The Scientific Fundamentalist

A look at the hard truths about human nature.

Satoshi Kanazawa

Why Men Lie Up and Women Lie Down

Both men and women lie, but they lie about different (and predictable) things.

How Is Steven Pinker NOT Like Michael Jordan?

The three men I admire most [are] Paul Shaffer, Robin Williams, and Dave Barry. To this short list must now be added Steven Pinker.

Why Is eHarmony So Successful?

Is eHarmony successful for the same reason that conservative churches are strong?

Tina Fey on the Internet

"The internet is the repository of all human garbage. It's the worst place in the world." Tina Fey

Why Are Older Parents More Likely to Have Daughters?

One of the consistent findings in the field of reproductive medicine is that older parents are more likely to have daughters. Why?

Why Liberals and Conservatives Are Both Wrong about Evolution

A new book explains why conservative policies are more likely to succeed than liberal policies.

What’s Wrong with Me? What’s Wrong with Them?

I just learned the sad news that NBC will likely cancel its new sitcom Perfect Couples.

Are All Women Essentially Prostitutes?

Now I have found my own Allie....

Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence?

The answer: No.

Criminals Look Different From Noncriminals

As it turns out, humans possess the ability to tell who's a criminal and who's not simply by looking at them because criminals look different from noncriminals.

Fun with Binomial Distributions

On the new ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine (a new Thomas Schlamme vehicle without Aaron Sorkin), all five Caucasian lead actors (Matthew Perry, Allison Janney, Andrea Anders, Portia Doubleday, and Nate Torrence) have piercing blue eyes.

Do Men Try to Impress Prostitutes?

There is at least one contradiction in Superfreakonomics.

Superfreak, Yes; Onomics, No

I was a big fan of Freakonomics, but I was disappointed by its sequel, Superfreakonomics.

The Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Nuclear Weapons

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of every American citizen to own and operate their own nuclear weapons.

Three-Year Anniversary

It’s Valentine’s Day again, so it must be another anniversary for the Scientific Fundamentalist blog.

More Intelligent People Are More Likely to Binge Drink and Get Drunk

Not only are more intelligent individuals more likely to consume more alcohol more frequently, they are more likely to engage in binge drinking and to get drunk.

More on Why Stepfathers Kill Their Children

Yet another very astute reader has proposed a way to adjudicate between the two competing hypotheses on why stepfathers kill their children.

If Beautiful People Have Daughters, Why Do Posh and Becks Have Three Sons?

One of the first questions that journalists and other civilians often ask me when I describe my repeated findings that beautiful people have more daughters is “So why do Posh and Becks have three sons?” Such questions, while understandable at some level, nonetheless betray ignorance of the danger of relying on manwho statistics, in other words, anecdotes.

Women Are More Beautiful Than Men

If beautiful people have more daughters, and if physical attractiveness is heritable, then it follows that, over time, women become physically more attractive than men. This indeed appears to be the case.

Beautiful People Have More Daughters

Physically more attractive parents are more likely to have daughters than physically less attractive parents, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

Why Are Stepparents More Likely to Kill Their Children?

A paper forthcoming in Current Zoology presents the first critique of evolutionary psychology that makes any sense, as well as the first refutation of one of the core findings of evolutionary psychology.

No Representation Without Taxation

I have a magic solution for our current problem of national deficit. I can more than double the individual tax revenue for the government while at the same time reducing the tax burden of the average taxpayer. How is that mathematically possible?

Is This Why Teenage Girls Don’t Swoon for Middle-Aged Billionaires?

An astute reader has now come up with a possible explanation for why there is no CEO Dreamboats magazine.

“It’s Only “Good Science” If the Message Is Politically Correct”

My friend and fellow evolutionary psychologist Robert Kurzban has a blog at Evolutionary Psychology.

Beautiful People Really Are More Intelligent

Beautiful people have higher intelligence than ugly people, especially if they are men.

What I Have Learned from Barry Goldwater

Sometimes scientists can learn an important lesson from politicians.

What If It Turns Out the Earth Were Flat After All?

Science is a cumulative endeavor. We build on past knowledge to attain even greater knowledge than before in a progressive manner. Unfortunately, however, science doesn’t always work as it should.

Why the New Hands-Free Texting App Will Not Reduce Car Accidents

A company in Boston, AdelaVoice, has invented a smart-phone application called StartTalking that allows drivers to send and receive text messages while driving. Unfortunately, however, such a hands-free texting device will not reduce the likelihood of an accident while texting.

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker File for Divorce

Eva Longoria has filed for divorce from Tony Parker.

Why Is It Permissible to Profile Packages But Not Passengers?

After three bombs were discovered in October among packages sent from Yemen to Chicago, FedEx, UPS, the US Postal Service, and the Royal Mail have all suspended service from Yemen. Why isn’t anybody upset about this?

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