This is how you get your kids to eat vegetables

Apparently, you make them start early. This is from a new experiment at the University of Leeds, also covered here via the BBC. Here’s the money line from there: “Even if your child is fussy or does not like veggies, our study… Continue Reading

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Brief thought exercise: Is pure/true altruism even possible?

Issues of altruism and fairness and ego have been at the forefront of a lot of social science / psychology for years, and there’s been numerous articles smarter than this one on the topic of “true altruism” — see here,… Continue Reading

Potential might matter more than achievement, via research from Zakary Tormala at Stanford

As a society, we broadly seem to value the young and virile — every year that you add is an opportunity for jokes about adding said years, and we take care (well, often) of the very old as if they… Continue Reading

Brief thought exercise: in a way, is actually having a child more selfish than not having one?

Alright, let’s start here: I don’t have kids but God willing (and maybe a job willing) later, I’d like to someday. Now move to here: for years, the narrative has actually been based on the idea that it’s selfish not to have… Continue Reading

Cue the research from Nick Epley and Ayelet Gneezy: When you over-deliver on a promise/claim, no one really cares that much

Because of observations they initially made about Amazon, two researchers — Ayelet Gneezy at UC-San Diego and Nicholas Epley at University of Chicago — launched a study about reaction to promises and claims by others. It turns out no one really… Continue Reading

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How to get people to listen to you

Check out the graphic above; it’s via here and the whole framework comes from this guy. I won’t elaborate too much here, as you can read the other link and check out his book (second link), except to say this: oftentimes, authority is… Continue Reading

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Air travel can be hellacious. But whom do you blame more: the airlines or the other passengers?

Air travel is pretty much the safest and most time-relevant method of long-distance travel ever invented, so let’s not knock it completely — even though it isn’t doing any wonders for the environment and some processes therein, like boarding, are completely… Continue Reading