Global Optimum

I started a new podcast! Here is the blurb: Professor Daniel Gambacorta and Behavior Interventionist Atanah Shannon explore the big questions in science and philosophy. What is consciousness? Do we have free will? Are we living in a simulation??? Find out on the next episode of... The Scientific Worldview.

This episode features:

-Why does men’s testosterone go down when they fall in love?

-Does “power posing” have any psychological effects?

-What is “humblebragging” and why does it pervade social media?

-Is our preference for democracy really a preference for high status?

-What is self-esteem?

-How to increase self-esteem (the answer is disappointing)

-How to act high status (the answer is not disappointing)

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Cameron, J. J., & Stinson, D. A. (2017). Sociometer Theory. Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 1-6.

Feltovich, N., Harbaugh, R., & To, T. (2002). Too Cool for School? Signalling and Countersignalling. RAND Journal of Economics, 33(4), 630-649.

Gettler, L. T., McDade, T. W., Feranil, A. B., & Kuzawa, C. W. (2011). Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(39), 16194-16199.

Longman, D. P., Surbey, M. K., Stock, J. T., & Wells, J. C. (2018). Tandem androgenic and psychological shifts in male reproductive effort following a manipulated “win” or “loss” in a sporting competition. Human Nature, 29(3), 283-310.

Amy Cuddy TED Talk

Is it time to give up on self-esteem?

Move on – this isn’t true

Politics isn’t about policy

Check This Rec:

Future Strategist

This episode features:

-Why does high status reduce creativity?

-How to remain creative as you gain status

-When should you distrust your own moral reasoning?

-How do we come to learn what counts as high status in our culture?

-What are the psychological underpinnings of “inspiration”?

-How to feel less motivated to engage in conspicuous consumption

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Borjas, G. J., & Doran, K. B. (2015). Prizes and productivity how winning the fields medal affects scientific output. Journal of human resources, 50(3), 728-758.

Ethical Injunction

High Status and Stupidity: Why?

Check This Rec:

Murray, D. (2019). The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

This episode features:

-How do people behave differently when they are high vs low status?

-How did human social status evolve?

-Should you try to dampen your desire for status?

-Are EAs too credential-focused?

-Is publishing in academic journals overrated?

-Can you get more done by working alone than by starting an organization?

-What causes groups to splinter?

-How has effective altruism “professionalized?” What are the upsides and downsides of this trend?

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Anderson, C., Hildreth, J. A. D., & Howland, L. (2015). Is the desire for status a fundamental human motive? A review of the empirical literature. Psychological Bulletin, 141(3), 574.

Cheng, J. T., Tracy, J. L., & Anderson, C. (Eds.). (2014). The psychology of social status. New York, NY: Springer.

Puts, D. A. (2010). Beauty and the beast: Mechanisms of sexual selection in humans. Evolution and human behavior, 31(3), 157-175. 

Solnick, S. J., & Hemenway, D. (1998). Is more always better?: A survey on positional concerns. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 37(3), 373-383.

Celebrating failed projects

Estimating readership of different EA/LW writings (EA Forum comment)

Check This Rec:

The Dissenter YouTube channel

The Dissenter podcast

This episode features:

-How to evaluate your chance of successfully completing difficult projects

-Can you be justified in believing that you are an extraordinary person who can do extraordinary things?

-When to trust the advice of others and when not to

-How to fail faster

-How to judge a project based on how well it fails

-How to avoid repeating mistakes

-Why you should want to fail occasionally

-How to make failure more foreseeable: the “premortem”

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Klein, G. (2007). Performing a project premortem. Harvard business review, 85(9), 18-19.

Roese, N. J., & Vohs, K. D. (2012). Hindsight bias. Perspectives on psychological science, 7(5), 411-426.

Arbital postmortem

Celebrating failed projects

How Many of the 540,000 Podcasts have “Podfaded?”

Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck

‘Never Settle’ Is A Brag

Umeshisms

Why we should err in both directions

Check This Rec:

Philosophical Disquisitions Episode #44 – Fleischman on Evolutionary Psychology and Sex Robots

This episode features:

-What are the best and worst studying techniques?

-Do “learning styles” exist?

-How to squeeze more learning into your day

-How to start learning a new field

-How to cultivate viewpoint diversity

-How to avoid getting parasitized by bad ideas

-Should you study in the morning or at night?

-Can napping enhance learning?

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Brown, P. C., Roediger III, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick. Harvard University Press.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.

Feld, G. B., & Diekelmann, S. (2015). Sleep smart—optimizing sleep for declarative learning and memory. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 622.

Isarida, T., & Isarida, T. K. (2014). Environmental context-dependent memory. Advances in experimental psychology research, 115-51.

Anki

Audible

Crucial Considerations and Wise Philanthropy

Oxbridge Notes Guide To Autodidactism

Rationality: From AI to Zombies

Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning

The Best Textbooks on Every Subject

Twelve Virtues of Rationality

Why should effective altruists embrace uncertainty?

