Social Science posts
- December 15, 2010
- 05:37 PM
- 456 views
The evolution of dissent
If religion is a virus, then perhaps the spread of religion can be understood through the lens of evolutionary theory. Perhaps cultural evolution can be modelled using the same mathematical tools applied to genetic evolution.
Well, that's overly simplistic, of course - as anyone who's followed the 'meme' controversy over the years will know. In fact, the authors of the paper I'm writing up today - Michael Doebli and Iaroslav Ispolatov at the University of British Columbia - studiously avo........ Read more »
Doebeli M, & Ispolatov I. (2010) A model for the evolutionary diversification of religions. Journal of theoretical biology, 267(4), 676-84. PMID: 20854828
- December 15, 2010
- 04:31 PM
- 588 views
The Insidious Lack of Objectivity Colors Our Perceptions
by DJ Busby in Astronasty
The studies explained were focused on perceived predictability (and available future options or opportunities) of oneself in in contrast to those around them. In essence, the research exposes a trend of subjective egocentric thinking and denial. We color our experiences by the filter of our world view. It's sad to see that our lack of objectivity also colors our perception of the personalities and behavior of those we are in contact with. ... Read more »
Pronin, E., & Kugler, M. (2010) People believe they have more free will than others. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1012046108
- December 15, 2010
- 03:49 PM
- 867 views
Childhood Trauma, Male Suicide Risk
by Ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
It seems sensible and seductive to suggest that child abuse causes mental disorder and that mental disorder aggravates the risk for male suicide. However, contrary to what Mandelli et al. (2010) might argue here, I would protest that attempting to squeeze such a multi-faceted and fluid problematic into a thimble is a circus trick beyond reason. ... Read more »
Mandelli L, Carli V, Roy A, Serretti A, & Sarchiapone M. (2010) The influence of childhood trauma on the onset and repetition of suicidal behavior: An investigation in a high risk sample of male prisoners. Journal of psychiatric research. PMID: 21115183
- December 15, 2010
- 02:07 PM
- 505 views
Sociologie en boîte vs. analyse des réseaux sociaux
by ---a in Bodyspacesociety.eu
PDF de mon article "'Petites boîtes' et individualisme en réseau. Les usages socialisants du Web en débat", tout juste paru dans Les Annales des Mines, série Réalités Industrielles (novembre 2010).... Read more »
Antonio A. Casilli. (2010) "'Petites boîtes' et individualisme en réseau. Les usages socialisants du Web en débat". Annales des Mines (série "Réalités Industrielles"), 216(4), 54-59. info:/
- December 15, 2010
- 07:07 AM
- 530 views
The ‘artful dodge’: The danger of a smooth talker
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
In 1992, Sade sang ‘Smooth Operator’. Almost two decades later we have research confirming that a smooth talker wins the day still. Put more bluntly—style trumps substance (particularly when that substance is delivered poorly). We say we want information, but really we want infotainment. Todd Rogers and Michael Norton (both at Harvard) showed participants different [...]
Related posts:Questions, rabbit trails and how to know when a bear is “disturbed”
When identifying punishment—........ Read more »
Rogers T, & Norton MI. (2010) People often trust eloquence more than honesty. Harvard business review, 88(11), 36-7. PMID: 21049679
- December 15, 2010
- 02:00 AM
- 259 views
Experiencing different cultures enhances creativity
by SAGE Insight in SAGE Insight
When in Rome…Learn why the Romans do what they do: how multicultural learning experiences facilitate creativity From Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin This research reveals that creativity can be enhanced by experiencing cultures different from one’s own. Three studies looked at students who had lived abroad and those who hadn’t, testing them on [...]... Read more »
Maddux, W., Adam, H., & Galinsky, A. (2010) When in Rome .. Learn Why the Romans Do What They Do: How Multicultural Learning Experiences Facilitate Creativity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(6), 731-741. DOI: 10.1177/0146167210367786
- December 14, 2010
- 10:40 PM
- 645 views
Mythbusting booze: Absorbing alcohol through feet?!?
by Michael Slezak in Good, Bad, and Bogus
Yeah — I didn’t think this was a belief that anyone held either. But apparently it’s Danish urban folklore that you can become drunk by submerging your feet in an...... Read more »
Christian Stevns Hansen, Louise Holmsgaard Færch, Peter Lommer Kristensen. (2010) Testing the validity of the Danish urban myth that alcohol can be absorbed through feet: open labelled self experimental study. The British Medical Journal. info:/10.1136/bmj.c6812
- December 14, 2010
- 02:00 AM
- 289 views
Are internet daters more likely to lie about themselves?
