Hive Mind

An open mind with a strict door policy

Robert J. King Ph.D.

Still Running Amok: Spree Killers

What can biology offer to help us understand (and prevent) tragedies like the recent slayings in Plymouth?

Mental Gymnastics

Suddenly, lots of people have helped themselves to opinions about gymnastics, mental health, and sport in general. Most of these pundits haven't a clue about any of these things.

Kneeling Down Is Not Bending Over

The recent loss of England to Italy on penalties in Euro 2020—and consequent racist abuse—offers a chance to reflect on bigotry, aggression, and neuroscience.

Nose Job: Loss of Smell Is Not a Trivial Effect of COVID

Do the effects of long COVID threaten sexual relationships? Possibly, mediated through damaging our sense of smell.

W.A.P. (We Are Predictable)

Cardi B's latest song captures many of the findings of recent sex research (both ancient and modern). Why do people keep having to be told the same things over and over?

Wise and Wonderful

What light does biology shed on the phenomenon of political rioting?

Signaling Virtue

How do we respond to ethical issues raised by COVID-19? A utilitarian approach? An absolutist one? That split ignores our primary way of making moral sense of the world.

Damage Limitation

What is coming as a response to COVID-19 is going to need psychological support as well as medical expertise.

Who Is the King of the Castle?

The ability to think socially is why this blog is written by a human, rather than by a virus. But we are not yet using our evolved abilities to their best advantage.

Life in the Time of Corona

When leadership is confused, people try to make sense as best they can. In the teeth of a crisis like COVID-19, this can be risky.

Let Me Remind You How Smart You Are

COVID-19. It's not time to panic, but it is (past) time to act.

Terf Wars: What Is Biological Sex?

What is biological sex? Why are there such noisy and competing views on this? The simple answer is that the noisier the view, the less likely it is to be correct.

Dissonant Cognitions

Humans like to think that their beliefs drive their actions. Often it is precisely the other way around.

OK, Boomer!

The kids of today are no dumber or more disrespectful than they've always been. A recent study explains why we keep thinking that the youth are getting worse.

Good to Be Alive

Anti-natalists claim to believe that life is so awful, it would be better if we were all dead. Are they serious?

The Rites of a Silent Spring

Greta Thunberg inspires strong emotions—positive and negative. Part of this is the message she relays, but the message is not a new one. What is different this time?

Glitches cheat sheet

Hacked Off

Do you think your brain hasn't been hacked? Think again.

Near the Knuckle

What sense can we make of bare-knuckle fights in the modern age? Using the tools of biology, the answer is "quite a lot".

Sex on the Brain

Recent books have claimed—incorrectly and unnecessarily—that men and women's brains are indistinguishable.

Through a Glass, Darkly

Are memories of trauma, such as in the Christine Blasey Ford-Brett Kavanaugh case, reliable? What does the science of memory research tell us?

ART Attack

Assistive reproductive technologies: New opportunities, but also new concerns.

Idiot in a Hurry

A recent legal ruling on a chocolate bar, allows me to make a testable prediction based on evolutionary principles

Adverse Childhood Experience

Taking children from their carers can have horrible long-term consequences—and not just for the people directly involved.

Separation Anxiety

Recent attention on the separation of children at the United States border is an opportunity to think about the long-term effects of parental deprivation on children.

The One You Shouldn't Hurt At All

A recent op-ed in the Washington Post called for open hatred of men. This seems like a good opportunity to explore some under-reported issues of intimate partner violence.

Potential People? Abortion in Ireland

Abortion: Who gets to decide who lives and dies? All of us, that's who.

Abortion and Mental Health: What Are the Facts?

The abortion debate in Ireland has generated interest in potential harms to the mother's mental health. The science on this is unequivocal.

What, Exactly, Is an "Unborn Child"?

Conversation around repealing the eighth amendment in Ireland is generating at least as much heat as light.

Bare Branches With Rotten Fruit

Surplus males are a menace to women in a large number of measurable ways

Two Cheers for Empathy

Paul Bloom has recently (and one suspects slightly provocatively) called for a rejection of empathy. But he has left us little grounds for his alternative "rational compassion."

  • Previous
  • Page 1 (current)
  • Next