Tag: Psychology

Hardwired?

It’s an ugly day for voter rationality in today’s New York Times. According to a new study by several political scientists, our political predispositions may be genetic (and last summer’s Zellout may have been the result of a lingering discordance between genetic and environmental factors in Miller’s make-up.) Whatsmore, we seem to choose our elected leaders immediately by their physical attributes, namely a general look of competence: “Both babies and baby-faced adults share certain characteristics: round faces, large eyes, small noses, high foreheads, and small chins. No one trusts the competence of a baby, and few, apparently, trust that of an adult who looks like one.” (Don’t lose heart, fellow advocates of an informed and capable electorate — There’s obviously a huge gaping hole in this latter theory.)

Lacuna, Inc?

“Sun is shinin’ in the sky, there ain’t a cloud in sight…” Life imitates art as scientists attempt to achieve “therapeutic forgetting”, a.k.a. the focused erasure of memories. Right now, though, they haven’t got much past dulling the edge off old remembrances. “Our experiences and our memories in a lot of ways define us and define who we are,” notes Stanford ethicist David Magnus about the field, “[a]nd so that’s a scary step to go down. We should be very careful about going down a path that could lead to a serious alteration of the core essence of our identities.” Can you hear me? I don’t want this anymore, I want to call it off!

The Secrets that you keep.

Apparently it doesn’t matter if you talk in your sleep – researchers can now figure you out just by looking at you. “The freefall, flat on the tummy with the hands at the sides of the head, is the most unusual position. Only 6.5 percent of people prefer it and they are usually brash and gregarious.” Strangely enough, this is pretty much the only way I ever fall asleep, and I had assumed it meant the opposite.