Author: Lloyd Morgan
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The Psychology of Wine
On Vines and Minds is an excellent summary of the history and psychology of wine (pdf/html). Some topics of note: Music radically influences our purchasing habits: classical music increases the amount we’re willing to spend while characteristically French music sways us toward wine from that region (similarly for German music/wine). Colour affects the brain’s response…
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Archive of Book Cover Designs and Designers
The wonderful Archive of Book Cover Designs and Designers has a simple—yet important—raison d’être: “for the purpose of appreciation and categorization”. Already quite extensive, the archive is constantly growing through reader suggestions and is searchable by designer, photographer, author, and many more besides. The site’s footer also provides a wonderful directory of equally great sites…
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Consumer Bias: Middle Options and the Paradox of Choice
A recent article from American Economic Review looks at the consumer bias in preferring the middle of three options, and the tendency to buy less when offered more. Numerous studies demonstrate that seemingly irrelevant factors influence people’s decisions. […] When three alternatives are available, the middle alternative is chosen more often than when it is paired…
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Psychology of Credit Card Minimum Instalments
New research finds that the ‘recommended minimum instalment’ suggestions on credit card statements are more influential than previously thought: Mr. Stewart presented 413 people with mock credit-card bills of £435.76 (about $650) that were identical — except that only half mentioned a minimum payment of £5.42. Participants were asked how much they would pay. Among…
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Evolutionary Gems
Given that the concepts and realities of Darwinian evolution are still challenged, albeit rarely by biologists, a succinct briefing on why evolution by natural selection is an empirically validated principle is useful for people to have to hand. That’s from the introduction to 15 Evolutionary Gems (pdf): a document produced by the scientific journal Nature to…
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Darwin on Creationism
Last week the news that Sir David Attenborough receives hate mail for failing to credit God in his documentaries was everywhere you looked. If you would like a recap, I previously discussed Attenborough’s rather graphic reason for disbelieving in a deity in Attenborough on Creationism back in November. One thing has come to light since, however: Charles…
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Sharing More Than We Think
Technology writer Nicholas Carr reflects on how what we share online imitates our persona much more than we imagine. Your online self […] is entirely self-created, and because it determines your identity and social standing in an internet community, each decision you make about how you portray yourself – about which facts (or falsehoods) to…
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A Sampling of Mathematical Folk Humour
Browsing through the Wikipedia entry for mathematical jokes, I noticed a reference to the intriguingly titled Foolproof: A Sampling of Mathematical Folk Humor (pdf) that appeared in Notices of the American Mathematical Society back in 2004. Many English-language mathematical jokes are based on word play involving standard mathematical concepts and terminology. In fact, many of the jokes…
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Psychology of Learning
Tom Stafford—co-author of Mind Hacks—has written a series of posts on what psychologists know about learning. For anyone interested in education and personal development, these provide an interesting introduction to a few topics of note. Learning Makes Itself Invisible Once you have learnt something you see the world differently. Not only can you appreciate or…
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Geckos’ Toes, Wan der Waal’s and Walking on Ceilings
Only having seen one gecko in my life I’ve given them little thought. One thing I am sure of, however, is that I didn’t expect the answer to how geckos manage to navigate walls and ceilings so dextrously to be as awesome as it is. The bottoms of a gecko’s feet are […] covered with millions…