A recent study demonstrates that having a smartphone within one's sphere of awareness is distracting, reducing one's ability to concentrate effectively. From the Discussion section of Experiment 1 (p. 146):
[T]hese results suggest that the mere presence of one’s smartphone may reduce available cognitive capacity and impair cognitive functioning, ( Read more... )

There are always lots of good TED talks, but here are two that have struck me particularly:

Simon Sinek on leadership. (12 minutes) This is what I strive for as a manager; I want to be part of an organization that supports me in it.

Guy Winch on emotional self-care. (17.5 minutes) Help yourselves; help each other. More people than we may know ( Read more... )

Here are a couple of experimental results from FaceBook: one person Liked(tm) everything for 2 days; another person didn't Like(tm) anything for 2 weeks.

LJ doesn't have a Like(tm), +1(tm), or other such general-purpose one-click response option, so we have to, brace yourself, use our words here. This is rather likelier to involve thought, but ( Read more... )

I wrote this in the context of a discussion in my parish's LGBT & Straight Alliance group. The question of the duality and complementarity of gender as expressed in Genesis (and referenced specifically by Jesus) was raised, and how to square that with homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderedness, etc.1 This is a rather deeper and harder question ( Read more... )

Michael Kimmel at Dartmouth (1h28m). I don't usually watch, let alone repost, all of long videos; this one is worth it. He addresses two things, and links them; I think each one is worth hearing about, even if I'm not sure I agree with his attempt to make them All One Thing. The two things are: a proposed new phase of human cultural development ( Read more... )

Good article about social psychology, game theory, and education.

Living With Voices: an article offering a perspective on psychosis and schizophrenia that I'd never thought of.

Many of you know about the Milgram experiment; Philip Zimbardo gave a TED talk about it, and his own Stanford prison experiment, which I think distills these results down to their essence, and gives some hope and ideas for what to do about it.

Trigger warning: video contains photos of brutality and nudity; this is not light stuff.

I find this infuriating, especially in the context of this. People who seek out and gain power often do so by disregarding boundaries; unfortunately, they all too often carry on breaking rules without regard for others. Most often, nobody calls them on it, and they just keep on getting away with it and feeling entitled to do so.

First link ( Read more... )

Here are six simple knee-jerk biases I try to watch for in myself:

1. If a member of a group or category I belong to does something of which I approve, my natural bias is to think that their status as a member of that group or category influenced them to do so.

2. If a member of a group or category I belong to does something of which I disapprove ( Read more... )