Psychology

Violent TV And Video Games Desensitize Teenagers To Violence

It's a known aspect of the human condition that people tend to diminish the negative impact of something they do while recognizing the negative impact of things they don't do as common sense.   In Hollywood, director Rob Reiner thinks cigarettes ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 19 2010 - 12:43pm

Males, If You Want To Be Sexier To Females, Act Less Like Your Sister

A new study in rats says g rowing up with lots of sisters makes a male less sexy to females, because the sex ratio of a male rat's family while young influences his sexual behavior and therefore how female rats respond to him later. Early life obvious ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 21 2010 - 11:49am

The Best Leaders Have A 'Dark Side' Also

If an isolated question asks you if you are more inclined to vote for one politician who lies about limiting his campaign financing or one who agrees to use only matching public funds in the interests of campaign finance reform and sticks to it, who would ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 24 2010 - 11:14am

Karmic Economy

Complexity, Morality and our Collective Economic Fate. I’ve been reading a lot of Paul Krugman lately, given the state of the economy and such. If you have been following him, you may have noticed one of his repeating refrains, “ Economics is not a moralit ...

Blog Post - Asha John - Nov 2 2010 - 12:20am

Stressed MAFIA bosses seek help from psychotherapy in Italy

MAFIA life used to be simple; whether you liked "Morte Alle Francia Italia Anela" or "Morte Alle Francese Italiani Avanti"(1)  they both meant kicking the snot out of the French, who had a pesky habit of causing trouble prior to Italian ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Nov 7 2010 - 11:00am

Eat More Meat, Be Less Aggressive

Know why vegetarians are so angry?  They don't eat meat, it seems.  So this Thanksgiving, grab the turkey leg and tear off a hunk of flesh with your teeth and rationalize that evolutionary psychology thinks it made your cavemen ancestors nicer people. ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 8 2010 - 10:38am

Availability Heuristic At Play In The Autism-Vaccine Wars

Writing balanced posts can be tricky, especially in relation to vaccines. Vaccines, like religions and politics, have become a hot-button topic in social discussions, and these three areas are absolutely polarized, definitely enter-at-your-own-risk sorts o ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Nov 12 2010 - 9:21pm

Blog Tour: 1,001 Tips Come to Countering

When my husband and I first realized in 1994 that we were entering the world of special needs parenting, there were very few books as guidelines. When autism entered our vocabulary, the first thing I read was Bruno Bettelheim's  The Empty Fortress. ...

Blog Post - Kim Wombles - Nov 13 2010 - 9:45am

Finger Length Correlated To Financial Risk Taking

Gad Saad, who likes to link evolution to consumption and marketing phenomena, says  the length between the second and fourth finger is an indicator of high levels of prenatal testosterone and therefore risk-taking and potential financial success in adult m ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 14 2010 - 11:02am

Before You Buy: A Woo Primer For Parents

It seems like many autism-related sites have ads on them for our kids, promising all sorts of results. How do we evaluate the claims of these products and prevent ourselves from (1) wasting precious financial resources, and (2) putting our precious childre ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Nov 22 2010 - 5:22pm