Wyzant

You and Your Research

Check This Rec:

Foundations of Economic Prosperity taught by Daniel Drezner

Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage taught by John McWhorter

The Higgs Boson and Beyond taught by Sean Carroll

This episode features:

-Arguments against utilitarianism

-What moral views do philosophers favor?

-Why you should consider moral uncertainty when deciding how altruistic to be

-How does giving away 10% of your income affect your happiness?

-Why donating 10% of your income is not too demanding (for middle class members of affluent countries)

-How should the prospect of value drift affect your commitment to altruism?

-Do people underestimate the selfish benefits of altruism?

-Does effective altruism help save us from the “hedonic treadmill”?

Full transcript

-References-

Be a Free EA:

Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687-1688.

MacAskill, W., Mogensen, A., & Ord, T. (2018). Giving Isn’t Demanding. The Ethics of Giving: Philosophers' Perspectives on Philanthropy, 178.

Bourget, D., & Chalmers, D. J. (2014). What do philosophers believe?. Philosophical studies, 170(3), 465-500.

Singer, P. (1972). Famine, affluence, and morality. Philosophy & public affairs, 229-243.

EA Survey 2018 Series: How Long Do EAs Stay in EA?

Nobody is Perfect, Everything is Commensurable

One Life Against the World

Peter Singer TED Talk

Toby Ord on Moral Uncertainty

Check This Rec:

Very Bad Wizards Episode 135: Utilitarianism and Moral Identity

Very Bad Wizards Episode 147: Effective Altruism and Moral Uncertainty (with The One True Scotsman, Will MacAskill)

This episode features:

-Are people with autism spectrum disorder more utilitarian?

-Do utilitarian judgments in trolley problems predict interest in effective altruism?

-What is the “identifiable victim effect”

-Why empathy is bad for morality

-Are effective altruists more empathetic than average?  Less empathetic?

-Why do EAs disproportionately study STEM subjects and work in STEM fields?

-Why is EA mostly male?

-Why does gender predict cause preferences?

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 34(2), 163-175. 

Batson, C. D., Klein, T. R., Highberger, L., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Immorality from empathy-induced altruism: When compassion and justice conflict. Journal of personality and social psychology, 68(6), 1042.

Bloom, P. (2017). Empathy and its discontents. Trends in cognitive sciences, 21(1), 24-31.

Brewer, R., Marsh, A. A., Catmur, C., Cardinale, E. M., Stoycos, S., Cook, R., & Bird, G. (2015). The impact of autism spectrum disorder and alexithymia on judgments of moral acceptability. Journal of abnormal psychology, 124(3), 589. 

Cecchetto, C., Korb, S., Rumiati, R. I., & Aiello, M. (2018). Emotional reactions in moral decision-making are influenced by empathy and alexithymia. Social neuroscience, 13(2), 226-240.

Conway, P., Goldstein-Greenwood, J., Polacek, D., & Greene, J. D. (2018). Sacrificial utilitarian judgments do reflect concern for the greater good: Clarification via process dissociation and the judgments of philosophers. Cognition, 179, 241-265.

Gleichgerrcht, E., Torralva, T., Rattazzi, A., Marenco, V., Roca, M., & Manes, F. (2012). Selective impairment of cognitive empathy for moral judgment in adults with high functioning autism. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 8(7), 780-788. 

Gleichgerrcht, E., & Young, L. (2013). Low levels of empathic concern predict utilitarian moral judgment. PloS one, 8(4), e60418.

Greene, J. D. (2015). Beyond point-and-shoot morality: Why cognitive (neuro) science matters for ethics. The Law & Ethics of Human Rights, 9(2), 141-172.

Hein, G., Silani, G., Preuschoff, K., Batson, C. D., & Singer, T. (2010). Neural responses to ingroup and outgroup members' suffering predict individual differences in costly helping. Neuron, 68(1), 149-160. 

Kahane, G. (2015). Sidetracked by trolleys: Why sacrificial moral dilemmas tell us little (or nothing) about utilitarian judgment. Social neuroscience, 10(5), 551-560.

Kahane, G., Everett, J. A., Earp, B. D., Caviola, L., Faber, N. S., Crockett, M. J., & Savulescu, J. (2018). Beyond sacrificial harm: A two-dimensional model of utilitarian psychology. Psychological Review, 125(2), 131. 

Kahane, G., Everett, J. A., Earp, B. D., Farias, M., & Savulescu, J. (2015). ‘Utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good. Cognition, 134, 193-209.

Kogut, T., & Ritov, I. (2005). The “identified victim” effect: An identified group, or just a single individual?. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 18(3), 157-167.

Levant, R. F., Hall, R. J., Williams, C. M., & Hasan, N. T. (2009). Gender differences in alexithymia. Psychology of men & masculinity, 10(3), 190.

Patil, I., Melsbach, J., Hennig-Fast, K., & Silani, G. (2016). Divergent roles of autistic and alexithymic traits in utilitarian moral judgments in adults with autism. Scientific reports, 6, 23637.

