How a chance encounter on a plane sparked a quest to uncover life’s meaning. Arthur C. Brooks shares research-grounded tips to help your happiness levels soar.
Authors: Arthur C. Brooks, Suzanne Hogseth | Source: IESE Insight (May2025) | Subjects: Career, Happiness, Personal Improvement
The Republican Party stands for lower taxes, especially on the rich; lower spending on programs for the poor; and big spending on defense. That’s what Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, and other figures who defined the party have all stood for, for nearly half a century now… The essential Republican message may become blurred around the edges, the way that George W. Bush messed … [ Read more ]
Author: Dylan Matthews | Source: Vox (May 22, 2025) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
Since the 1950s, political scientists have theorized that political polarization—increased numbers of “political partisans” who view the world with an ideological bias—is associated with an inability to tolerate uncertainty and a need to hold predictable beliefs about the world.
But little is known about the biological mechanisms through which such biased perceptions arise.
To investigate that question, scientists measured and compared the brain activity of committed partisans … [ Read more ]
Authors: Corrie Pikul-Brown, David J. Halpern, Jeroen van Baar, Oriel FeldmanHall | Source: Futurity (May 14, 2021) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
Since 1992, people have been talking about “Dunbar’s number,” the supposed upper limit of the number of people with whom a person can maintain stable social relationships. Named for British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, its value, rounded from 148 to 150, has permeated both professional and popular culture. […] It’s also probably wrong. Despite its fame, Dunbar’s number has always been controversial. A new study … [ Read more ]
Authors: Robin Dunbar, Scotty Hendricks | Source: Big Think (May2021) | Subjects: Excerpts, Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior
The divide between urban and rural voters is growing everywhere: from New York City to farm towns.
Authors: Ian Chipman, Jonathan Rodden | Source: Stanford University (May 2, 2017) | Subjects: America, Excerpts, International, Politics & Public Policy
Three primary reasons people are attracted to conspiracy theories:
Author: Joe Forrest | Source: Instrument of Mercy (May 7, 2020) | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Excerpts, Intelligence | Knowledge, Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior, Thought | Inquiry
Society is of its nature oligarchical, and the power of the oligarchy always rests upon force and fraud. [James] Burnham does not deny that ‘good’ motives may operate in private life, but he maintains that politics consists of the struggle for power, and nothing else. All historical changes finally boil down to the replacement of one ruling class by another. All talk about democracy, liberty, … [ Read more ]
Author: George Orwell | Source: Polemic (May1946) | Subjects: Excerpts, History, Politics & Public Policy
Hard as it may be to believe, you can actually win [political] arguments. Here’s how.
Author: Jesse Singal | Source: The Cut (May 14, 2014) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Communication, Excerpts, Personal Improvement, Politics & Public Policy
One might … say that moving minds — our own as well as those of others — is among the most effortful labor there is.
[…]
“When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to … [ Read more ]
Authors: Blaise Pascal, Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) (May 20, 2015) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Communication, Excerpts
[Lakoff] understands that the way to get at people’s political opinions is by talking about values, rather than specific arguments about specific issues. He believes conservatives are much better at this than liberals and have been for a very long time. They have a much better track record of crafting political appeals by way of the appropriate value statements for their audience.
[…]
Lakoff’s core finding revolves … [ Read more ]
Authors: Daphne White, George Lakoff | Source: Berkeleyside (May 2, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior, Values
The American republic was long safeguarded by settled norms, now shattered by the rise of Donald Trump.
Author: David Frum | Source: The Atlantic (May 31, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
Despite his enormous contributions to science, Albert Einstein was no reclusive genius, his ever-eager conversations and correspondence engaging such diverse partners as the Indian philosopher Tagore and a young South African girl who wanted to be a scientist. In 1931, the Institute for Intellectual Cooperation invited the renowned physicist to a cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas about politics and peace with a thinker of his choosing. … [ Read more ]
Authors: Albert Einstein, Maria Popova, Sigmund Freud | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) (May 6, 2013) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Military | War | Peace, Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., … [ Read more ]
Author: Simon Johnson | Source: The Atlantic (May2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Finance | Investing