One Among Many

The self in social context
Joachim I. Krueger, Ph.D.
J. Krueger

Favor-Asking

The psychology of seeking help or asking for favors rarely considers the underbelly of strategic reasoning. Here’s an attempt to do just that.
J. Krueger

Gulliber's Travails

Critics go hard-core with "science-based" medicine (and other practices and beliefs), but few readers will be impressed.
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Dalai Does Brussels

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will rock Brussels in September, 2016. Here's an unenthusiastic preview.
J. Krueger

Lightman's Universe

Alan Lightman says the universe is accidental. I believe that, although he says there can be no proof.
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Not Even Bullshit

Deepak Chopra recently became the poster-boy for bullshit (in Frankfurt's 2005 sense). I submit that this charge does not go far enough.
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Nomination Dilemma

Suppose you can give love to others but not to yourself. How much would you give?
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Gullibility Gulag

At a 'congress' of Russian stagemen and women (you can't call them scientists), alternative worldviews were free-wheelingly bandied about.
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Casse-Croute

Let us take a look at some of the lesser-known aspects of self-love and an unconventional perspective on insurance. There’s always a psychology in that.
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My Return to Theism

Theism – Atheism is a false dichotomy. Setting aside deism as anemic theism, I distinguish between theism with love and theism without love. The former is easy to refute, as has been done many times by children and philosophers. The latter is far more resistant to disproof and psychologically more plausible.
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Open Questions

You know how to talk to a judge, a physician, and the wait staff. But do you know how to talk to a professor?
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Kazantzakis's Theory of Happiness

Zorba the Greek was larger than life, in the book and in the film. Through him, author Nikos Kazantzakis speaks to us about his theory of happiness, which is very Greek indeed.
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Failure to Communicate

Open communication comes with risks. The goal to reduce these risks while preserving openness creates a social dilemma. Your responses will reveal your values.
T. Wirth, with permission

Grossip

Gossip can be entertaining. We often thirst for it and delight in its consumption. There is also a dark side, however. Please don’t go there.
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Hallucinated Happiness

If only imagination could sustain our happiness! Alas, we remain shackled to reality. Examples of continued attempts to psych ourselves into happiness – or others into unhappiness – range from the entertaining to the disturbing.
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Biggus Bangus

In the beginning was god and god made the big bang. But who make god? Five-year olds want to know, but seasoned christian cosmogonists have forgotten this question. They rather create god in their own image – projectively.
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Thinking Is Hard

We experience ourselves as thinking creatures, and our thinking seems to matter for our actions. Why, however, is thinking so hard?
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Ron Swanson, Donald Trump, and You

The characters on Parks & Recreation have describable personalities, as does Donald Trump. Would he fit in? Would you?
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Business as Unusual

Much like you can readily observe interesting and weird behavior among those around you, you can observe interesting and weird business practices in your hometown. Be the freakonomist on your block.
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Student and professor

A personal reflection on the changing roles in the university classroom.
J. Krueger

Insight Into Bias

Psychologists (and you) love a tale of two minds. Here’s one about how people self-enhance (or efface) and how they know that they do.

We need a folksy free will

Andrew Monroe, who is an expert on moral psychology and folk beliefs about free will responds to an earlier post on 'Free Will Depletion.'
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Grade Flation

Grades are a mixed curse. We can't leave without them, unless the culture changes radically, which it won't. Here's some of the psychology between the preference for easy (and hard) As.
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Free Will Depletion

After tortured administration of surgery and double-blind medicinalization, free will remains clinically dead. Here's another dyslogy.
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Cookie Dilemma

When you leave a cookie and the choice to eat it to others, you better mean it. Otherwise, you are not being socially mindful but hypocritical, or just dumb.
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Jack of Harz

Social cooperation and mindfulness come with many facets. Here are three examples observed on the other side of the Harz mountains.
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East of Elbingerode

Traveling in Saxony-Anhalt brought an opportunity to mull the psychology of the ordinary. It is not hard to do, you can try this at home. But it is better on the road.
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Quiet Days in Quedlinburg

Heading towards the western fringes of the former East Germany, psychology was on my mind. Here, I share some thoughts on the psychology of money (in these here woods) and the limits of compassion.

Over Ego

To say that one is better than average is a famous bias from the social psychology textbook. In this better-than-average post, I show that it is not irrational to do so.
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Game of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is good. Yet, it is not always forthcoming. This should tell us something about human psychology.
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From Diagoras to Dawes and Denrell

To live is to sample – experiences. Sample the good and ignore the bad. Would that not lead to happiness? Read about the fly in the ointment.

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