La morte dell'individualità L’idea che siamo individui dal pensiero libero ha plasmato la società occidentale per secoli. I dati però ci mostrano che ciò che domina realmente è il pensiero di gruppo. Per gran parte della nostra storia ci è stato insegnato che la verità e la morale vengono da Dio e dal Re, e che il libero arbitrio è solo una questione teologica. Nel 1700 ciò ha iniziato a cambiare e si è fatta strada, nei sistemi di credenze delle alte sfere, l’idea che gli esseri umani sono individui liberi con una libertà di scelta razionale. Nel corso del tempo i concetti di razionalità e individualità hanno profondamente modellato i governi e le culture dell’Occidente. Ma fino a che punto siamo individui con libertà di pensiero ? Una recente ricerca sta iniziando a scoprire il grado in cui ci comportiamo come individui indipendenti. Per sviluppare questa nuova scienza sono stati studiati dei veri e propri laboratori viventi. La logica dietro a tutto questo è semplice.
Lasting Relationships Rely On 2 Traits Gottman wanted to know more about how the masters created that culture of love and intimacy, and how the disasters squashed it. In a follow-up study in 1990, he designed a lab on the University of Washington campus to look like a beautiful bed-and-breakfast retreat. He invited 130 newlywed couples to spend the day at this retreat and watched them as they did what couples normally do on vacation: cook, clean, listen to music, eat, chat, and hang out. Throughout the day, partners would make requests for connection, what Gottman calls “bids.” The wife now has a choice. People who turned toward their partners in the study responded by engaging the bidder, showing interest and support in the bid. These bidding interactions had profound effects on marital well-being. “There’s a habit of mind that the masters have,” Gottman explained in an interview, “which is this: They are scanning social environment for things they can appreciate and say ‘thank you’ for.
Money Makes You Less Rational Than You Think Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service. Two year ago, Berkeley researchers showed that people who drive expensive vehicles are four times more likely to cut off drivers of lower status vehicles. The researchers concluded that higher social class can predict increased unethical behavior. This supports my theory that Lexus drivers are the worst. if I get cut off, its almost always by a Lexus. Flagged In my experience people in luxury brands tend to drive without regard for other drivers, usually driving erratically (very slow then very fast, similar to people that are texting; swerving around without checking lanes, never signalling, drifting out into the middle of an intersection during a red light then not going when the light turns green; generally like self-important pricks) people in expensive sporty looking cars tend to drive more aggressively, cutting people off, etc.
Future - How human culture influences our genetics You shouldn't be able to drink milk. Your ancestors couldn't. It is only in the last 9,000 years that human adults have gained that ability without becoming ill. Children could manage it, but it was only when we turned to dairy farming that adults acquired the ability to properly digest milk. It turns out that cultures with a history of dairy farming and milk drinking have a much higher frequency of lactose tolerance – and its associated gene – than those who don't. Drinking milk is just one of example of the way that traditions and cultural practices can influence the path of our evolution. Another example of how culture influences our genes is the relationship between yam farming and malaria resistance. But there are some people who seem to have a natural defense force. Here's what's interesting: those communities that farm yams have much higher rates of the sickle-cell gene than nearby communities with different agricultural practices.
Hive minds: Time to drop the fiction of individuality - opinion - 08 April 2014 FOR most of Western history, truth and morality came from God and king, and free will was a theological question. This began to change in the 1700s, and the idea that humans were individuals with the freedom of rational choice soon wormed its way into the belief systems of the upper echelons of society. Over time, the concepts of rationality and individualism profoundly shaped the governments and culture of the West. But to what extent are we freethinking individuals? The question matters because economics and much of cognitive science have, at their basis, the concept of an independent individual. Recent research is beginning to uncover the degree to which we act as independent individuals.
