psychology

Article

Richard Feynman: "I Can Live With Doubt"

Here's a provocative little clip of physicist Richard Feynman talking about uncertainty. What an odd topic, right? Effectively Feynman obliquely addresses issues of religion versus science here, and seems to paint himself as the quintessential scientist -- someone to whom uncertainty is simply a normal state of being, and presumably the jumping-off point for most of life's explorations. Below is a complete transcription of the clip (it's under one minute) with some emphasis added, then the clip itself.... READ ON

Article

Documentaries I Like: POSSESSED

POSSESSED is a short documentary (21 minutes) by director Martin Hampton, showing the private lives of compulsive hoarders -- people who collect or save things far beyond reasonable limits. It's available online in its entirety (see below), and it's worth a look both for general interest as a documentary, but also for people who are curious about compulsive hoarding -- hoarding being a topic we flossers seem to blog about quite a bit. The film is not too shocking -- these folks don't seem in imminent... READ ON

Article

How Brain Damage Reveals Brain Function

Vilayanur Ramachandran studies the brain. You may have seen a profile of him in last month's New Yorker...if you haven't get thee to a library and check it out! Anyway, Ramachandran is an interesting speaker -- he spends a lot of time dealing with bizarre neurological problems (not his own, of course), and he makes neurology sound downright fascinating. Have a look at this TED Talk from 2007 in which he describes several puzzling neurological syndromes. Discussed: how brain damage is very selective,... READ ON

Article

Don't Eat the Marshmallow

In the late 1960s, researchers at Stanford devised what's now known as the "marshmallow test" to test participants' ability to defer gratification. The test went like this: put a marshmallow on the table in front of a four-year-old; tell the child that he or she can either eat the marshmallow now, or leave it uneaten for a while (15-20 minutes) and receive a second marshmallow at the end of the test; have the researcher leave the room for the prescribed period of time; if the child sits alone with the... READ ON

Article

Dan Ariely: We're Irrational Decision Makers

Dan Ariely is back with another killer TED Talk about his research! Back in March I wrote Dan Ariely: Why People Cheat, pointing to Ariely's TED Talk about his research on cheating. Well, now TED has released video from another Ariely talk, and it's equally awesome. In his lecture, Ariely describes how we make choices, and how those choices can be influenced by the design of the choice -- like whether a form's checkbox is opt-in or opt-out, or how the choice is presented visually. After seeing this... READ ON

Article

"Happiness is Love," Researcher Concludes

George Vaillant has been overseeing a longitudinal study of men's lives for more than 40 years. The study focuses on the personal and professional lives of men selected in the late 1930's, and its participants include luminaries like John F. Kennedy and Ben Bradlee (editor of The Washington Post), along with 266 less well-known men. Vaillant has come to a conclusion after four decades of observing these men's lives: "Happiness is love. Full Stop." In an Atlantic article released today entitled What... READ ON

Article

The Panic Over Dungeons & Dragons (in 1985)

In the mid 1980s, the U.S. media latched onto a story: teens were committing suicide, and the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons was somehow to blame. As a kid who was himself playing D&D (and not committing suicide) during this media firestorm, I remember the outcry pretty vividly. All the kids I knew who played the game were nerds, just like me. I was vaguely aware that sometimes teens did commit suicide...perhaps even nerds. Was there any connection between nerds playing D&D and nerds committing... READ ON

Article

Dan Ariely: Why People Cheat

Today I bring you a truly fascinating talk about irrationality and cheating. Dan Ariely was a burn patient, with burns over 70% of his body. While recovering in the hospital, the nurses had a common practice of ripping off bandages, rather than removing them slowly. Ariely disagreed with this methodology (preferring slower removal), but didn't have evidence to back his argument up. When he left the hospital, he started doing experiments on pain, to figure out what indeed would be the best method of... READ ON

Article

Brenda Laurel on Videogames for Little Girls

In this TED Talk from February 1998, Purple Moon founder Brenda Laurel asks: why aren't there videogames for little girls, when there are so many for little boys? Laurel did the research to suss out the specific gender differences in play behavior between boys and girls, then founded a videogame company aimed at creating compelling games for "little girls" (Laurel's preferred term for her audience). In this talk, Laurel talks about the research process that led to Purple Moon and shows a demo of an... READ ON

Article

What Does I.Q. Really Test?

Back in 2007, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a terrific article for The New Yorker on the history of I.Q. At its core, Gladwell's article is a book review, covering James Flynn's What Is Intelligence? Gladwell discusses a series of surprising facts about I.Q., and explains long-held debates about differences in I.Q. among populations (the most famous being the brouhaha over The Bell Curve). The salient facts are: 1. I.Q. scores are frequently normed. In general, the entire population taking the test tends to... READ ON