Letters Remain

Category: psychology

  • Working With Children – Fear & False Accusations

    This news report comes as no surprise. While in the past, adults would have helped children in distress or rebuked those misbehaving, there was now “a feeling that it is best not to become involved”, it said. Report author Prof Frank Furedi, of Kent University, said: “From Girl Guiders to football coaches, from Christmas-time Santas…

  • List of Common Misconceptions

    The list of common misconceptions includes this clarification: The word “theory” in “the theory of evolution” does not imply doubt in mainstream science about the validity of this theory; the words “theory” and “hypothesis” are not the same in a scientific context (see Evolution as theory and fact). A scientific theory is a set of…

  • Neurology of the Itch

    The Itch is an article from The New Yorker on the neurology behind that annoying sensation we’ve all had. I warn you, the article is quite icky in places, with a particularly stomach churning case study in one place, but I was quite fascinated to find out that the sensation of the itch seems to…

  • List of Logical Fallacies

    First cognitive science, now logic: a list of logical fallacies. A fallacy is a component of an argument which, being demonstrably flawed in its logic or form, renders the argument invalid in whole. I prefer the many informal fallacies: an important one of which is that correlation does not imply causation (cum hoc ergo propter…

  • Why We Scream

    The Telegraph looks at Why We Scream: We all have a core set of five facial muscles that control our ability to produce standard expressions which convey anger, happiness, surprise, fear, sadness and disgust. But there are up to 19 muscles present in the face, and many people do not possess all of them. The…

  • Non-Voting Political Philosophers and Stealing Ethicists

    When I read that political philosophers vote less often than other philosophers (and political scientists) I was reminded of the book Can a Robot be Human?. This book touches on the logic behind voting, and comes to the conclusion that – for an individual – it is pointless because no election has ever been decided…

  • Prediction Markets and The Wisdom of Crowds

    FT Predict is more than just a game. Predictive markets collect the wisdom of the crowd in a single dynamic price unit that can be far more sensitive to changes in the market than standard survey-based research. And a growing number of today’s leading companies embrace predictive market models in order to harness the wisdom…

  • List of Cognitive Biases

    I love lists, and so every day this week I’ll give you one to chew on. To start us off is this wonderful list of cognitive biases. To try and become a better thinker I’m studying cognitive biases in order to (attempt to) overcome them. This in itself is attempting to overcome the bias blind…

  • Behavioural Addiciton: Gambling in Las Vegas

    A conference on gambling addiction, run by the National Center for Responsible Gaming, is to be held in Las Vegas later this year. Put aside the irony for a moment, there are more sinister events afoot. Salon’s article Gambling with Science notes that the NCRG is funded by the gambling industry and may have a…

  • The Third Place – Joel ‘on Software’ Spolsky

    Building Communities with Software is an old article of Joel ‘on Software’ Spolsky’s that deals with social ‘third places‘: The social scientist Ray Oldenburg talks about how humans need a third place, besides work and home, to meet with friends, have a beer, discuss the events of the day, and enjoy some human interaction. These…