Areo - Psychology

The Disdain of the Clerks

Human beings are too dumb for democracy. That’s the thesis of a paper delivered by political psychologist Shawn Rosenberg at the Annual Conference of Political Psychology last July, approvingly covered…

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9 min

Realism, Righteousness, and the Need to Resist

It isn’t easy being human. As neither beasts nor gods, we must figure out for ourselves how to live. Socrates describes this challenge, seemingly unique to us—in what must rank…

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13 min

Culture-Bound Syndromes: Satanic Panics, Multiple Personality Disorder & ROGD

On 6 September, at the District Court in Sydney, Australia, Richard Haynes was sentenced to forty-five years in prison for sexually abusing and torturing his daughter, Jeni. The case made…

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5 min

Psychology’s Replication Crisis

Photo: Five Thirty Eight The science of the mind has never been exclusively objective—consider the Oedipus complex. The psychological theories of today are not nearly as blatant in their errors. However,…

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8 min

Bad Psychology: Why Climate Change Won’t Be Solved by Better Decisions at the Supermarket

Did you know that if we all recycled one plastic bag, we could use those materials to make 28,906 park benches? Did you also know that if we’re ever going…

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15 min

Donald Trump Is a Liar, but He’s Not a Hypocrite

A liar says x is true when she knows x is false or vice versa. A hypocrite casts shame and expresses intense moral condemnation about people for engaging in behavior…

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6 min

Psychology

An Alternative Explanation for Male Violence

Dr Julia Shaw has published an article in Psychology Today, challenging the notion that men are naturally more violent than women. Disturbed by the fact that prisoners are overwhelmingly male,…

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5 min

Psychology

The Benefits of Solitude

Loneliness—the sense of isolation and alienation from society—has always been a part of the human condition, much discussed by philosophers and theologians. In the past few years, however, loneliness has…

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14 min

Impossible Conversations

A review of Peter Boghossian and James A. Lindsay’s Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide (2019) and announcing the Letter Wiki Impossible Conversations Competition James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian’s new…

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12 min

Annaka Harris’s “Conscious” and the Trap of Dualism

Annaka Harris’s recent book Conscious presents a concise and well-written exploration of consciousness, with an emphasis on the mystery of subjective experience. Harris approaches this difficult topic from a secular,…

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16 min

Seven Key Misconceptions about Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary approaches to psychology hold the promise of revolutionizing the field and unifying it with the biological sciences. But among both academics and the general public, a few key misconceptions…

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19 min

Psychology

Minds Without Bodies: Transgenderism and the Authentic Self

Jazz Jennings, teenage transgender superstar, turns to the camera: “To all of the kids out there who are hearing this book for the first time, I just want to say…

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7 min

Psychology

The Codification of Sex and the Problem with Sex Addiction

There is an old joke in psychological circles that a sex addict is someone who is having more sex than his therapist. If we accept that—as psychoanalysis claims—every joke contains…

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6 min

Netflix Has Their “Han Shot First” Moment with 13 Reasons Why

Netflix recently announced they have bowed to pressure from complainants arguing that their show 13 Reasons Why’s graphic portrayal of a youth suicide was insensitive. Netflix have stated that they plan to…

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10 min

Memory and Identity: A Letter Exchange with Gurwinder Bhogal

My interest in the freelance writer and fellow Areo contributor Gurwinder Bhogal was originally piqued by his tweets: a series of gnomic utterances about the slippery nature of identity and…

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20 min

Psychology

What if I’m Wrong: Should Doubt Be a Sacred Value?

In my previous essay for Areo magazine, I claim that curiosity is sacred and that we should elevate curiosity into what Jonathan Haidt calls a “sacred value,” by honoring Richard…

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Psychology

The Disdain of the Clerks

Realism, Righteousness, and the Need to Resist

Culture-Bound Syndromes: Satanic Panics, Multiple Personality Disorder & ROGD

Psychology’s Replication Crisis

Bad Psychology: Why Climate Change Won’t Be Solved by Better Decisions at the Supermarket

Donald Trump Is a Liar, but He’s Not a Hypocrite

An Alternative Explanation for Male Violence

The Benefits of Solitude

Impossible Conversations

Annaka Harris’s “Conscious” and the Trap of Dualism

Seven Key Misconceptions about Evolutionary Psychology

Minds Without Bodies: Transgenderism and the Authentic Self

The Codification of Sex and the Problem with Sex Addiction

Netflix Has Their “Han Shot First” Moment with 13 Reasons Why

Memory and Identity: A Letter Exchange with Gurwinder Bhogal

What if I’m Wrong: Should Doubt Be a Sacred Value?

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