Patil, I., & Silani, G. (2014). Reduced empathic concern leads to utilitarian moral judgments in trait alexithymia. Frontiers in psychology, 5, 501.

Ruzich, E., Allison, C., Chakrabarti, B., Smith, P., Musto, H., Ring, H., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). Sex and STEM occupation predict autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores in half a million people. PloS one, 10(10), e0141229.

Singer, P. (2015). The most good you can do: How effective altruism is changing ideas about living ethically. New Haven, CT: Yale University.

Vyas, K., Jameel, L., Bellesi, G., Crawford, S., & Channon, S. (2017). Derailing the trolley: Everyday utilitarian judgments in groups high versus low in psychopathic traits or autistic traits. Psychiatry research, 250, 84-91.

Check This Rec:

Nesse, R. M. (2019). Good reasons for bad feelings: insights from the frontier of evolutionary psychiatry. Penguin.

This episode features:

-Are effective altruists especially prone to anxiety and depression?

-Are effective altruists high in autistic-like traits?

-Is effective altruism especially appealing to people high in autistic-like traits?

-Are people high in autistic-like traits more rational?

-Why do we fall prey to biases like the attraction effect, the sunk cost fallacy, and the framing effect?

-Are people high in autistic-like traits more oriented towards “System 2” thinking?

-Are people high in autistic-like traits less susceptible to cognitive biases?

Full transcript

-References- 

Apply Psychology:

Brosnan, M., Lewton, M., & Ashwin, C. (2016). Reasoning on the autism spectrum: a dual process theory account. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 46(6), 2115-2125.

De Martino, B., Harrison, N. A., Knafo, S., Bird, G., & Dolan, R. J. (2008). Explaining enhanced logical consistency during decision making in autism. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(42), 10746-10750.

Farmer, G. D., Baron-Cohen, S., & Skylark, W. J. (2017). People with autism spectrum conditions make more consistent decisions. Psychological science, 28(8), 1067-1076.

Fujino, J., Tei, S., Itahashi, T., Aoki, Y., Ohta, H., Kanai, C., ... & Takahashi, H. (2019). Sunk cost effect in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 49(1), 1-10.

Gosling, C. J., & Moutier, S. (2018). Brief report: Risk-aversion and rationality in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(10), 3623-3628.

Guo, Q., Sun, P., & Li, L. (2018). Why neurotic individuals are less prosocial? A multiple mediation analysis regarding related mechanisms. Personality and Individual Differences, 128, 55-61.

Levin, I. P., Gaeth, G. J., Foley-Nicpon, M., Yegorova, V., Cederberg, C., & Yan, H. (2015). Extending decision making competence to special populations: a pilot study of persons on the autism spectrum. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 539.

Lodi-Smith, J., Rodgers, J. D., Cunningham, S. A., Lopata, C., & Thomeer, M. L. (2019). Meta-analysis of Big Five personality traits in autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 23(3), 556-565.

Ruzich, E., Allison, C., Smith, P., Watson, P., Auyeung, B., Ring, H., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). Measuring autistic traits in the general population: a systematic review of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) in a nonclinical population sample of 6,900 typical adult males and females. Molecular autism, 6(1), 2.

Shah, P., Catmur, C., & Bird, G. (2016). Emotional decision-making in autism spectrum disorder: the roles of interoception and alexithymia. Molecular autism, 7(1), 43.

Autism Spectrum Quotient

Alexithymia Questionnaire

People with autism make more rational decisions, study shows

Check This Rec:

The Psychology Podcast Episode 143: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are with Robert Plomin

This episode features:

-Why the Myers-Briggs is wrong, yet popular

-What is the structure of personality

-How does personality change throughout the lifespan

-Can you intentionally change your personality?

-Do we change more than we think we will?

-What is the effect of genes on personality

-What is the effect of parenting on personality

-Which unique experiences shape personality? (The answer to this is disappointing)

Full transcript

-References-

Apply Psychology:

Damian, R. I., Spengler, M., Sutu, A., & Roberts, B. W. (2018). Sixteen going on sixty-six: A longitudinal study of personality stability and change across 50 years. Journal of personality and social psychology.

Gosling, S. (2018). Snoop: What your stuff says about you. Profile Books.

Holland, A. S., & Roisman, G. I. (2008). Big Five personality traits and relationship quality: Self-reported, observational, and physiological evidence. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 25(5), 811-829.

Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., Knopik, V. S., & Neiderhiser, J. M. (2016). Top 10 replicated findings from behavioral genetics. Perspectives on psychological science, 11(1), 3-23.

Quoidbach, J., Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2013). The end of history illusion. Science, 339(6115), 96-98.

Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological bulletin, 132(1), 1.

Take an online Big Five personality measure

App designed to help you change your personality (website is in German)

Check This Rec:

Two Psychologists Four Beers Episode 22: Blend of Darkness (with Brent Roberts)