^CategoryPsychology

Doctor Helps get up . Sick . Elderly Patient.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 11, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Epileptic seizures, Featured, Functional blindness, Functional gait disorders, neurology, Non-epileptic seizures, Subconscious mind, unconscious mind}

When It’s Not Clear If a Disorder Is From the Brain or the Mind…

_{Neurologist Andrew Knox explains to Robert J. Marks that some psychological problems appear as if they were brain problems — yet there’s nothing wrong with the brain} _{News

January 11, 2023

8

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology}

In the podcast released last Thursday, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Knox from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health on “Ways the brain can break” (#220, January 5, 2023). What follows is Part 4 of the discussion, “When it’s not clear if a disorder is from the brain or the mind…” Here are Part 1: How our brains are — and aren’t — like computers, Part 2: What is happening when children have strokes or dementia signs?, and Part 3: How do strokes, dementia offer insight into how the brain works? https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/Mind-Matters-220-Andrew-Knox-Episode-1.mp3 This portion begins at roughly 25:15 min. A partial transcript and notes, and Additional Resources follow. Epileptic Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Chatbots (history), Chatbots (how they work), Eliza effect, Gary Smith, GPT-3 (Gary Smith's tests)}

Let’s Call AI What It Really Is: Faux Intelligence

_{Gary Smith at Salon: While GPT-3 can string words together in convincing ways, it has no idea what the words mean} _{News

January 2, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Relationships}

Pomona College business and investments prof Gary Smith warns Salon readers not to be too gullible about what human-sounding chatbots really amount to. He notes that in the 1960s, a pioneer chatbot called ELIZA convinced many psychiatric patients that they were interacting with a real psychiatrist. The machine simply repeated back their statements as questions, a popular psychiatric technique at the time because it generated more and more discussion — from the patient. The patients’ belief that they were interacting with a human being came to be called the Eliza effect. Has much changed? If you play around with GPT-3 (and I encourage you to do so) your initial response is likely to be astonishment — a full-blown Eliza effect. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 30, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Andrew Solomon, Cecily Whiteley, Depression (clinical), Global state of consciousness, Jonathan Birch, Neural correlates of depression, Noonday Demon (Scribner 2001), Randi Mazzella, Sally Brampton, Shoot the Damn Dog (Bloomsbury 2008), suicide}

Is Depression an Altered Global State of Consciousness?

_{Cecily Whiteley and Jonathan Birch from the London School of Economics and Political Science argue that altered consciousness prevents depressed people from just "seeing the bright side"} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 30, 2022

5

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships}

PhD student Cecily Whiteley and philosophy prof Jonathan Birch, both of the London School of Economics and Political Science, think that depression is often misunderstood. In this 2021 article, noted again at Psyche, they point out that it is not just “feeling low”; it is an altered form of consciousness: The psychologist Andrew Solomon hints at some of these transformations in his memoir The Noonday Demon (2001): “When you are depressed, the past and future are absorbed entirely by the present moment, as in the world of a three-year-old. You cannot remember a time when you felt better, at least not clearly; and you certainly cannot imagine a future time when you will feel better. Being upset, even profoundly upset, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 21, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Peer Review, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology

Tagged
Adolph Hitler, Adrian Desmond, Anton Lavey, Charles Darwin, Daniel Gasman, Darwin’s Sacred Cause (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009), Darwinian Racism (Discovery Institute 2022), Descent of Man (1871 and 1974), Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), George Mosse, Hitler’s Ethic (Palgrave 2009), James Moore, Might Is Right (1896), Nazis and Darwinism, Peter Bowler, Ragnar Redbeard, Richard Weikart, Robert Richards, Was Hitler a Darwinian? (University of Chicago Press 2013), White Evangelical Racism (University of North Carolina Press 2021), Yuval Noah Harari}

When Scholars Simply Don’t Want To Believe Something Obvious…

_{… they are very good at developing clever arguments to avoid seeing it} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 21, 2022

8

Ethics, Peer Review, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology}

This article was originally published in Salvo 62 (Fall 2022) under the title “The Whitewashing.” In Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), University of California historian Richard Weikart demonstrated painstakingly that the Nazis had developed an ethic based largely on applying Darwinian evolution principles to government. Scholars have since tried hard to obscure the connection, most likely because they believe in Darwinism and see it as science. Any suggestion that the Nazis were avid Darwinists too is unseemly and must be refuted by any and all means. With racism very much in current news, Weikart has focusing in Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism (Discovery Institute Press, 2022) on the way Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
December 18, 2022

Categorized
Animal mind, Psychology

Tagged
Dog females (psychology), Dogs, Dogs evaluating humans, Hitomi Chijiiwa, Karen Hopkin}

