Psychology

The majority of "fused" people, those who view themselves as completely immersed in a group, are willing to commit extreme acts for the good of their compatriots, says research soon to appear in  Psychological Science. In the study, the researchers recruited 506 college students at the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia in Spain. Based on the students' answers in online questionnaires, the researchers identified 38 percent of the participants as "fused" as compared to "non-fused," with Spain. They then measured their self-sacrificial behaviors. To test the subjects'…

Why are some things funny? Philosophers have asked that for millenia but two marketing people think they've come up with the formula: humor comes from a violation or threat to the way the world ought to be that is, at the same time, benign.  Most theories of humor are missing something, says A. Peter McGraw, assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado-Boulder, who co-authored the study with Caleb Warren, a Ph.D. candidate in marketing. Freud thought humor came from a release of tension, another theory holds that humor comes from a sense of superiority,…

When you woke up this morning were you an expert water measurer? No? Well, you will be after reading this article. But that might not be a good thing: experts are sometimes worse off than regular Janes and Joes. To see why, first we need to wire your brain for expertise–read on.Imagine you have three jars. One holds 4 units of water. Another holds 12 units. And the last holds 3. How can you measure exactly 2 units? (Hint: there’s gotta be some subtraction here.) Now check this out: Jar A holds 8 units, jar B holds 24 units, and jar C holds 6 units. How can you measure 4 units? And finally…

We are driven (some of us more than others) to identify, classify, and organize. According to Baron-Cohen, individuals on the spectrum are extreme systemizers (with deficits in empathizing). He explains this theory for the layperson in his 2008 book Autism and Asperger Syndrome (which I reviewed  here), known as the empathizing-systemizing theory. This theory is a blend of both his earlier theory of mind and later extreme male brain theory. Baron-Cohen posits that this theory explains more the of the symptoms, behaviors, and differences than do the other modern psychological…

Not so long ago I started adding atheists to my Facebook account. I added about 100 of them and at least 20 of them are aggressive atheists. Aggressive atheist are easy to recognize, they often have the red ''A'' of atheism on their profile picture. What I mean by aggressive is that they are very integrated into atheism and will make it looks like a religion. I consider myself ignostic, I'm not religious in any way and I am a critical thinker. After observing them for a while I came up with the conclusion that some of them were more dedicated to atheism than the average religious people.…

In my last post I wrote about how Hedge Fund managers base their choices on “stories” they weave with the information they gather. If you believe in rationality and evidence based thinking, the thought that these men responsible for such obscene amounts of money could be no better than grotesquely overpaid fiction writers, can be deeply disconcerting. On one hand you can certainly understand the difficulty of the situation they face. They are confronted with an overflow of data, they cannot effectively analyze. But does this mean constructing a story is the way to go? How can stories,…

My last post got me thinking a bit more about uncertainty and decision making. It reminded me of a podcast I had listened to a while back, on uncertainty, storytelling and hedge fund managers. It is based on the work of David Tuckett at University College London. This is the line that I remembered. In the interview Tuckett said, “Fund managers have too much information but never enough; therefore [they] have to gain conviction for their actions by telling themselves stories.” Tuckett is an economist turned psychoanalyst who has been studying the emotional underpinning of financial markets…

What happens in your brain when you experience pleasure? Why are fantasies so powerful? Why do our brains love dopamine so much? Why do some images arouse, while others turn us off? Why are the most attractive people often not the ones we are most drawn to sexually? How can you create the longest neurological orgasm possible? For the next several weeks, I will be writing a series of articles centered around the topic, The Science of Pleasure. Because there is soooo much good information on the science of how and why we derive pleasure from certain things, I felt this should be a series of…

I was on the phone the other night with a friend. She is in a bit of bind. Every conversation we’ve had recently, we’ve been doing the same thing. We analyze every minutiae of her situation, as women are wont to, and come to the same conclusion. Things are not good nor are they bad. It is just limbo. This time the conversation was different. We did not get into the usual active engaging discussion about the situation. I could sense she was reluctant. When we finally got to talking about it, it seemed as if the despondency was finally getting to her. At that moment I did something a bit out of…

I was on the phone the other night with a friend. She is in abit of bind. Every conversation we’ve had recently, we’ve been doing the samething. We analyze every minutiae of her situation, as women are wont to, andcome to the same conclusion. Things are not good nor are they bad. It is justlimbo. This time the conversation was different. We did not getinto the usual active engaging discussion about the situation. I could senseshe was reluctant. When we finally got to talking about it, it seemed as if thedespondency was finally getting to her. At that moment I did something a bitout of…