One Among Many

The self in social context

Persuasion as Performance

To get what you want, you may need to persuade others to see things your way, while making them believe that they win.

Understanding Games of Baiting and Daring

Dostoevsky describes social games in "The Gambler." A psychological analysis of these games can help guard against being played in the world beyond literature.

Cooperation and Defection in Two Social Games

An understanding of the prisoner’s dilemma and the game of chicken can help lead us through difficult interpersonal encounters, where our outcomes are independent.

Guilt and Power

Guilt trips are cheaper than other trips and no less damaging. A game-theoretic analysis advises not to travel.

The Psychology of Victim-Blaming

A dark and impossible message to those who seek relief. There are better ways to get better.

The Dilution of Homeopathy

Homeopathy and the popular belief in its efficacy is a test case for what people are willing to believe—apparently, a lot.

Rationality and Progress

Rationality is good for you and for society. Steven Pinker makes the case and I review it here.

Prayers and Thoughts: To Pray Is to Signal With Sincerity

Intercessory prayer is a popular superstition. Psychology can help explain why people believe in that for which there is no evidence.

The Four Horsemen of Irrationality

This is a non-comprehensive review of Steven Pinker’s recent book on rationality. The book offers enlightenment but no redemption.

Deliberate Ignorance Can Both Increase and Reduce Uncertainty

When we have a choice to manage what we know, how do we make it?

Figure 1: the standard Hi-Lo coordination game

The Fall and Rise of Team Reasoning

The operation of a team spirit has not been shown in experimental coordination games, but it is obvious in team sports and music.

Why Do We Brag?

Bragging is annoying and yet it resists extinction. What are its hidden advantages?

Why Some People Are Afraid of Praise

Praise can be unpleasant. Social anxieties, culture, and lack of self-insight can make it so.

Temptation and the Will

Ideas about free will lie close to the surface in folk explanations of behavior and they enable moral condemnation. These ideas are chains. Would we be happier without them?

The Quixotic Quest for Certainty

The more wondrous a miracle, the harder it is to show it has occurred.

The Self-Eliminating Nature of Miracles

David Hume knocked miracles. Thomas Bayes allowed them. Albert Einstein gave us a choice.

The Mystery of the Lottery

Lotteries are polarizing. People love them or hate them. The love is harder to explain.

The Relationship Between Covid-19 and Trauma

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to produce psychological stresses, but it is not a major source of trauma.

5 Elements of Writing

Writing well is a skill that takes years to hone. Here are some pointers as to what makes a good text, but nothing beats practice.

No Trust Without Greed

Interpersonal trust, though heavily researched and theorized about, retains some of its secrets. One is that it implies blindness.

BATNA For Beginners

Savvy negotiators know when to reveal their options and when not to, in business and in love.

Boethius on Happiness

Boethius’s "Consolation of Philosophy" summarizes much classical thought on happiness and anticipates some modern findings.

Caveat Emptor: When Sellers Know More Than Buyers

The Acquiring a Company Game opens a window into the psychology of bargaining when sellers know more than buyers.

Why We Behave Spitefully

Spiteful behavior occasionally occurs. Its emotional benefits are dubious and ambivalent. Why does it occur at all?

The Ecology of Rationality

The psychology of judgment and decision-making has much to say about our mental limitations. Often, though, the problem is with what we have to work with.