I KNEW Seattle was no longer a place for me when I met with Debora Juarez — the District 5 City Council member I had voted for. Read the rest at the Seattle Times.
Category Archives: Psychology/Psychiatry
Liberals Are No Strangers to Confirmation Bias After All
A study shows they would give up the chance to win money to avoid hearing ideas they disagree with. So much for the champions of enlightenment. Read the rest at New Scientist.
Real-Time Reaction Polls Distort TV Debates
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
A few election cycles ago, a new feature was introduced to televised debates: The real-time reaction tracker. A small focus group of two dozen or so individuals use dials to indicate how much they agree or disagree with the statements being made by politicians during the debate. An aggregated average of these responses is then displayed in real-time for the viewing audience to see. Fascinatingly, this instant reaction poll appears to influence the opinions of the millions of people watching the debate at home. Continue reading
Why Psychology and Statistics Are Not Science
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
A few years ago, I caused considerable weeping and gnashing of teeth among psychologists for a piece I wrote explaining why psychology isn’t science. It was predicated upon a lengthier argument, which I co-authored with physicist Tom Hartsfield, on the difference between science and non-science. RCS Editor Ross Pomeroy followed up with his own haymaker, explaining why Sigmund Freud’s ideas — from penis envy to psychoanalysis — were not just whacky but unscientific and wrong. Continue reading
Creative People Really Are a Little Crazy
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
The notion that highly creative people tend to be eccentric or even a little “crazy” is not just a stereotype. New research in the journal Nature Neuroscience has shown that people who are genetically predisposed toward schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are likelier to be artists or a member of the creative professions. Continue reading
Monkeys Suffer Human-Like Depression
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
It’s no secret that depression is a major problem worldwide. A map published by the Washington Postdepicts the prevalence of depression around the world. Every country on Earth, rich or poor, has citizens who experience depression. Coping with sadness is a part of the human condition, but why some of us suffer in near perpetuity is not understood. Decades of research have produced little more than expensive pills that work only slightly better than a placebo. Continue reading
Chris Matthews’ Sick Obsession with Racism
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
Those of you unfortunate enough to watch more than 30 seconds of Hardball with Chris Matthews have likely learned that the host, and the American left-wing in general, has a peculiar obsession with racism. It is not an exaggeration to say that “Republican racism” has been a major theme (if not the major theme) of his show for the past seven years. In his latest rant, he concludes that Republican opposition to President Obama, from Day One, is largely explained by racism. In his own toxic words: “The age of Jim Crow managed to find a new habitat in the early 21st Century Republican Party.” Continue reading
A Genetic Link Between Schizophrenia & Pot?
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
It is known that there is a link between schizophrenia and smoking marijuana. However, much to the chagrin of researchers, it is not ethical to randomly assign people to smoke pot to determine if they develop schizophrenia at some point. As a result, it remains unknown if smoking pot causes schizophrenia, if schizophrenics are more likely to smoke pot, or if some unknown third variable links the two. Continue reading
‘Female’ Hurricanes Kill More People
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
Just like women, hurricanes are unpredictable. At least that’s what meteorologists before the 1970s thought, so that is why they gave all hurricanes feminine names. (Yes, this is a true story.) Then, society decided that gender stereotypes weren’t funny, and meteorologists — not wanting to be labeled “sexist” — implemented the current system in which hurricanes alternate between male and female names. Continue reading
Suppress Your Horrible Childhood Memories
This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
Through movies and other forms of popular culture, everybody knows that suppressing memories of tragedies is bad for your mental health. Completely unbeknownst to you, those tragic images that are buried deep inside your unconscious can fester for years — decades even — affecting everything from your behavior to your innermost thoughts.
Or maybe not. New research published in PNAS suggests that this commonly held belief from pop psychology may not actually be true. Continue reading