March Archives - Mojamba

Why can’t Americans agree on, well, nearly anything? Philosophy has some answers

Psychologist and law professor Dan Kahan and his collaborators have described two phenomena that affect the ways in which people form different beliefs from the same information.

The first is called “identity-protective cognition.” This describes how individuals are motivated to adopt the empirical beliefs of groups they identify with in order to signal that they belong.

The second is “cultural cognition”: people tend to say that a … [ Read more ]

Proof of evolution that you can find on your body

Forty-two percent of Americans say that humans were created in their present form within the past 10,000 years — a percentage that hasn’t changed much since 1982, when Gallup started polling views on evolution.

Several lines of evidence, from the fossil record, comparative anatomy, and genetics, tell another story. But you don’t have to read all the research to find signs of our evolutionary history — … [ Read more ]

Sources: Vox, YouTube (March 17, 2016) | Subjects: Health & Medicine, Math & Science

The Psychology of Social Rule: Pioneering Sociologist Elsie Clews Parsons’s Prophetic Century-Old Study of Power, the Rise of Divisiveness, and Why We Classify Ourselves and Others

Years before Walter Lippmann explored stereotypes and the psychology of prejudice, rooted in the disquieting fact that “we do not first see, and then define, [but] define first and then see,” and decades before Hannah Arendt observed that “society has discovered discrimination as the great social weapon by which one may kill men without any bloodshed” before she … [ Read more ]

Authors: Elsie Clews Parsons, Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) (March 11, 2020) | Subjects: Excerpts, Immigration, Life & Society, Power, Sociology | Anthropology

Our Culture of Contempt

A 2014 article in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on “motive attribution asymmetry” — the assumption that your ideology is based in love, while your opponent’s is based in hate — suggests an answer. The researchers found that the average Republican and the average Democrat today suffer from a level of motive attribution asymmetry that is comparable with that of Palestinians and … [ Read more ]

Author: Arthur C. Brooks | Source: The New York Times (March 2, 2019) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy

Caring for Your Introvert

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted … [ Read more ]

Author: Jonathan Rauch | Source: The Atlantic (March2003) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Psychology | Behavior

And The Winner Is…

Human beings have never lacked for things to fight over, but for the last two millennia, they have fought the most over ideas involving the divine. Politics, technology, military capacity, and diseases have all played decisive roles in shaping history, yet it is impossible to understand the rise and fall of empires, the clash of civilizations, and the evolving balance of power without appreciating the … [ Read more ]

Author: Alan Wolfe | Source: The Atlantic (March2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Religion

Unspeakable Realities Block Universal Health Coverage In America

Why are economically struggling blue collar voters rejecting a party that offers to expand public safety net programs? The reality is that the bulk of needy white voters are not interested in the public safety net. They want to restore their access to an older safety net, one much more generous, dignified, and stable than the public system – the one most well-employed voters still … [ Read more ]

Author: Chris Ladd | Source: Forbes (March 13, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Health & Medicine, Politics & Public Policy

The Like Button Ruined the Internet

How “engagement” made the web a less engaging place

Author: James Somers | Source: The Atlantic (March 21, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, IT | Technology, Journalism, Life & Society

The U.S. Cannot Be Run Like a Business

A healthy society balances the power of respected governments in the public sector with both responsible businesses in the private sector and robust communities in what I call the plural sector — the clubs, religions, community hospitals, foundations, NGOs, and cooperatives with which so many of us engage. The plural sector, although the least recognized of the three, is large and diverse. Many of us … [ Read more ]

Author: Henry Mintzberg | Source: Harvard Business Review (HBR) (March2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy

Why Americans Have Come To Worship Their Own Ignorance

Author Tom Nichols argues that people are angry at journalists for giving them what they want: pared-down stories tailored to them.

Authors: Brian Bethune, Tom Nichols | Source: Maclean’s (March 20, 2017) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, News | Media | Publishing, Politics & Public Policy

The 10 Most Popular Conspiracy Theories in America

Some have viewed conspiracy theories as a particular affectation of the American right […] Modern researchers, however, challenge the view that conspiracies are an exclusively rightwing feature, seeing such theories as a kind of magical thinking that allows people from all walks of life and political persuasions to cope with complex emotions, often brought on by an inexplicable event.

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The view that people believe in conspiracies … [ Read more ]

Author: Paul Ratner | Source: Big Think (March 19, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior

14 Posts found for source_month: March