Researchers: Dogs Evaluate How Competent Humans Are

_{Provided that a treat is involved. Females pay more attention to competence in humans than males, they say} _{News

December 18, 2022

3

Animal mind, Psychology}

At Scientific American’s “60-Second Science” podcast (with transcript), science writer Karen Hopkin interviewed Kyoto University psychologist Hitomi Chijiiwa on her team’s recent finding that female dogs actively evaluate human competence. Because one their previous studies showed that dogs avoid people who refuse to help their human friends, the team decided to also test whether dogs form judgments about people based on their apparent skilfulness or competence: Chijiiwa: We showed 60 dogs two persons manipulating transparent containers. One person is competent. Hopkin: That person was able to pop open the top after just a couple of twists. Chijiiwa: Whereas the other person is incompetent and they failed at this task. Hopkin: That person tried to open the lid, then gave up. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 12, 2022

Categorized
Language, Psychology

Tagged
Chuck Dinerstein, Minced oaths, Profanity, Ryan McKay, Shiri Lev-Ari, Swearing}

Researchers: Profanity Has Some Elements of a Universal Language

_{They found that, in a number of languages, profanity omits certain sounds and stresses others} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 12, 2022

4

Language, Psychology}

In a study, researchers found that, across different languages, swear words tended to lack soundssuch as l, r, and w: Shiri Lev-Ari and Ryan McKay from Royal Holloway, University of London conducted a pilot study with speakers of five unrelated languages (20 individuals per language) and asked them to list the most offensive words they knew in their language, excluding racial slurs. The initial study revealed that swear words were less likely to include approximants, which include sounds like l, r, w and y. The authors suggest that approximants may be less suitable than other sounds for giving offense and investigated this in two further studies. Springer, “The universal sound of swearing across languages” at Eurekalert (December 5, 2022) The Read More ›

Annoyed black woman having video chat on smartphone at home

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2022

Categorized
Psychology, Relationships, Social Media

Tagged
Featured, iOS 16 iPhone, iOS 16 iPhone editing sent messages, Karl D. Stephan on editing text messages, Kim Komando, Text messages (editing after sending)}

Sorry! I Take It Back (But Only With iOS 16)

_{The new iOS lets you edit messages, but only within 15 minutes of sending them, and guess what—the recipient can see all your edits…} _{News

November 3, 2022

6

Psychology, Relationships, Social Media}

This article by Texas State University engineering prof Karl D. Stephan is republished with permission from MercatorNet November 1, 2022) Everybody has said something they later regret saying. If the person you’re talking to is right there in front of you, there’s nothing you can do to unsay it. As country singer Jon Langston says in one of his song titles, “I Can’t Take Back Words.” But according to tech guru Kim Komando, the new iOS 16 operating system for iPhones (version 8 and later) lets you do that with text messages—sort of. Ever since commercial text messaging became available on mobile phones in the mid-1990s, it has shared with verbal interchanges the fact that once you send a text, it’s Read More ›

press and media camera ,video photographer on duty in public new

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 20, 2022

Categorized
Media, Politics, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Dominick Mastrangelo, Gallup poll on trust in media, Media (changing role), Media (trust in media), New York Times/Siena poll on trust in media, Paul Bedard, Polls on trust in media, Trust (in media), Trust in media and political affiliation}

Polls: Trust in Mainstream U.S. Media Still in Free Fall

_{Both the New York Times poll and Gallup poll illustrated that this week} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 20, 2022

4

Media, Politics, Psychology, Relationships}

A Canadian commentator has noticed a little-publicized fact about last week’s New York Times–Siena College poll of 792 registered voters. While the poll focused on the US mid-term elections next month, the information about how typical voters view mainstream media was most revealing. A majority not only don’t trust media but see them as a threat to democracy: A New York Times-Siena College poll published Tuesday found 59 percent of voters view the media as a “major threat to democracy,” while 25 percent said the press is a “minor threat” and only 15 percent said it poses no threat. The divide fell sharply along partisan lines, with 87 percent of voters who supported former President Trump in 2020 indicating they Read More ›

senior, depressed african american man looking at photo frame

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 12, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Cerebellum and memory, Emotional memories, Memories and cerebellum, Post-traumatic stress disorder and cerebellum}

New Function for Our Brains’ Cerebellum: Emotional Memory

_{Memory is all immaterial information. But very different types of information. Researchers found that the cerebellum handles a lot of emotional memory} _{News

