am a Leo! I totally feel different. At least in Asia, some people swear by it. In the US, it is mostly only embraced by those who also believe that psychics are real, PFAS in water has been killing us for 12,000 years, and organic food has no pesticides. Basically, about 25 percent of…

Suicide is the runaway leader in gun deaths in the United States and a new demography paper says more government control of the alcohol business might provide a solution for that, and homicides also. This was a statistical analysis, so only EXPLORATORY, but they correlate more restrictive alcohol laws with a reduction in specific states’ homicide rates. The authors at RAND used the Alcohol Policy Scale index, which measures state-year alcohol policy environments, higher is more social authoritarian, lower is more freedom, plus vital deaths data (total homicides, total suicides, firearm…

There is populist rhetoric about Buy Local but what few in the public realize is that the definition is subjective. Restaurants in Manhattan often claim they buy local, but in the fine print it reads 'when available', and they don't tell you when it was not locally available, and local to them may be up to 500 miles away. Farmer's markets are often going to be more local than that. They want to cut out the middleman, the distributor and grocery store, and sell direct, but that may actually mean your food is less safe. Larger food corporations create safety standards because they are the ones…