Science - Quillette (Page 10)

Gossip Is a Social Skill—Not a Character Flaw

Gossip can actually be thought of not as a character flaw, but as a highly evolved social skill.

25 Jan 2016 · 6 min read

Heritability and why Parents (but not Parenting) Matter

Non-additive effects don’t breed true with the same degree of fidelity—in fact these effects bust up the clean transmission of traits from parents to children (to use a sports analogy, it’s a bit like a cornerback in football deflecting the quarterback’s perfect spiral aimed at the receiver).

Brian Boutwell / Razib Khan

19 Jan 2016 · 13 min read

How to Find a Parenting Effect

Practically no one these days will fight you on the idea that genes and environments interact (GxE), and it is in these interactions, perhaps, that we can discover if parenting truly does impact children.

Brian Boutwell

23 Dec 2015 · 17 min read

Why distance running is the perfect lab for studying sex differences in competitiveness

What are the psychological differences between women and men? What causes these differences, and are they shrinking over time? The dominant view – held by most scholars and policymakers – is that sex differences are slight and can be rather easily altered. Whether this view is true or not has implications for

Robert Deaner

10 Dec 2015 · 7 min read

How a Rebellious Scientist Uncovered the Surprising Truth About Stereotypes

Studying the accuracy of stereotypes is risky business. For many, investigation into stereotypes is tantamount to endorsing bigotry.

Claire Lehmann

4 Dec 2015 · 11 min read

Authoritarianism is a Matter of Personality, Not Politics

Because democracy reflects the will of the majority, extremists will never win a fair election.

Adam Perkins

30 Nov 2015 · 4 min read

GI Diets Don't Work – Gut Bacteria and Dark Chocolate are a Better Bet for Losing Weight

The GI theory goes that there are many different types of carbs and they can be graded into how rapidly the body converts them into glucose.

Tim Spector

27 Nov 2015 · 5 min read

The Next War Will Be an Information War, and We're Not Ready For It

Information warfare combines electronic warfare, cyberwarfare and psy-ops (psychological operations) into a single fighting organisation, and this will be central to all warfare in the future.

David Stupples

27 Nov 2015 · 5 min read

Inside the Superforecasters

Tetlock recruited 284 pundits and had them make 82,000 individual predictions from 1983 to 2003.

Michael Story

25 Nov 2015 · 6 min read

How Criminologists Who Study Biology are Shunned by Their Field

Biosocial criminologists endure reputational attacks often. The field of criminology is not an especially cordial place to work.

Brian Boutwell

13 Nov 2015 · 11 min read

Why do we get songs stuck in our heads? Explaining your Earworm

It implies the effortlessness in which a fragment of a song, arriving in the inner ear without conscious effort, can continually loop and stick around.

Rebecca Gelding

13 Nov 2015 · 4 min read

Calm Down, Activists. Science is Not So Sexist

Going into STEM does not define a woman's worth.

Claire Lehmann

3 May 2015 · 7 min read

Two women lying on the beach sunbathing in black bikinis, drinking beer and alcopops.

Happiness by Design—Paul Dolan

Dolan’s proposal is that shifting our attention away from constructed narratives to actual experiences is likely to make us a lot happier.

Claire Lehmann

17 Mar 2015 · 6 min read

False Claims Undermine Good Causes

Domestic violence and family abuse are a scourge on all human societies. Events such as White Ribbon Day play an significant role in breaking down the shame and stigma which make it so hard for individuals to seek help.

Claire Lehmann

24 Nov 2014 · 7 min read