Looking for a Biological Basis for Violence
Gautam Naik provides an interesting and cleverly written piece on the search for a biological basis of violent behavior. Read More »
Is the Paradox of Choice Not So Paradoxical After All?
The psychologist Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice (here’s his TED talk on the topic) was, for me at least, very persuasive. It made a compelling if counterintuitive argument: even though many people (economists especially) argue that more choice is almost always a good thing, Schwartz argued that too much choice is actually a bad thing, causing decision paralysis and unhappiness. Read More »
No Need to Reinvent the Nudge
A Boston Globe article explains how “positive deviance” — a way to change behavior by using “nudges” that already exist in a community, rather than imposing them from the outside — substantially decreased malnutrition in a Vienamese village: researchers observed children who looked more nourished than others, found that their families were feeding them crabs — considered a low-class food — and encouraged neighbors to follow the family’s good example. Read More »
When the Weather Puts Food on Your Table
A lot of industries are obviously weather-dependent — agriculture, tourism, etc. — but I hadn’t known that the traditional production of roofing slate in the U.K. was also at the mercy of the weather. Here is but one of many fascinating things you can learn from Simon Winchester’s excellent book The Map That Changed the World, about the proto-geologist William Smith: Read More »
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