October 12, 2022

4

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology}

We use the same word “memory” to mean very different types of things. There’s the new phone number, in which we have no emotional investment. Then there’s the smell of cinnamon buns from a long-ago home-town bakery, which is a non-shareable emotional investment. And again, there’s a colleague’s advice about addressing a difficult client’s needs… that’s a mixture of a number of different types of memory, in getting the right approach down pat. All memory is immaterial information, of very different types. And a team of researchers finds that our brains’ cerebellum handles a lot of emotional memory: The cerebellum is known primarily for regulation of movement. Researchers at the University of Basel have now discovered that the cerebellum also Read More ›

White futuristic robot, crossed arms, unhappy face

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
October 8, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics, Science Fiction

Tagged
Dr. Finn (Orville character), Ed Mercer (Orville character), Featured, Isaac (Orville robot) vs. Data (Star Trek robot), Isaac (robot in Orvilles 3), Marcus (Orville character), Orvill Season Three Episode 1, Robots and moral accountability, Robots in science fiction (sentience issues), Stakes (emotional stakes in fiction)}

When a Robot Commits Suicide — an Elegy for What?

_{What’s frustrating about Episode 1 of Orville, Season Three is that robot Isaac’s claim to personhood is not ambiguous so much as confused and contradictory} _{Gary Varner

October 8, 2022

9

Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics, Science Fiction}

Last time, we began our review of The Orville, Season Three, by discussing the unorthodox relationship between Isaac, the ship’s token robot, and Dr. Claire Finn. The bottom line is that they were romantically involved until Isaac turned out to be a sleeper cell for his race of robots, the Kaylon, who controlled an entire planet. In a climactic moment, Isaac — because of his attachment to Dr. Finn’s son Ty — defeats his programming and saves the Orville. Unfortunately, however, in the battle between the Kaylon and the Union fleet, many Union soldiers were killed defeating the Kaylon — and most in the Orville’s crew have not forgotten it. Dr. Finn and Isaac’s relationship remains somewhat ambiguous. What feels Read More ›

Little boy eating a cake. Little boy emotionally eating a little cake

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
September 22, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Psychology

Tagged
Fetal heartbeat, Fetal preferences in taste, Nutrition and fetal taste preferences, Prenatal taste preferences, Stacey Abrams, Tibi Puiu, Urban food deserts}

Are Our Tastes in Food Shaped Even Before We Are Born?

_{A recent experiment suggests that prenatal exposure to food tastes and smells could impact diet preferences later in life, with health consequences} _{News

September 22, 2022

6

Medicine and Health, Psychology}

Recent research may shed some light: Researchers in Britain and France just published the first direct evidence showing that fetuses can actually taste and smell while still in the womb. These important findings could help scientists further our understanding of how human taste and smell receptors develop. But the most immediate implication is that a pregnant woman’s diet might influence their babies’ food preferences after birth. “A number of studies have suggested that babies can taste and smell in the womb, but they are based on post-birth outcomes while our study is the first to see these reactions prior to birth,” lead researcher Beyza Ustun, a postgraduate researcher in the Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab at Durham University, said in Read More ›

The colossal titan is comingAttack On Titan

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
August 24, 2022

Categorized
Business and Finance, Politics, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Big Tech moguls, Fred Bech, Industrial Age titans, Mark Zuckerberg and elections, Zuckerbucks}

Big Tech Moguls vs. Historic Titans of Industry: What’s Changed?

_{Today’s Big Tech moguls were more likely to have been born into fractured relationships and may be seeking an eternal geek adolescence} _{News

August 24, 2022

4

Business and Finance, Politics, Psychology, Relationships}

If we had to compare the giants of industrialization of the late 19th through early 20th centuries — Andrew Carnegie, Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford, Henry Clay Frick,J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt — with the giants of the contemporary tech world —Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg — would we see significant differences? Fred Bech tackles that at Expensivity. He finds that the immense fame, power, and wealth are comparable, as is the fact that they took inventions created largely by others and — via business acumen — transformed our way of life.Of course, that means new problems as well as new solutions. Staying in touch with far-distant loved ones is a blessing; viruses, hacking, and Twitter mobs are Read More ›

cyber bullying concept. people using notebook computer laptop for social media interactions with notification icons of hate speech and mean comment in social network

^{Type
post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
July 25, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Psychology, Social Media

Tagged
Cheslie Kryst, Constance Wu, Cyberbullying, Featured, Jean Twenge, Social media and mental health, Social media and suicide, Social media ban for teens, Social media limiting use, Teens and social media}

Social Media Can Literally Kill. It Killed Cheslie Chryst

_{Chryst’s suicide — and Constant Wu’s thwarted attempt — spotlight the toxic cyberbullying that is intrinsic to Big Tech’s formula for success} _{Andrew McDiarmid

