Social Life

Or the Obligation to Be Up-Beat

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced that soon all New York City Metrocards will be stamped "OPTIMISM." Positive thinking, our unofficial national ideology, is becoming harder and harder to escape.

Happiness and cheerfulness are good things, to be sure, as are self-confidence and faith. Nor is optimism bad, by any means. But there are downsides.

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Now that our faith in efficient and rational markets is largely discredited, new studies are sketching in the multiplicity of ways in which investors make decisions -- irrational decisions. This is all part of a new generation of behavioral economists and psychologists working together to replace the simplistic ideas of the economic orthodoxy that helped bring about our recent economic collapse. Read More

The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) comes into full effect this Saturday, November 21st. Employers need to take note, and employees should be aware of their rights. Read More

Philosophers, some scientists, and many people have long held the assumption that human nature is antisocial and self interested. This does not make sense, because people are deeply connected with each other, and self interest is often social. This blog will detail the ways in which people are fundamentally social, and what that could mean for our sense of who we are. Read More

Fairness is another primary threat or reward: the experience activates the same network that monitors real pain and pleasure. Read More

Mental illness often results from excess emotion. The overflow of emotion doesn't just drive mood disorders like Depression but fuels most psychological problems which are not strictly organic: phobias, anxiety, trauma, hoarding, obsessiveness, borderline personality disorder, and drug and alcohol abuse. Read More

"An impish grin spread across his face," wrote the Times' reporter about Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, responding to a question about excessive profits: "we're doing Gods' work." What did he mean? Read More

To be clear, I voted for the other guy, the one who didn't win the presidency. I'm an occupational paradox: a college professor who usually leans politically right. That said, I publicly declare an enthusiastic girl-crush on our nation's first lady, Michelle Obama. Read More

Suppose I meet someone for the first time, let's say a man, who believes that single people are miserable and lonely and want nothing more than to become unsingle. He has no particular animus toward me or toward single people in general - he just expects single people to have certain emotions and motivations. Would he behave toward me any differently than if he did not have those beliefs? Specifically, might he somehow get me to behave in ways that are in keeping with his false expectations about what I'm really like?

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