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Category: Psychology

A theory of reality as more than the sum of its parts

A theory of reality as more than the sum of its parts

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Natalie Wolchover writes: In his 1890 opus, The Principles of Psychology, William James invoked Romeo and Juliet to illustrate what makes conscious beings so different from the particles that make them up. “Romeo wants Juliet as the filings want the magnet; and if no obstacles intervene he moves towards her by as straight a line as they,” James wrote. “But Romeo and Juliet, if a wall be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing their faces against its opposite…

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The Stanford Prison Experiment was massively influential. We just learned it was a fraud

The Stanford Prison Experiment was massively influential. We just learned it was a fraud

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Brian Resnick writes: The Stanford Prison Experiment, one of the most famous and compelling psychological studies of all time, told us a tantalizingly simple story about human nature. The study took paid participants and assigned them to be “inmates” or “guards” in a mock prison at Stanford University. Soon after the experiment began, the “guards” began mistreating the “prisoners,” implying evil is brought out by circumstance. The authors, in their conclusions, suggested innocent people, thrown into a situation where they…

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The spiritual part of our brains — religion not required

The spiritual part of our brains — religion not required

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Ephrat Livni writes: Scientists seek to quantify everything—even the ineffable. And so the human search for meaning recently took a physical turn as Columbia and Yale University researchers isolated the place in our brains that processes spiritual experiences. In a new study, published in Cerebral Cortex (paywall) on May 29, neuroscientists explain how they generated “personally relevant” spiritual experiences in a diverse group of subjects and scanned their brains while these experiences were happening. The results indicate that there is…

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It’s not my fault, my brain implant made me do it

It’s not my fault, my brain implant made me do it

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Probes that can transmit electricity inside the skull raise questions about personal autonomy and responsibility. Hellerhoff, CC BY-SA By Laura Y. Cabrera, Michigan State University and Jennifer Carter-Johnson, Michigan State University Mr. B loves Johnny Cash, except when he doesn’t. Mr. X has watched his doctors morph into Italian chefs right before his eyes. The link between the two? Both Mr. B and Mr. X received deep brain stimulation (DBS), a procedure involving an implant that sends electric impulses to…

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A revolution in our sense of self

A revolution in our sense of self

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Nick Chater writes: At the climax of Anna Karenina, the heroine throws herself under a train as it moves out of a station on the edge of Moscow. But did she really want to die? Had the ennui of Russian aristocratic life and the fear of losing her lover, Vronsky, become so intolerable that death seemed the only escape? Or was her final act mere capriciousness, a theatrical gesture of despair, not seriously imagined even moments before the opportunity arose?…

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Why Denmark dominates the World Happiness Report rankings year after year

Why Denmark dominates the World Happiness Report rankings year after year

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Okay, we get it, you’re happy – no need to rub it in. Very_Very/Shutterstock.com By Marie Helweg-Larsen, Dickinson College The new World Happiness Report again ranks Denmark among the top three happiest of 155 countries surveyed – a distinction that the country has earned for seven consecutive years. The U.S., on the other hand, ranked 18th in this year’s World Happiness Report, a four-spot drop from last year’s report. Denmark’s place among the world’s happiest countries is consistent with many…

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Facebook is a company built around a misanthropic premise

Facebook is a company built around a misanthropic premise

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Last August, John Lanchester wrote: [Mark Zuckerberg] is very well aware of how people’s minds work and in particular of the social dynamics of popularity and status. The initial launch of Facebook was limited to people with a Harvard email address; the intention was to make access to the site seem exclusive and aspirational. (And also to control site traffic so that the servers never went down. Psychology and computer science, hand in hand.) Then it was extended to other…

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We develop the capacity to reason before we can speak

We develop the capacity to reason before we can speak

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The Verge reports: One-year-old babies may not be able to speak, but they are able to think logically, according to new research that shows the earliest known foundation of our ability to reason. Legendary psychologist Jean Piaget believed that we didn’t have logical reasoning abilities until we were seven, but scientists scanned the eyes of 48 babies and found that they’re able to reason through the process of elimination. The research was published today in the journal Science. The type…

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Facebook gave Russia everything it needed to help Trump become president, but we gave Facebook its power

Facebook gave Russia everything it needed to help Trump become president, but we gave Facebook its power

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By the admission of Facebook’s own VP of advertising, Rob Goldman, Russia’s goal of sowing division in America has been served “incredibly well” through its use of Facebook: The main goal of the Russian propaganda and misinformation effort is to divide America by using our institutions, like free speech and social media, against us. It has stoked fear and hatred amongst Americans. It is working incredibly well. We are quite divided as a nation. — Rob Goldman (@robjective) February 17,…

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Why people love animals

Why people love animals

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  When Yashar Ali tweeted this elephant video recently, the comments it solicited bemoaned the lack of love that humans show one another. Pets, on the other hand, are generally experienced as fountains of unconditional love. Is this why people love animals: because, to some degree, they make offset a love deficit? No doubt that’s part of the picture, but just as important is the role animals have in allowing people to express their own love. In a world filled…

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