Science Of Small Talk

The science of social behavior, one interaction at a time

Sam Sommers, Ph.D., is a social psychologist at Tufts University. See full bio

August 19, 2009

Da Meaninglessness of Denials

Not long ago, a baseball tradition was continued. No, not the All-Star Game or any other midsummer classic to which the old-school baseball fan has grown accustomed. I'm talking about that newest of annual rites, the anonymous leaking of additional players who failed drug tests in 2003. Clearly, there's a lot that's interesting regarding the psychology of the contemporary baseball fan... Read More

July 27, 2009

More Gates Fallout

Last week's arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates continues to be a story with legs. There's no shortage of angles on the saga, from the question of to what extent does race influence our daily perceptions to the political matter of whether a sitting president should be commenting on local law enforcement issues. And so the debate rages on, whether or not some people are comfortable with it... Read More

July 22, 2009

On Police, Profiling, and Henry Louis Gates

In the wake of the recent arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, the renowned scholar of African-American History at Harvard, the question is "How far have we progressed on reducing racial profiling?" Ask White Americans, and most focus on how far we’ve come. Ask Black Americans, and you’re more likely to hear how far we still have to go. Read More

July 13, 2009

Worth More than 1,000 Words

According to Yahoo's Buzz Index, the #4 searched-for web topic by Americans right now is Sahel Kazemi. "Kazemi" and "Sahel Kazemi" are also the #2 and #3 entries on the Google Images "Rising Search" index for the past 7 days, runners-up only to Paris Jackson. Clearly, people want to know about Kazemi and see what she looks like in the wake of the apparent murder-suicide that ended in her death and that of her boyfriend, former NFL star Steve McNair. But why? Read More

June 19, 2009

Judging Diversity, Part II

In the weeks since I posted on the topic, much of the furor has died down regarding the previous comments made by Sonia Sotomayor concerning the role of gender and racial identity in legal judgment. In fact, just days later, Newt Gingrich (sort of) retracted his previous statement that Sotomayor was a racist. I can only assume that Gingrich's regular subscription to my blog played some role in his (sort of) reversal. But the even more interesting race/gender-related question inspired by Sotomayor's nomination is how her addition to the Court might impact the tendencies of the 9-justice entity. Research in a wide range of fields provides compelling evidence that the demographic composition of a group can affect the way it goes about making decisions... Read More

June 1, 2009

Judging Diversity, Part I

As an academic whose research focuses on 1) the effects of diversity on group decision-making and 2) psychological perspectives on the American legal system, there's a lot about the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court that piques my interest. Somewhat predictably, media coverage and political reaction to her selection has focused on issues of gender and race, bringing to the forefront of public discourse the intersection of contemporary debates surrounding diversity, judicial "activism," and personal identity... Read More

May 13, 2009

The Color of News

"What's black and white and red all over?" This i=s my 5-year-old's most recent favorite joke. The answer, of course, is the newspaper, the riddle's punchline hinging on the red/read homophone. But when I stop to think about it, it occurs to me that the news is actually pretty white, especially when it comes to particular types of stories... Read More

May 5, 2009

Excuses, Excuses

In my last entry, I wrote about how the fiancée of Philip Markoff, the accused "Craiglist Killer," reacted to the arrest of her one-time future husband. She had a difficult time believing that her loved one could be capable of such actions, a reaction that strikes me as quite understandable–most of us would struggle to comprehend the criminal (or even just problematic) behavior of people in our own lives. Indeed, our expectations and assumptions about human nature are regularly challenged by the reality of actual behavior, as demonstrated an article in today's Associated Press with the headline "From church-going family man to bank robber?" Read More

April 24, 2009

"Wouldn't Hurt a Fly"

The newest crime du jour to have captured popular attention is the "Craigslist Killer," so dubbed because of his fatal altercation with a woman whose massage services he had solicited via the internet bulletin board. Earlier this week, Boston police arrested a 23-year-old medical student named Philip Markoff for the crime. As often happens in such cases, the initial media reports have included a range of quotes from the suspect's classmates and teachers–past and present–not to mention family members. We've already heard the requisite "he wouldn't hurt a fly" line, in this case from Markoff's fiancée. Her exact quote: "All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly!" Read More

April 7, 2009

Return of the Prodigal Spitzer

Last fall I was discussing with my students the psychology of second chances in American life (insert your own F. Scott Fitzgerald allusion here). I argued that today's pariah is often tomorrow's comeback kid. As an example, I suggested that within five years, I fully expected to turn on MSNBC or CNN to see Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor of New York, serving as a political pundit analyzing election returns or campaign developments.

So now I'm ready to admit that I was wrong. By approximately four-and-a-half years. Read More

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