Category Archives: Other People

Race perception isn’t automatic

April 29, 2013 – 11:27 am

Last week’s column for BBC Future describes a neat social psychology experiment from an unlikely source. Three evolutionary psychologists reasoned that that claims that we automatically categorise people by the ethnicity must be wrong. Here’s how they set out to prove it. The original column is here. For years, psychologists thought we instantly label each […]

By tomstafford | Also posted in Reasoning | Comments (11)

What does it take to spark prejudice?

April 16, 2013 – 1:53 pm

Short answer: surprisingly little. Continuing the theme of revisiting classic experiments in psychology, last week’s BBC Future column was on Tajfel’s Minimal Group Paradigm. The original is here. Next week we’re going to take this foundation and look at some evolutionary psychology of racism (hint: it won’t be what you’d expect). How easy is it […]

By tomstafford | Comments (12)

BBC Column: Why cyclists enrage car drivers

February 18, 2013 – 1:58 pm

Here is my latest BBC Future column. The original is here. This one proved to be more than usually controversial, not least because of some poorly chosen phrasing from yours truly. This is an updated version which makes what I’m trying to say clearer. If you think that I hate cyclists, or my argument relies […]

By tomstafford | Also posted in Reasoning | Comments (68)

BBC Column: Are we naturally good or bad?

January 23, 2013 – 9:48 am

My BBC Future column from last week. The original is here. I started out trying to write about research using economic games with apes and monkeys but I got so bogged down in the literature I switched to this neat experiment instead. Ed Yong is a better man than me and wrote a brilliant piece […]

By tomstafford | Comments (14)

BBC Future Column: Why is it so hard to give good directions?

November 12, 2012 – 6:25 pm

My BBC Future column from last week. Original here. Psychologically speaking it is a tricky task, because our minds find it difficult to appreciate how the world looks to someone who doesn’t know it yet. We’ve all been there – the directions sounded so clear when we were told them. Every step of the journey […]

By tomstafford | Comments (5)

A culture shock for universal emotion

February 12, 2012 – 5:40 pm

The Boston Globe looks at the increasing evidence against the idea that there are some universally expressed facial emotions. The idea that some basic emotions are expressed universally and have an evolutionary basis was suggested by Darwin in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. The concept was further explored by […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (7)

The peak experiences of Abraham Maslow

January 20, 2012 – 12:48 am

The New Atlantis has an in-depth biographical article on psychologist Abraham Maslow – one of the founders of humanistic psychology and famous for his ‘hierarchy of needs’. Maslow is stereotypically associated with a kind of fluffy ‘love yourself’ psychology although the man himself was quite a skeptic of the mumbo jumbo that got associated with […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (6)

Against the high cult of retreat

November 14, 2011 – 5:33 pm

Depending on who you ask Naomi Weisstein is a perceptual neuroscientist, a rock n roll musician, a social critic, a comedian, or a fuck the patriarchy radical feminist. You stick Weisstein’s name into Google Scholar and her most cited paper is ‘Psychology Constructs the Female’ – a searing critique of how 60s psychology pictured the […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Theory | Comments (8)

The chaos behind a legendary portrait

September 28, 2011 – 1:43 am

I just found this fascinating account of how Vincent Van Gogh cut off his own ear while seemingly severely mentally ill, the event that led him to paint one of his most famous pictures. The account is apparently reconstructed from known events at the time but also has van Gogh’s own description of the event, […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering, Togetherness | Comments (10)

Shifting between the worlds of Carl Jung

September 15, 2011 – 5:43 pm

The New Atlantis has a wonderful article giving an in-depth biography of Carl Jung, perhaps one of the most interesting, infuriating and brilliant thinkers in the history of psychology. Variously a pioneering experimental psychologist, a depth-analyst, an asylum psychiatrist and a man submerged in his own psychosis, he had a massive influence on both our […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering, Theory | Comments (12)

From character analysis to orgasm batteries

June 27, 2011 – 7:44 pm

Slate has a brilliant article on one of the most troubled and yet fascinating people in the history of psychology – William Reich – inventor of the orgasmotron. Reich was one of Freud’s inner circle but decided to propose his own ideas rather than follow the Freudian orthodoxy, something which got him promptly kicked out […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (4)

An unusual form of the Babinski reflex

June 25, 2011 – 11:20 pm

A curious anecdote about legendary neurologist Joseph Babinski accidentally hitting on the butler of famous physician Henry Head: Babinski [1857–1932] stayed with Henry Head in London. He spoke no English but on retiring wanted to use a bidet and summoned the butler who spoke no French; he therefore used sign language to indicate what he […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering | Comments (1)

Is medical school an empathotoxin?

June 18, 2011 – 1:21 am

Medical school seems to have a profound negative effect on empathy according to a research review just published in Academic Medicine. The review of 18 studies found that self-reported emotional understanding declines markedly during medical training. Counter-intuitively, the crucial downturn happens when medical students start seeing patients. Although the studies are almost completely based on […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (24)

For Whom the Bell Tolls: A psychological autopsy

June 17, 2011 – 12:40 pm

The Independent has an excellent article on the life and death of writer Ernest Hemingway based on an academic article that attempted a ‘psychological autopsy’ to understand the reasons for his suicide. Hemingway’s suicide has remained a sticking point for many of his biographers as it seemed incongruous with his adventurous, hard drinking and robustly […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (4)

Carl Jung: a character of complexes

June 3, 2011 – 1:43 am

Carl Jung, the brilliant kaleidoscopic mind of psychoanalysis, died 50 years ago next week and The Guardian have the first part of a new series exploring his life and work. In the history of psychology, Jung lives as a intense sunburst of experiences and ideas. Sometimes the rays are so bright it’s hard to distinguish […]

By vaughanbell | Comments (4)

A reflection of the greatest

May 31, 2011 – 12:46 am

A surprising study has just appeared in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology about whether narcissists realise what others think about their egotistical self-image. Narcissism is a trait where people are more concerned about themselves than others and tend to think they are better and more important than their peers. This has often been […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (3)
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