by SAGE Insight in SAGE Insight
Strategic misrepresentation in online dating: The effects of gender, self-monitoring, and personality traits From Journal of Social and Personal Relationships Internet dating is a growing trend, but can we trust the information that people provide about themselves via online dating services? The researchers in this study investigated over 5000 individuals dating online, using surveys [...]... Read more »
Hall, J., Park, N., Song, H., & Cody, M. (2010) Strategic misrepresentation in online dating: The effects of gender, self-monitoring, and personality traits. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(1), 117-135. DOI: 10.1177/0265407509349633
- December 13, 2010
- 04:48 PM
- 1,238 views
At a Loss for Words: Modern Lessons From a Lost Language
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
It's hard to imagine that knowledge could be lost today. Technology seems to have put the ability to know almost everything within our grasp. So when researchers announced that they had "found" a previously unknown Peruvian language earlier this year, it was strangely tantalizing. Here was knowledge that we couldn't Google. We could plumb the archives and look for clues that might offer answers, but true understanding would not be easily attainable. And in all likelihood, we would have to resign........ Read more »
Quilter, J., Zender, M., Spalding, K., Jordán, R., Mora, C., & Murga, J. (2010) RESEARCH ARTICLES: Traces of a Lost Language and Number System Discovered on the North Coast of Peru. American Anthropologist, 112(3), 357-369. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01245.x
- December 13, 2010
- 01:31 PM
- 398 views
Knowing how is not equal to doing
by Adiemusfree in Healthskills: Skills for Healthy Living
There have been several attempts to develop a standardised approach to self management – one of the most popular in New Zealand is the Flinders Program (TM). This is a programme developed in Australia from the 1990 Australian Coordinated Care Trials. It’s based on cognitive behavioural therapy, includes problem solving and motivational interviewing techniques, and … Read more... Read more »
M Horsburgh, J Bycroft, F Goodyear-Smith, D Roy, F Mahony, E Donnell, D Miller. (2010) The Flinders Program of Chronic Condition Self-Management in New Zealand: Survey findings. Journal of Primary Health Care, 2(4), 288-293. info:/
- December 13, 2010
- 12:36 PM
- 825 views
Redefining Great Britain
by GrrlScientist in Maniraptora
SUMMARY: This new research describes a clever way to redefine and redraw geographical areas using telephone communication networks... Read more »
Carlo Ratti, Stanislav Sobolevsky, Francesco Calabrese, Clio Andris, Jonathan Reades, Mauro Martino, Rob Claxton, & Steven H. Strogatz. (2010) Redrawing the Map of Great Britain from a Network of Human Interactions. . PLoS ONE, 5(12). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0014248
- December 13, 2010
- 11:53 AM
- 736 views
Where stalkers become friends: Geo-tagging on Flickr
by Jon Wilkins in Lost in Transcription
So, you probably remember this from the most recent episode of The Mentalist / Bones / Castle / Criminal Minds / Numb3rs:
SEXY YET PROFESSIONAL DETECTIVE: What have we got?SASSY JUNIOR DETECTIVE: Nothing. All of our leads have dried up like Cher's ovaries.GRUFF SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: We've got to wrap this thing up. I've got the mayor breathing down my neck.MAYOR: Hhhhhhhhhh. Hhhhhhhhhh.G.S.L.E.O.: And now he's drooling.S.Y.P.D.: We'll keep after it, but we're a bit short-handed after........ Read more »
Crandall, D., Backstrom, L., Cosley, D., Suri, S., Huttenlocher, D., & Kleinberg, J. (2010) Inferring social ties from geographic coincidences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1006155107
- December 13, 2010
- 11:32 AM
- 1,401 views
Cognitive enhancement goes Hollywood
by Bradley Voytek in Oscillatory Thoughts
My pals Kevin and m1k3y over at grinding.be recently posted about a little viral-intent video for the upcoming movie starring Bradley Cooper: Limitless.I'm intentionally trying to not read too much about this movie beforehand, so I can't really give a plot synopsis beyond what I've gathered from the YouTube video and Wikipedia write-up. But from what I've gleaned, apparently Bradley Cooper's character gets hold of an experimental drug ("NZT"), and quickly finds that it greatly enhances his cogni........ Read more »
Greely, H., Sahakian, B., Harris, J., Kessler, R., Gazzaniga, M., Campbell, P., & Farah, M. (2008) Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy. Nature, 456(7223), 702-705. DOI: 10.1038/456702a
Maher, B. (2008) Poll results: look who's doping. Nature, 452(7188), 674-675. DOI: 10.1038/452674a
- December 13, 2010
- 06:07 AM
- 820 views
When cross-examination [of the expert witness] offends
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Your witnesses can make your case. They can also make your case a dog. I was called several months ago to do witness preparation for trial on a commercial case that was, before our key witnesses flamed out in deposition, viewed as a mid-7 figure case. After a dismal deposition performance, the plaintiff attorneys that [...]