July 25, 2022

5

Medicine and Health, Psychology, Social Media}

[This article is republished with permission from the New York Post (July 23, 2022) where it appeared under the title “Constance Wu’s suicide tweet proves social media can mean life or death.”] “Looking back, it’s surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that’s what happened.” Last week, actress Constance Wu confessed on Twitter that she had tried to take her own life after she made “careless tweets” about the renewal of her TV show, ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” in May 2019. “So upset right now that I’m literally crying,” she had posted about the show’s renewal, which had forced her to give up another project she was passionate about. As would be expected on a public Read More ›

Young amateur football fan supporters cheering with confetti watching local soccer cup match at stadium - Friends people group on green t shirts having excited fun on sport world championship final

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 18, 2022

Categorized
Media, Medicine and Health, Psychology, Science, Social Media

Tagged
COVID-19 and science distrust, Media choices and political values, Tribal loyalty among researchers, Tribal loyalty as source of science distrust}

Researchers: Distrust of Science Is Due to Tribal Loyalty

_{In Part 2 of 4, we look at a claim arising from a recent study: We blindly believe those we identify with, ignoring the wisdom of science} _{News

July 18, 2022

5

Media, Medicine and Health, Psychology, Science, Social Media}

Recently, a paper lamenting the decline of trust in science was discussed at ScienceAlert, a science news site. In representing the paper—doubtless accurately — for a lay audience, the write-up embodies the causes of legitimate public distrust. That is worth dissecting in more detail. Yesterday, we looked at the write-up in light of the government responses to COVID, which were all too often panicked reactions rather than trustworthy guidance. Then, in the wake of the debacle, the White House chose to set up a Disinformation Board to target non-government sources of alleged disinformation — which could only deepen existing distrust. We press on. The second point of four raised at ScienceAlert is that tribal loyalty is thought to create distrust Read More ›

3D render beautiful woman computer generated photo realistic to to illustrate the uncanny valley effect

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
July 12, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics

Tagged
Boris Karloff's Frankenstein (1938), Featured, Frankenstein (book), Frankenstein (films), Frankenstein Complex, Kannon (goddess as robot), Mindar (goddess as robot), Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks, Seductive optics and robotics, Sophia the Robot, Thomas Edison's Frankenstein(1910), Uncanny Valley}

AI: The Shadow of Frankenstein Lurks in the Uncanny Valley

_{The fifth and final excerpt from Non-Computable You (2022), from Chapter 6, focuses on the scarier AI hype} _{Robert J. Marks

July 12, 2022

8

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics}

Wrapping AI in an impressive physical package can magnify the perceived impact of new technology. Doing so uses seductive optics. The confusing of AI packaging with AI content was evident in media excitement about a Buddhist robot who delivers messages to the faithful. “The world’s first sutra-chanting android deity, modeled after Kannon the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, was introduced to the public last week,” the report reads. The robot can “move its eyes, hands, and torso, make human-like gestures during its speech, and brings its hands together in prayer. A camera implanted in the left eye to focus on a subject gives the impression of eye contact.”1 Technologically speaking, nothing special is happening here. The messages from the Buddhist robot Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
June 27, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Psychology

Tagged
LaMDA and seductive semantics, Seductive semantics and LaMDA, Sentience (meaning of word)}

Google’s LaMDA Not As Smart As Some Think

_{Lacking in the media coverage of the suspension of the engineer is any definition of the key word, “sentience”} _{Robert J. Marks

June 27, 2022

3

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology}

Google suspended an engineer, Blake Lemoine, for claiming that a Google AI project named LaMDA has become “sentient”. Google asserted that Lemoine had breached company confidentiality. But, in addition, Google disagreed with Lemoine that artificial intelligence at Google had achieved sentience. Eric Holloway has exposed the workings behind the curtain that show that LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) was trained using examples from humans to do exactly what it did. It’s behavior was planned. That’s what AI does: what it is programmed to do. Here’s another angle that peels off more of LaMDA’s glitter. Lacking in the media coverage of the suspension of the engineer is any definition of the key word, “sentience.” This is an example of the seductive semantics commonly used Read More ›

new technologies, a child uses a futuristic processor for augmented reality. high technology and communication concept. TV

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 11, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
AI by Design (book), Birth rate decline (causes), Catriona Campbell, Geoff Allen, Ron Jefferson, Tamagotchi characters, Virtual children}

Psychologist Promotes “Virtual Children” for the Good of Earth

_{The former technology advisor to the U.K. government thinks that parents may prefer no-strings AI children for $25 a month} _{News

