Psychology

Collective Intention And 'The Power Of Thought'- A 9/11 Experiment

A group of people are joining together for the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center to discover whether their 'collective intention' can bring peace to the world. What does that even mean?  The 9/11 In ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Sep 11 2011 - 4:00am

SpongeBob SquarePants Is Bad For Kids? I Believe The Truthiness!

I don't like SpongeBob SquarePants.  I generally regard any parent who does like  SpongeBob SquarePants with suspicion and derision; they probably watch "Real Housewives of Fresno" or whatever city that show is down to now. So when I see an ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Sep 12 2011 - 11:06am

Negative Bias: Fear Of Fear Itself

The fury of Hurricane Irene was out-categorized by a second hurricane that occurred at the same time: the media windstorm covering the event — a newspaper and broadcast blitz pummeling the public sphere with the unrelenting force of a tsunami. ...

Article - Michael W. Taft - Sep 16 2011 - 6:07pm

Social Projection In Voting: The 'Silent Majority' Is With Me

Social projection,  where we believe that others agree with us, helps us validate our beliefs. Psychologists say that we tend to believe people who are similar to us in an important way, religion or lifestyle, will act as we do and even vote as we do. And ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 21 2011 - 4:00am

The Lure Of The Outlaw Biker

Watching almost any episode of FX's Sons of Anarchy, you can’t help but notice that Jax, the young biker protagonist, is a bit of a stud. There's always some vixen falling for his patched,  faded, hairy, tattooed charms. He’s handsome, but not w ...

Article - Michael W. Taft - Mar 12 2012 - 8:27pm

Evolutionary Psychology: Bad Economy Means More Sex For Men

There may be a sexual upside to an economic downside; more sex.  Maybe 'stimulus plan' means different things to different people. Omri Gillath at the University of Kansas says men are likely to pursue short-term mating strategies when faced with ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 13 2011 - 12:36pm

Steve Jobs' Death And The Meaning Of Life

On October 5th, Steve Jobs died. At first I was surprised at how choked up I got at his death—it’s not like I ever met him—until I realized that I wasn’t the only one. From special issues of The New Yorker and Wired magazines, to spontaneous memorials of f ...

Article - Michael W. Taft - Oct 14 2011 - 1:01pm

Computational Analysis: What Are The Word Choices Of Psychopaths?

If words are windows into the soul, scientists are learning to be Peeping Toms: Computerized text analysis shows that psychopathic killers make identifiable word choices beyond their conscious control when talking about their crimes and that insight could ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 14 2011 - 4:00pm

Occupy Wall Street And The Endowment Effect

by Michael W. Taft ...

Article - Michael W. Taft - Oct 26 2011 - 12:44pm

Getting Our Mad On: Saturday Morning Trolling; Feeling Community

It's always a little surreal to see a new comment in the email on an old article. The older the article is, the stranger it is, especially when the comment itself is bizarre. ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Oct 29 2011 - 1:38pm