m.fastcompany If you Google “morning routine,” you’ll receive more than 24 million search results, and for good reason: Early risers seem to get more done and live happier lives. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs understand the benefits of having an early-morning routine: Starbucks’s Howard Schultz, GE’s Jeff Immelt, and Xerox’s Ursula Burns are just some of the early birds famous for rising before 6 a.m. to get ahead on their work. But a morning routine is only half of a productive day; the other is the evening routine that precedes it. Here are seven evening routines of famous and successful creatives, and how you can apply them to your own life. Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman Read Before Bed “Do you know what moviemaking is? One study by the University of Sussex found that just six minutes of reading a day is enough to reduce stress by 68%--an excellent excuse to start curling up with a good book before you turn in for the evening. Composer Ludwig Van Beethoven Went To Bed Early
RationalWiki The science of protecting people’s feelings: why we pretend all opinions are equal It’s both the coolest — and also in some ways the most depressing — psychology study ever. Indeed, it’s so cool (and so depressing) that the name of its chief finding — the Dunning-Kruger effect — has at least halfway filtered into public consciousness. In the classic 1999 paper, Cornell researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger found that the less competent people were in three domains — humor, logic, and grammar — the less likely they were to be able to recognize that. Or as the researchers put it: We propose that those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer from a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Dunning and Kruger didn’t directly apply this insight to our debates about science. So why do I bring this classic study up now? Yes, that’s right — we’re all right, nobody’s wrong, and nobody gets hurt feelings. But that’s not what happened. So why do we do this?
Why Saying This Four-Letter Word Can Transform Your Productivity Perfectionists are often reminded that "done is better than perfect." But it turns out there’s another reason we should all try to create more "done" moments in our workdays. Saying the word done can help you get more accomplished on your to-do list. According to Sherlin, when we’re concentrated on a task, the brain’s electrical activity is heightened. A neurochemical shift in the brain occurs simultaneously. "What we want to do if we want to set ourselves up for increasing productivity is put minor or smaller challenges in front of us so we build up that ‘done’ moment," says Sherlin. How to create more opportunities to say "done": Break Tasks Into Smaller Chunks Productivity has a snowball effect. Work In 10-Minute Segments Choose a task and set a timer for 10 minutes. Visualize Yourself Completing The Task Imagine yourself completing the task. Take Microbreaks Create opportunities to take microbreaks throughout the day. Done.
The Psychology of Trust in Life, Learning, and Love by Maria Popova The science of why tit-for-tat isn’t the best strategy for cooperation and why you should hear out your hunches. “When you trust people to help you, they often do,” Amanda Palmer asserted in her beautiful meditation on the art of asking without shame. But what does it really mean to “trust,” and perhaps more importantly, how can we live with the potential heartbreak that lurks in the gap between “often” and “always”? DeSteno, who has previously studied the osmosis of good and evil in all of us and the psychology of compassion and resilience, argues that matters of trust occupy an enormous amount of our mental energies and influence, directly or indirectly, practically every aspect of our everyday lives. Unlike many other puzzles we confront, questions of trust don’t just involve attempting to grasp and analyze a perplexing concept. Unlike many forms of communication, issues of trust are often characterized by a competition or battle…. The short answer is that we have to.
New evidence shows how chronic stress predisposes brain to mental disorders (Medical Xpress)—University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown that chronic stress generates long-term changes in the brain that may explain why people suffering chronic stress are prone to mental problems such as anxiety and mood disorders later in life. Their findings could lead to new therapies to reduce the risk of developing mental illness after stressful events. Doctors know that people with stress-related illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have abnormalities in the brain, including differences in the amount of gray matter versus white matter. Gray matter consists mostly of cells – neurons, which store and process information, and support cells called glia – while white matter is comprised of axons, which create a network of fibers that interconnect neurons. White matter gets its name from the white, fatty myelin sheath that surrounds the axons and speeds the flow of electrical signals from cell to cell. Does stress affect brain connectivity?
Your memory rewrites the past and edits it with new experiences, study finds - Science - News In the study, How your Memory Rewrites the Past, researchers looked at the exact point in time when incorrectly recalled information was implanted into an existing memory. The team found that memory rewrites the past with current information, updating recollections with new experiences. This form of editing happens in the hippocampus, working as the memory’s version of a film editor or special effects team. It does this to help us survive and adapt within constantly changing environments, and to encourage us to focus on things that are important in the present. Their results raise questions over the reliability of eyewitness court testimony, the team concluded. In the study, researchers at Northwestern University, in Chicago, asked 17 male and female participants to study 168 object locations on a computer screen with different backgrounds, such as an underwater ocean scene or an aerial view of farmland. "Our memory is not like a video camera," Ms Bridge added.