Related posts:Overdoing it: Is there such a thing as too little anxiety in your witness?
“I didn’t know truth had a gender”
Tattoos: When should you clean up your........ Read more »
Larson, B., & Brodsky, S. (2010) When Cross-Examination Offends: How Men and Women Assess Intrusive Questioning of Male and Female Expert Witnesses. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40(4), 811-830. DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00599.x
- December 13, 2010
- 05:45 AM
- 1,922 views
Redefining Great Britain
by GrrlScientist in GrrlScientist
This research paper describes a clever way to redefine and redraw geographical areas using telephone communication networks... Read more »
Carlo Ratti, Stanislav Sobolevsky, Francesco Calabrese, Clio Andris, Jonathan Reades, Mauro Martino, Rob Claxton, & Steven H. Strogatz. (2010) Redrawing the Map of Great Britain from a Network of Human Interactions. . PLoS ONE, 5(12). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0014248
- December 12, 2010
- 05:34 PM
- 658 views
Speaking of Ester Boserup
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The paper I discussed earlier on the connection between plow-based agriculture and highly inegalitarian gender roles was based on a theory proposed by Ester Boserup. Boserup was a Danish economist who had a lot of interesting ideas about the relationship between population growth and agricultural intensification. She’s best known for arguing that intensification of agricultural [...]... Read more »
Stone, G., & Downum, C. (1999) Non-Boserupian Ecology and Agricultural Risk: Ethnic Politics and Land Control in the Arid Southwest. American Anthropologist, 101(1), 113-128. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1999.101.1.113
- December 12, 2010
- 02:05 PM
- 1,349 views
The painful legacy of torture
by Lorimer Moseley in BodyInMind
Torture has received a great deal of deserved media attention in recent years. In large part this is due to people who should know better somewhat shamelessly jumping through legal hoops in attempts to distinguish which ways of abusing their fellow humans are acceptable and distinct from torture. This should be surprising in the current [...]... Read more »
Williams AC, Peña CR, & Rice AS. (2010) Persistent pain in survivors of torture: a cohort study. Journal of pain and symptom management, 40(5), 715-22. PMID: 20678891
- December 10, 2010
- 12:58 PM
- 407 views
Speaking of Plowing
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The postulated connection between plow-based agriculture and a highly inegalitarian system of gender roles that I was talking about in the previous post reminded me of another paper about plowing and gender in a very different context. This article, by Robin Ganev of the University of Regina, was published in the Journal of the History [...]... Read more »
Ganev, R. (2007) Milkmaids, Ploughmen, and Sex in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 16(1), 40-67. DOI: 10.1353/sex.2007.0037
- December 10, 2010
- 12:01 PM
- 490 views
Financial incentives and the brain's reward system
Neuroeconomics is a big buzzword.Behavioural economics and the psychology of decision-making have rich histories, but with emerging brain imaging technology, we're now able to peer into some of the intricacies of neural processes as they occur while someone is making an important financial decision. The hope is that studies of brain activity will help guide economic theory and practice.In a study recently published in PNAS, Japanese researchers used functional MRI to examine brain responses to a........ Read more »
Murayama K, Matsumoto M, Izuma K, & Matsumoto K. (2010) From the Cover: Neural basis of the undermining effect of monetary reward on intrinsic motivation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(49), 20911-6. PMID: 21078974
- December 10, 2010
- 09:52 AM
- 1,241 views
No Substitute for IRL Relationships for Adolescents
by Krystal D'Costa in Anthropology in Practice
Credit: Scott Hampson
It's no secret that the Internet is a black hole when it comes to time. Fifteen minutes on Twitter spirals into an hour or two of witty banter. A quick stop on Facebook to read statuses or water crops becomes three hours looking at photos from someone's vacation or wedding. (And email? Fuggedaboutit!) But it's easy to be online—simple and almost instantaneous access to all your friends and connections, and none of them need to know you're in your pajamas. And you c........ Read more »
Milani, L., Osualdella, D., & Di Blasio, P. (2009) Quality of Interpersonal Relationships and Problematic Internet Use in Adolescence. CyberPsychology , 12(6), 681-684. DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2009.0071
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