People who expect fairness or perfection of evolution are bound to be disappointed. Evolution can only proceed with local forces of natural selection acting on whatever genes already exist. If genes that foster better hearts, higher IQs, and empathy do not exist, evolution has to wait for an appropriate mutation. Evolution does not improve individuals …
Despite variations in definitions, both dictionary-type and operational, the phenomenon of social status seems to be recognized across the globe. Though it is not hard to know what we mean by the term, it’s as mysterious as hiccups and love: Where does such a universal ordering come from? Social status is a social and environmental …
The social involvement of our brains is amazing. A thoroughly social brain doesn’t come to us just through biological evolution. A baby’s brain must be shaped by interactions with caregivers for optimal development. That is to say, brain development is not programmed entirely by genes but interacts with the environment beginning in the embryo. This …
You can’t learn something unless you almost know it already. Decades ago, that principle was known as Martin’s law. There’s a corollary: It’s harder to learn something strange than something familiar; or, new learning builds on old learning. These old observations are true for nonassociative learning, like habituation, and for associative learning, which asserts itself …
Psychology runs hot and cold as we sample its topics. Verbal learning, or mastering paired sets of nonsense syllables and words, was hot in the 1960s. Today few people care about it. Hypnotism was once a big deal, but not any more. The reverse can also happen. When I was an undergraduate student back in …
Some sensations seem to come out of nowhere. We lack stickiness receptors, yet we know it when we feel it. Baseball players know that a smear of pine tar improves their grip on bats and balls, but maybe they don’t know why. It’s not as simple as seeing a flash of light or hearing a …
The New Year is almost here! If you want to start it off right, here are some suggestions. Of course we know deep down that eating a sensible diet and getting a good night’s sleep on New Year’s Eve makes more sense, but our friends reinforce a departure from normal behavior. We’re familiar with children’s …
Joe Pyne was one of the first rude disk jockeys. Callers found themselves off the air when he interrupted a comment that he didn’t like with “Take a hike”. Many others followed, though the genre is in decline. We still find rudeness entertaining, as long as it’s someone else who gets hurt, though it can …
When we’re navigating over long distances, making long treks, we don’t worry much about the positions of our bodies from one minute to the next. We’re more concerned about the dangers of getting lost, perhaps travelling in circles. Wayfinding is different in several ways from short moves over familiar territory: walking to the car and …
After decades of searching for an easy way to learn tough material, I have to say that studying is hard. Sometimes it’s pleasurable, too, but it takes an effort to master a new concept or store new information—to make significant changes in your mind. However, there is good recent research on how not to waste …
Chocolate has a psychology. Nougat does not, even though both confections are popular, with long histories. According to legend, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés did not enjoy his first cup of chocolate, offered to him by the Aztec ruler Montezuma. It was bitter; but, with the addition of sugar became a fad that swept Spain …
When it comes to avoiding nasty surprises, most of us rely on our experience to get by. We understand less of the physical world than we should, but we have our hunches, our clinical judgment, our gut feelings, and sometimes we’re successful. In linking vaccines to autism or fluoridated water to common cancers, we don’t …