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.
Frank T McAndrew
· 6 min read
Science
A collection of 164 posts
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
· 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
· 17 min read
Why Distance Running Is the Perfect Lab for Studying Sex Differences in Competitiveness
Data from 92,000 marathon runners and 1,100 collegiate athletes consistently shows men are more competitive — and the gap isn't closing.
Robert Deaner
· 6 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
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 5 min read
Inside the Superforecasters
Tetlock recruited 284 pundits and had them make 82,000 individual predictions from 1983 to 2003.
Michael Story
· 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
· 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
· 4 min read
Calm Down, Activists. Science is Not So Sexist
Going into STEM does not define a woman's worth.
Claire Lehmann
· 6 min read
Book Review: Happiness by Design – Experiential Self vs Evaluative Self Explained
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
· 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
· 7 min read