Public

A pretty compelling piece. I’d like to see a direct rebuttal.

Interesting milestone, but the trend is obviously the important part

Productive disagreements seem tougher than ever these days, but they’re even more necessary. Here are some tips for having difficult conversations.

I argue that although self-serving arguments can be misused, they are sometimes morally justified. We need ways of distinguishing good faith from bad faith self-serving arguments and I suggest a few ways we might do this.

When faced with a personal problem people typically give better advice to others than to themselves. A previous study showed how it is possible to enact internal dialogue in virtual reality (VR) through participants alternately occupying two different virtual bodies – one representing themselves and the other Sigmund Freud. They could maintain a self-conversation by explaining their problem to the virtual Freud and then from the embodied perspective of Freud see and hear the explanation by their virtual doppelganger, and then give some advice. Alternating between the two bodies they could maintain a self-dialogue, as if between two different people. Here we show that the process of alternating between their own and the Freud body is important for successful psychological outcomes. An experiment was carried out with 58 people, 29 in the body swapping Self-Conversation condition and 29 in a condition where they only spoke to a Scripted Freud character. The results showed that the Self-Conversation method results in a greater perception of change and help compared to the Scripted. We compare this method with the distancing paradigm where participants imagine resolving a problem from a first or third person perspective. We consider the method as a possible strategy for self-counselling.

New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason.

Well damn, now I have to remove references to my personality “type” everywhere.

Hmm...

Accurately sizing up someone’s mental acuity is a valuable life skill.

Calling merit racist and lowering the standard for people who have been fighting like hell for centuries to be seen as equal only siphons their misery off into a new well.

A crucial part of his coalition is made up of better-off white people who did not graduate from college.

Excellent article!

Couldn’t agree with this argument more.

A recent study of Americans found evidence to suggest that liberals are more tolerant toward conservatives than conservatives are toward liberals. The ...

Misperceptions held by Democrats and Republicans about how the other side views them have troubling consequences for our democracy. Correcting them can help.

One-up the "steel man"

“I vote the person, not the party,” goes the old saying. And while many may still say that, in practice few do. Drew DeSilver at the incomparable Pew Research Center this month updated a great report from two years ago on voting patterns for U.S. Senate and the presidency.

The premise is that much giving is wasted…

Some perspective

A reminder of all the ways we are connected.

Living in a sparsely-populated area breeds a different perception of the role government should play in people’s lives

Really excited to see this come to fruition.

Cash trumps all

The vast majority of plastic — about 76 percent — ends up in landfills.