June 11, 2022

5

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Relationships}

What if you had a child who was simply a virtual reality, who had no existence about from your own wishes? British psychologist Catriona Campbell, whose aim is to secure “a healthy, human-centred relationship with AI,” thinks that’s the way of the future and better for the planet. The vision of the author of AI by design: A Plan for Living with Artificial Intelligence (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2022, is spelled out at Study Finds: The overpopulation crisis could be solved within 50 years thanks to the evolution of “virtual children,” one of Britain’s leading artificial intelligence experts claims. Computer-generated babies that cost about $25 a month are likely to become commonplace by the early-2070s, according to Catriona Campbell. In addition Read More ›

Teenagers laughing during a group counseling session for youth

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 26, 2022

Categorized
Addiction, Medicine and Health, Psychology

Tagged
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Dopesick (Hulu series), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Emo Philips, Featured, Fentanyl (abuse of prescribed drug), Fentanyl (how administered), Life expectancy (dropping in the U.S.), oxycontin, Richard Hurley, Robert J. Marks}

What Anti-Opioid Strategies Could Really Lower the Death Toll?

_{Anesthetist Dr. Richard Hurley discussed with Robert J. Marks the value of cognitive behavior therapy — reframing the problem} _{News

May 26, 2022

15

Addiction, Medicine and Health, Psychology}

In a recent podcast, “Exercising Free Won’t in Fentanyl Addiction: Unless You Die First” (May 4, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed anesthesiologist and pain management expert Dr. Richard Hurley on the scourge of opioids and what information strategies might help combat it.Yesterday, they looked at highly addictive opioids like Oxycontin, Percodan and Fentanyl and the many needless deaths that result from their misuse. Today, the focus is on strategies for prevention. Note: Robert J. Marks, a Distinguished Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Engineering at Baylor University, has a new book, coming out, Non-Computable You (June, 2022), on the need for realism in another area as well — the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Stay tuned. https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/05/Mind-Matters-News-Episode-185-Richard-Hurley-Episode-1-rev1.mp3 Read More ›

Woman with hygienic mask shopping for supply.Budget buying at a supply store.Emergency to buy list.Shopping for enough food and cleaning products.Preparation for a pandemic quarantine due to covid-19

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
March 9, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Psychology

Tagged
COVID-19 (impact), Featured, Jay Richards, Niall Ferguson}

Historian Niall Ferguson on What We Can Learn From COVID

_{To start with how can we be pretty sure we are over it? Ferguson offers some evidence} _{News

March 9, 2022

4

Medicine and Health, Psychology}

At COSM 2021, Jay Richards interviewed historian Niall Ferguson, author of Doom: The politics of catastrophe (2021), on the lessons we could learn from historic disasters in interpreting the COVID-19 crises. Ferguson spoke at COSM 2021 (November 10, 3:00 pm) on “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe”: Setting the annus horribilis of 2020 in historical perspective, Niall Ferguson explains why we are getting worse, not better, at handling disasters. The lessons of history that this country — indeed the West as a whole — urgently need to learn, if we want to handle the next crisis better, and to avoid the ultimate doom of irreversible decline. Generally, he sees the economic impact of the COVID shutdown as comparable to fighting World Read More ›

Concept of accusation guilty person girl.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 8, 2022

Categorized
Psychology, Social Media

Tagged
Andrew Mahon, Cancel Culture (and science), Cancel Culture (its roots), Contagion (and Cancel Culture), COVID-19 (and Cancel Culture), Emma Camp, Frank Herbert, Groupthink (and Cancel Culture), Julie Overbaugh, Justin Trudeau (and Cancel Culture), Michael Egnor (on René Girard), mob psychology, Obscurity (and Cancel Culture), René Girard, Scapegoat (in Cancel Culture)}

Why Is Cancel Culture Such a Big Part of Our Lives Today?

_{To understand the Twitter mob’s destruction of lives and careers, it’s essential to address the immense power of groupthink} _{Denyse O'Leary

March 8, 2022

7

Psychology, Social Media}

Just in time for International Women’s Day, Emma Camp, a female student at the University of Virginia, reports experiencing a wave of hostility when she suggested that non-Indian women could legitimately criticize the practice of suttee, by which a woman burns to death on her husband’s funeral pyre, voluntarily or otherwise. The reaction on Twitter suggests that Cancel Culture is its lifeblood. Meanwhile, virologist Julie Overbaugh, a National Academy of Sciences member who has made many contributions to the study of viruses, has been forced out of her teaching and research leadership positions because she had worn a Michael Jackson costume to a Halloween “King of Pop” party in 2009. Curiously, although one of her cited offences in connection with Read More ›