psychology

With the looming US presidential election, I thought it would be interesting to post about an important trend in US politics, namely that religiously active people are considerably more likely to vote than the the inactive and unaffiliated. This trend was identified by Pew Research in 2019. In...

Here is another way artificial intelligence could soon revolutionise healthcare. The Economist: AI offers an intriguing new way to diagnose mental-health conditions In summary: AI tools are being developed to diagnose mental-health conditions by analyzing speech patterns, which can detect...

A new study suggests a link between brain damage and increased religious fundamentalism. The study involved analyzing brain lesions in two groups: veterans and rural Iowa patients with brain injuries. The research found an overlap in brain areas associated with religious fundamentalism...

When comparing countries and cultures, few people think of the fact that the frequency of basic emotions can vary widely depending on the society where one lives. Using Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report I created maps showing the percentage of respondents that felt anger...

Genetics Percentage of genetic similarity between humans and animals Genetic inheritance: why people can be closer to one parent than the other genetically How adventurers, outcasts and remainers shape the evolution of society Are humans genetically programmed to live in hierarchical...

The abundance and malleability of lead has made it a prime material to use as pipes since ancient times. The word plumbing itself comes from the Latin word for lead (plumbum, hence Pb for the chemical symbol). Yet it has been known for decades that lead was toxic, especially for the brain, and...

It's the Euro 2020 and discussion in another thread made me wonder whether most people systematically cheered their own country's team, or if they could have a different favourite team, either because they like the players better, or because they may not feel bound to imperatively support the...

Like every year the United Nations and Gallup published their World Happiness Report. The big question this year is how the Coronavirus pandemic affected people's sense of happiness, and how different countries reacted. The Economist deftly summarised the report in their article It might seem...

I have explained here the concept of Spiral dynamics and the evolution of human cultures. Here is a summary of the 8 stages of consciousness found in human societies. The last two (yellow and turquoise) are still very rare and found in less than 1% of individuals. I recently published a...

Two years ago we discussed the factors that make some countries happier than others. I wondered why countries with a high level of development like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Portugal or Hungary scored relatively low on happiness. Even the United States ranked 18th worldwide...

I have mentioned and summarised the concept of Spiral Dynamics in this thread. I find the concept fascinating and extremely useful to study the evolution of societies in history, but also to understand the current socio-political situation in modern countries and forecast how societies are going...

I have recently come across the concept of spiral dynamics, a model of eight levels of increasingly complex human value systems (or vMemes) consisting of sets of world views, preferences, and purposes. Each level represent a new evolution in the way people interact within a society. The...

Here is a short summary of the Myers-Briggs Personality Types from Wikipedia: I would describe the 4 main dimensions a bit differently to quickly assess someone's personality. - Introverts (I) need time on their own to recharge their batteries. They value privacy and enjoy solitary...

I have recently read Enlightenment Now by Harvard and MIT cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, which really is an extraordinary book. In chapter 21, Professor Pinker explains that many of the most contentious political beliefs are not grounded in reason or the depth of knowledge regarding an...

The Guardian: Brain scans show social exclusion creates jihadists, say researchers "For years western policymakers have tried to establish what causes individuals to be radicalised. Now a pioneering study has used medical science to gain fresh insight into the process – in the brains of...

Do you feel that this applies to you too? Forbes: Can Personality Change Or Does It Stay The Same For Life? A New Study Suggests It's A Little Of Both "For decades personality was considered as unmalleable as concrete – who you were at 15 is who you’d be at 75. But within the last 20 or so...

I started another thread in 2005 about the Myers-Briggs 16 personalities test. It would be interesting to compare everyone's personality using the same test, and the one on the 16personalities website is one of the best out there. Here is how I understand the four dimensions. Introversion vs...

I have come across this brilliant summary of the book The Inner Level in The Economist. The authors suggest that social inequality causes stress and anxiety, which results in mental illnesses such as narcissism, psychosis and schizophrenia. They explain for example that 10% of Japanese and...

Here is a new study on the effects of oxytocin and vasopressin on social behaviour in primates. It had been known for a while that oxytocin increases trust, generosity, and empathy. This study finds that it also equalises social dominance and reduces competitivity among members of a social...

If this is true it is potentially a Nobel-winning discovery. BBC News: 'Memory transplant' achieved in snails "A team successfully transplanted memories by transferring a form of genetic information called RNA from one snail into another. The snails were trained to develop a defensive...