Letters Remain

Category: psychology

  • Love and the Existential Vacuum

    I have recently finished reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl; an excellent book that is at once an account of Frankl’s time in Nazi concentration camps during WWII and an introduction to his psychotherapeutic theories of logotherapy. According to Frankl’s logotherapy, the way to find meaning in life is to dedicate oneself to…

  • Are the Risk Appetites of Successful Traders Innate?

    Given that confidence and risk tolerance are correlated with high levels of pre-natal testosterone, John Coates—Wall Street trading floor manager turned academic—wondered if the behaviour of high-frequency, successful traders is similarly influenced, and thus innate. Unsurprisingly it was; but it was the extent to which it was found to be true that was surprising: Coates,…

  • Google as the Extended Mind

    In response to The Atlantic’s article, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Discover Magazine’s Carl Zimmer argues that Google is actually making us smarter thanks to the ‘extended mind’ theory—the idea that the mind exists not only in ourselves but is extended out to the technology we use. via Mind Hacks

  • Genomics and Determinism

    In 2008 Stephen Pinker’s genome was sequenced and publicly released as part of the Personal Genome Project. In light of this, Pinker argues that even though our genes greatly influence our behaviour, they don’t determine who we are, concluding that “even when the effect of some gene is indubitable, the sheer complexity of the self will…

  • The Anatomy of Gullibility

    In the aftermath of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, psychologist Stephen Greenspan writes in The Wall Street Journal on why we continuously fall for financial scams—and in the process describes the ‘anatomy’ of gullibility. Gullibility is a sub-type of foolish action, which might be termed “induced-social.” It is induced because it always occurs in the presence…

  • The Myth of Moral Hazard

    The economic theory of moral hazard is “the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk” (e.g. holders of car insurance may engage in riskier behaviour than non-holders, investors may take unnecessary risks if they expect to be bailed…

  • Mind and Digital Photography Projects

    Mind Bites is a wonderful photography project from Will Lion combining fantastic CC-licenced Flickr images with quotes from peer-reviewed cognitive science research. (For the masochists among you, there’s an interactive Flash gallery too.) via Mind Hacks Equally appealing is Lion’s Digital Bites; a similar project encompasing “internet, entertainment, media and brands”.

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…