n Tuesday President Barack Obama issued an executive order formally establishing the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team while also directing federal agencies to examine how they can use behavioral science to improve outcomes for citizens across the United States. “Adopting the insights of behavioral science will help bring our government into the 21st century […]
Photo: Wally Gobetz, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans (NYC – MoMA) uring the past three years, 270 researchers from around the world recreated 98 psychology studies from three top journals to see if they could produce the same results. What they found is that on the whole, they couldn’t. As they report in Science, less than […]
Image: Brook Ward ost theories of consciousness, says Neuroscientist Michael Graziano, rely on magic. They point to a feature of the brain—vibrating neurons for instance—and claim that feature to be the source of consciousness. The story ends there. The magician points to his hat—vibrating neurons—and pulls out a rabbit—consciousness. But how does the hat produce the […]
Image: Oxford University Press ow do we become who we are? Traditionally, people’s answers have placed them in one of two camps: nature or nurture. The one says genes determine an individual while the other claims the environment is the linchpin for development. Since the 16th century, when the terms “nature” and “nurture” first came […]
Image: William Haefeli, Irrationally Yours t’s easy to feel like you’re the only one. The only one who has trouble finding a significant other, remembering to call your mother, or dealing with your teenage son or daughter when they bring home a dud. But thanks to Gutenberg, our penchant for oversharing, and our love of […]
Image: Cook County Sherrif’s Office o say mental illness poses a significant challenge to jail and prison systems around the United States is an understatement. According to a 2014 report by the National Research Council, over half of inmates in the United States suffer from a mental health problem, with 10-25 percent of inmates dealing […]
