'Virtue Signalling' May Annoy Us. But Civilization Would Be Impossible Without It
Virtue signaling includes the best of human instincts, and the worst of human instincts.
Geoffrey Miller
· 9 min read
Psychology
A collection of 87 posts
Socialization Isn't Responsible for Greater Male Violence
The evidence that men are more violent and more criminal than women is overwhelming, and yet it doesn’t imply that all men are violent, deserve to be incarcerated, or are undeserving of our sympathy or compassion if they are imprisoned.
Alex Mackiel
· 7 min read
Are Political Disagreements Real Disagreements?
If partisanship is shaping our perceptions of reality, then democratic decision-making becomes incredibly difficult.
Michael Hannon
· 9 min read
Straw Men and Viewpoint Manicheanism
Each “side” sees the other’s behavior as evidence of evil, and their own behavior as justified on the ground that we good folks must defend ourselves against them.
Rick Repetti
· 7 min read
The Deadly Boredom of ‘A Meaningless Life’
Before a youth makes the decision to murder, before the gun is stashed in his backpack, before his state of mental health is so deteriorated that he commits the unthinkable, what has happened to him?
Terry Newman
· 9 min read
The Other Crisis in Psychology
psychological scientists recognize unwarranted causal inferences when evaluating others’ research but miss it in their own, perhaps because of ideological and self-serving biases.
April L. Bleske-Rechek
· 16 min read
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of....What Exactly?
The same is true of happiness and positivity. They’re not mere feelings. They are behaviors.
Steve Salerno
· 15 min read
Coming Together to Honor a Dead Rock Star—And Ward Off Our Own Demons
In the months leading up to the news, I was in a bad place. Nothing in life felt right, and every day was a fight against hopelessness—to the point that even when good things happened, I would remain afraid or numb.
Neil Gray
· 8 min read
Why We Shouldn't Bet on Having Free Will—A Reply to William Edwards
It makes no more sense to believe in a numinous “will” that subverts the laws of physics than to accept a god for which there’s no evidence. Any reforms of society should begin by accepting the unalterable truths of nature.
Jerry A. Coyne
· 6 min read
Bad Data Analysis and Psychology's Replication Crisis
This isn’t the first time this has happened in video game research.
Christopher J. Ferguson
· 7 min read
She Did Not Go Gently
The placebo effect is real. It’s measurable. It’s why we have placebo trials in medical research—because the hope buried inside that sugar pill has a measurable medical benefit. Hope is literally medicine, and it’s powerful stuff.
B.J. Campbell
· 9 min read
Meaning Matters
Religion isn’t just like any organization or group that affords people the opportunity to socialize.
Clay Routledge
· 8 min read
What Explains the Resistance to Evolutionary Psychology?
Instead of dispassionately inquiring into scientific questions, facts from politically controversial research are being distorted out of concern for how the data might be used by the worst among us.
Alex Mackiel
· 19 min read
What Doesn’t Kill Us Brings Us Together
Because calamities are uniquely egalitarian in their capacity to kill indiscriminately, they dampen the qualities that make us different.
Vincent Harinam
· 13 min read
On the Eve of the Great Psychedelic Debate
The mint plant salvia divinorum exhibits powerful and unusual psychedelic effects and remains legal.
Matthew Blackwell
· 21 min read