Month: April 2010
-
Evolutionary Theory of Fiction
The age of “politically charged” analyses of literature has passed and the latest phase is that of analysing fiction through the lens of evolutionary psychology, looking at how the brain processes literature. Humans can comfortably keep track of three different mental states at a time, Ms. Zunshine said. For example, the proposition “Peter said that Paul…
-
Writing and Preparing for a Speech (Tim Ferriss’ System)
The Tim Ferris technique for preparing a speech. For those aware of the concept, you may spot a resemblance to the snowflake method (previously), as typically used for writing novels. There are also some non-structural tips in the article (i.e. “No one should misunderstand you. Everything you say should be clear”.) Organise the speech using…
-
The Heritability of Happiness
A study looks at how much of our happiness can be attributed to our genes? Neither socioeconomic status, educational attainment, family income, marital status, nor an indicant of religious commitment could account for more than about 3% of the variance in well-being (WB). From 44% to 52% of the variance in WB, however, is associated…
-
Friendship Differences by Gender
This slowly absorbing article on the differences between male and female friendships seems to have been compiled with an observant eye… but then I am the same sex as the author. Researchers say women’s friendships are face to face: They talk, cry together, share secrets. Men’s friendships are side by side: We play golf. We…
-
The Economically-(Im)Perfect World of Online Games
Kristian Segerstrale–owner of online games company Playfish (acquired by Electronic Arts for $400m in November 2009)–discusses why online game environments are exciting places for economics research (and specifically: “how social factors influence economic decision making”): When economists try to model behavior in the real world, they’re always dealing with imperfect information. “The data is always…
-
Questioning (Not Telling) Ourselves is the Best Call-to-Action
Thinking about whether we will do a task or not (“Will I…?”) rather than focusing on actually performing the task (“I will….”) has been shown to increase both the probability of us eventually undertaking the task and how successfully we will perform it. The idea seems that “interrogative self-talk”, rather than declarative statements, leads to…
-
Objective Photo Ratings Compared Across EXIF Data Categories
Nikon D90 users who take photographs outside of the F2.8 to F5.6 aperture range and with a fast shutter speed are the best photographers on Flickr. If they also post-process their images with anything but the manufacturer-supplied software, and license their images with Creative Commons licenses, then they’re even better again. Using a variation of…
-
Self Affirmations Boost Self-Control
I’ve written before on positive self-affirmations and how they are not of much use, but now it seems that if we are succumbing to temptation and we want to exercise self-control but are finding it difficult to do so, we should recite positive self-affirmations to help us resist. A novel experiment has now shown that positive self-affirmations…
-
Personal Responsibility and Our Irresponsible Behaviours
Even though we may be reluctant to pay a premium for our insurance because of others who engage in irresponsible behaviours (for example: smoking, overeating and health insurance), Sandeep Jauhar, M.D. reminds us of some pertinent results from the health care field. Jauhar provides evidence that “punitive measures to force healthy behavior” do not work;…