Cultural Animal

How we find meaning in life.

Roy F. Baumeister is Eppes Eminent Scholar, Professor of Psychology, and head of the social psychology graduate program at Florida State University. See full bio

Cultural Animal

July 8, 2009

Do the Laws of Physics Permit Any Exceptions?

If meaning, symbolism, and social reality are real AND are not physical things, then not all reality is physical. Read More

June 30, 2009

John Bargh and Some Misunderstandings About Free Will

Bargh and Baumeister debated free will for 90 minutes at the giant SPSP convention in Tampa. These are Baumeister's thoughts after the debate.

June 25, 2009

Free Will at the Tampa SPSP Conference: The Great Debate

Do human beings have free will? Or is every human action the inevitable result of prior events and external causes? Or both? Read More

June 23, 2009

Determinism Is Not Just Causality

Determinism is the belief in the 100 percent inevitability of everything that happens. That requires a huge leap of faith.

February 15, 2009

Just Exactly What Is Determinism?

Determinism is not just causality. Determinism goes far beyond causality, and certainly much farther than psychological science requires.

Many scientific psychologists embrace determinism without realizing what it means. That, at least, is the distinct impression left with me after the dramatic debate about free will at the keynote session of the big annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Tampa earlier this month.

February 15, 2009

Should Football Penalize Celebrating and Taunting?

Should psychological expressions be penalized in sports?

The past two months have seen many high points of the recent football season, as both colleges and the professional league matched their top teams in postseason clashes. The results have often been entertaining, with ample suspense, surprise, drama, subplots, and feats of remarkable athleticism. Read More

November 19, 2008

Languages Are Vanishing: So What?

Most of the world's seven thousand languages will no longer be spoken by the end of this century. So what? Should we moan, resist, or say "Good riddance!"? Read More

November 9, 2008

Why I Don’t Vote

People are usually surprised to hear I don't vote. I think many have an initial reaction of curiosity and disapproval. People who vote are often self-righteous. I have heard instructors say they give their students extra points if they vote in the election. On voting day, those who say they voted are often congratulated and praised, as if they had donated blood or something. Read More

October 22, 2008

Prejudice and the Election

Social psychologists interested in prejudice might usefully turn their attention to a rampant and destructive set of prejudices, namely the way Republicans and Democrats regard each other.

Prejudice is one of the most widely studied phenomena in my field of social psychology.

October 18, 2008

Single Sex Schools?

This year my research on gender got me invited to speak at the annual conference of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE). I had not heard of this organization previously, but I attended with an open mind. I must say it was all rather inspiring.

Nobody there is saying we should require kids to be in same-sex classrooms. They are merely in favor of choice.

Social Dimension of Sex, The

Self-Help Basics

Most of us have things about ourselves we wish we could improve. Lasting change is difficult—many of our habits are deeply ingrained, and certain aspects of ourselves, such as core personality attributes, may be immutable. But many more things can be changed.

Go to the Self-Help Basics page for more on Self-Help including:

Current Issue

Heartbreak and Home Runs: The Power of First Experiences

How early life experiences shape our character.

Cultural Animal

Subscribe to Cultural Animal

Books by Roy F. Baumeister

Self-Help Basics

Current Issue