Micro Softy 63: A Beggar’s Tale
A street‑corner encounter that tests your ability to read between the linesA shabbily dressed man with an unkept beard held up a cardboard sign saying, “Can you help? Please!”
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Night Shift: The Brain’s Extraordinary Work While Asleep
Lie down, close your eyes, lose consciousness, and the brain undertakes the heavy lifting that sleep demands.Sleep deprivation and sleep interruptions such as occur with sleep apnea are not mere annoyances but actually damage a whole array of functions.
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World Famous Psychologist Loses Appeal to Avoid “Social Media Training”
Does this decision legitimately restrict free speech?Clinical psychologist, world-renowned speaker, and author Jordan B. Peterson, who rose to international fame in 2017 after speaking out against an impending Canadian speech law involving mandatory gender pronoun use, may be compelled to take in “social media training.” (RELATED: Three More Key Takeaways From the Twitter Files and Their Fallout | Mind Matters) Several complaints regarding Peterson’s online rhetoric were sent to the College of Psychologists of Ontario in 2022, and the organization decided to have him undergo a professionalism training in order to address his online tone. Peterson appealed the decision, but lost, according to CBC: Three Ontario Divisional Court judges unanimously dismissed Peterson’s application, ruling that the college’s decision falls within its mandate to regulate the profession in Read More ›
Sabrina Ionescu’s Hot Hand
When basketball players hit a "streak," does that elevate the probability of success?Athletes do sometimes get hot—not that their chance of success is 100% but that it is temporarily elevated above their normal probability.
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Tested!: Are the Least Expert People the Most Confident? No.
The claimed Dunning–Kruger effect in psychology is a very shakeable truth frequently exploited by online social bulliesHave you ever been in an online discussion where a vocal proponent confidently claimed that his opponent was the victim of the dreaded “Dunning–Kruger” effect? At Vox, Brian Resnick explains, “That’s where people of low ability — let’s say, those who fail to answer logic puzzles correctly — tend to unduly overestimate their abilities”: An obvious example people have been using lately to describe the Dunning-Kruger effect is President Donald Trump, whose confidence and bluster never wavers, despite his weak interest in and understanding of policy matters. But you don’t need to look to Trump to find an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. You don’t even need to look at cable news. Brian Resnick, “An expert on human blind spots Read More ›
Believers in God Detect Patterns More Easily
Psychologists found that both devout Christians and Muslims unconsciously detected patterns in a test more quicklyResearchers at Georgetown University Medical Center wanted to know “why and how brains come to believe in gods.” They explored that question using a concept in psychology called implicit pattern learning. Explicit learning is conscious but implicit learning is unconscious. For example, explicit learning is mastering the times tables in arithmetic class. Implicit learning is absorbing, without consciously thinking about it, the way the teacher treats others. The researchers’ hypothesis was: “people whose brains are good at subconsciously discerning patterns in their environment may ascribe those patterns to the hand of a higher power” To test that, they studied people who believe in God in the United States and in Afghanistan, using a conventional test for unconscious pattern learning: For Read More ›
Is There Really a “Rubber Hand” Illusion?
A venerable claim in psychology, that our minds are easily fooled about our bodies, comes under fireIt sounds as though too many people know too much about what to expect for any raw data about human cognition to be recovered from the Rubber Hand illusion.
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The Lost Wallet Returns—and Experts Are Baffled
Social scientists struggle for explanations as to why people turned out to be more honest than theory led them to expectFinding a higher level of honesty than predicted was a surprise and the “scientific” explanations offered seem ad hoc and inadequate. The experts do not seem to know as much about us as they think they do.
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