Politics

Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and the Search for Leadership

By Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D. on September 17, 2010 in Cutting-Edge Leadership

Last night, Comedy Central's faux news anchor, Jon Stewart, announced that he was staging a "Rally to Restore Sanity" march in Washington DC on October 30th. What does this say about our nation's leadership and our need for good leadership? Read More

Peter Singer, Vioxx, and the Future of Animal Testing

By Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D. on September 15, 2010 in The Inner Lives of Animals

No human enterprise illustrates our deep-seated sense of superiority than the use of animals in product and drug testing. Read More

"In fact I think..." The rhetoric of fact and opinion

By Dr. Jeremy Sherman on September 15, 2010 in Ambigamy

IMHO: In my humble opinion-what's the deal with that? What do we ever say that isn't our humble opinion? And yet when we declare, "It's raining" do we really mean, "I think it's raining" or is raining a fact, and therefore not a matter of humble opinion? Read More

Is That The Whisper of Wisdom I Hear?

By Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. on September 14, 2010 in Time Out

People in Washington, DC call themselves political and news "junkies," because they just can't get enough of either, and the supply is always available. Read More

Hanging a Clothesline and Other New Moves

By Kimerer LaMothe, Ph.D. on September 14, 2010 in What a Body Knows

It has been three weeks since I did it: I hung a clothesline.

In the end, it was easy. I took the cotton cord Geoff bought at the local hardware store, walked into the backyard, and strung the line between two obliging birch trees. Five minutes later, the deed was done.

Why had I waited so long?

Travel and Social Privilege

By Chris Guillebeau on September 13, 2010 in The Art of Non-Conformity

Should You Quit Your Job and Travel Around the World? Read More

The Republican Party is in a meltdown over its values

By Christopher Lane, Ph.D. on September 13, 2010 in Side Effects

Consider Newt Gingrich's latest slander against our President a foretaste of what's to come. Read More

Burning books in a digital age: fire and futility

By Nando Pelusi, Ph.D. on September 13, 2010 in Locus of Control

Reification of an item or word into something real is a transmutation our species of mammal does well and easily. We conflate a gesture with real aggression. If someone gives me the finger while driving I can choose to enrage myself or not. Read More

Why What We Tell Ourselves About 9/11/2001 Still Matters

By Gina Barreca, Ph.D. on September 11, 2010 in Snow White Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Learning how things happened--otherwise known as "history"--is important, and the lessons contained within the facts are what are most important.

The more personal the story, the better. Read More

On 9-11, patriotism, and the U.S. flag

By Mikhail Lyubansky, Ph.D. on September 10, 2010 in Between the Lines

Patriotism may not have a national party, but it does have a national purpose: not to accept, not to maintain, but to improve.

Burning the Quran: Psychology of Religious Hatred

By Nigel Barber, Ph.D. on September 10, 2010 in The Human Beast

A quirky Florida pastor wanted to commemorate 9/11 with a Quran burning in Gainesville. This action was designed to inflame tensions between Moslems and Christians in the U.S. and around the world. In that, it has succeeded already. It has also catapulted an obscure sect to worldwide prominence. Read More

How Google is Replacing the Government.

By Ron S. Doyle on September 9, 2010 in You 2.0

In the same manner that companies like Halliburton and Blackwater are (functionally) replacing the military, Google is one of several companies poised to govern us—or eliminate the need for a government at all. Read More

9/11/01: If you don't remember, you forget

By Todd Essig, Ph.D. on September 9, 2010 in Over-Simulated

Taking time to remember the events of 9 years ago can help heal destructive divisions. When you're feeling helpless, the best thing you can do is help someone. Read More

Measuring Happiness One Nation at a Time

By Carol Graham on September 8, 2010 in Happiness Around the World

That there is a flood of interest in the study of happiness may be a sign of the times-- the recent financial crisis and uncertain economic future. Many people are questioning the role of income relative to other factors as they assess their well being, not least because many have lost a great deal of income. It seems a good time to raise the question: Is money is indeed the key to happiness? Read More

5 Warning Signs of a Deteriorating Workplace

By Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D. on September 8, 2010 in Cutting-Edge Leadership

"It doesn't feel the same around here." "They treat us as if we were interchangeable parts." "When I went to HR to complain about mistreatment, they told me that maybe I'd be happier at another company." These are all comments that I've heard about deteriorating workplaces. Here are the 5 warning signs that your workplace is going downhill fast. Read More

Politics: When Did the Senate Turn into Pre-school

By Jim Taylor, Ph.D. on September 7, 2010 in The Power of Prime

I've become quite an authority on pre-schoolers these days. My eldest daughter just finished pre-school and my youngest daughter is in her second year. Plus, I'm writing my third parenting book tentatively titled, Parenting on Message: The 9 Essential Messages to Give Your Child a Great Start to Life (The Experiment Publishing, Spring, 2011), which is about the messages we send our young children that shape who they become and how they behave. Read More

The Four I's

By Dr. Jeremy Sherman on September 6, 2010 in Ambigamy

An evolutionary account of self counts not one but four basic selves in interaction with each other. Introspective Intelligence is an effort to get them well orchestrated with each other. Read More

The Dignity of Work: Transforming the One-Size-Fits-All Workhouse into a Custom-Fit Workplace

By Robert W. Fuller, Ph.D. on September 2, 2010 in Somebodies and Nobodies

When the history of the dignity movement is written, The Custom-Fit Workplace will stand as a beacon that lit the way. Read More

The Politics of Humor (Or The Humor of Politics)

By R. Michael Alvarez on September 2, 2010 in The Psychology Behind Political Debate

Sometimes politics is a humorous business. In the midst of a contentious electoral season, it's always refreshing to see politicians refrain from negativity --- and to poke fun at themselves and their opponents. Read More

Faith-abled vs. Faith-disabled: Toward an objective distinction between red and blue states of mind

By Dr. Jeremy Sherman on September 2, 2010 in Ambigamy

As I've mentioned I'm trying to put my finger on what makes me and others intuit that there are two different psychological sub-cultures of humans. Red vs. Blue, Conservative vs. Liberal, Right vs. Left, religious vs. secular-maybe these divisions are symptomatic of the underlying difference, but they don't seem to get to the bottom of it. Read More

Essential Reads: Editor's Picks

How to Not Be Racist
by Agustín Fuentes, Ph.D.
Predicting the IQ of Future People
by Pete Shanks
The Word-Wise Spiral
by Dr. Jeremy Sherman

Politics Blogs

Dangerous Ideas
How our core beliefs promote and prevent progressive change
By Roy Eidelson, Ph.D.
Dangerous Minds
Understanding the motives and methods of terrorists.
By Anthony Lemieux, Ph.D.
Dignity
Why staying civil is the key to conflict resolution
By Donna Hicks, Ph.D.
I Take Up Space
Examining fatism and its consequences
By Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.
Polarized
How opinions unite and divide us
By Thomas J. Leeper
Scientocracy
Why psychological science is relevant to policy debates—and what policies might look like if they were better aligned with human nature
By Peter Ubel
The Five Percent
Finding solutions to seemingly impossible conflicts
By Peter T. Coleman, Ph.D.
The Psychology of Dictatorship
Can psychology deliver us from the Hitlers of the world?
By Fathali Moghaddam, Ph.D.