Methland by Nick Reding: Moral Maximizing and the Drug War
I just finished Methland, by Nick Reding, an in-depth portrait of the fall and hopeful rise of a small American town, Oelwein, Iowa, and a few individuals touched by the meth epidemic there. What makes the book most powerful are the portraits that Reding is able to draw of the town having spent 4 years [...]
What the positive psychology approach can learn from Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided
As a liberal social psychologist who has helped create a science of positive psychology course at the University of Southern California, I could not help but be interested in Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book, Bright-Sided, which states how the positive psychology approach (in academia, business, health, and economics) has undermined America. First, I would think we [...]
Gratitude Video from Conan O’Brien and Louis CK
People who study happiness can be annoying in their pollyannish prescriptions to just look on the bright side of life. Just ask Barbara Ehrenreich, who wrote Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. So it’s always refreshing to see someone put basic research findings (being grateful is important) into more common [...]
France to consider measures of gross national “bonheur” (happiness)
It looks like the government of France is following in the footsteps of Bhutan and the United Kingdom and is taking the idea of using happiness as a national indicator more seriously.
The article from the Telegraph is consistent with a growing drumbeat among academics and politicians to consider national indicators of well being. The challenge is to [...]
Three polls which point to differing underlying fairness principles driven by differing goals
I recently saw 3 posts on fivethirtyeight.com which may seem unrelated to many, but to my admittedly biased perception, which seeks supporting evidence for my thesis that the differing goals of harm reduction vs. productivity increase, underlie much of observed political divisions. These were three interesting and convergent findings. This thesis was first put forth [...]
Democracy Promotion vs. Dignity Promotion
I have to confess my bias that I have always been skeptical of the merits of democracy promotion, especially via military means. So when I red this essay about Obama’s proposed foreign policy focus on dignity promotion over democracy promotion, I got excited….Psychologists have routinely shown how people get trapped in cycles of violence [...]
Main Themes of This Blog
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- •Hypermoralism – Morality causes ordinary people to do immoral things.
- •What are the psychological differences that make people liberal democrats, conservative republicans, or libertarians?
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Last 30 Posts:
- May 17, 2012
When should we believe social science findings? - April 25, 2012
Empathizing vs. Systemizing – A Book Review of Tattoos On The Heart - April 5, 2012
Big Data Should Measure Value Fit - March 6, 2012
Five ways that technology will democratize social science - February 20, 2012
The importance of wisdom in social science research - February 18, 2012
Big 5 Personality Traits of would-be Owners vs. Renters - January 25, 2012
Why doesn’t Ron Paul use the word ‘America’ much? - January 7, 2012
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Protect Fair Negotiations (not the poor) - December 11, 2011
The Experiential Economy - November 2, 2011
The Moral Foundations of ThinkProgress, Alternet, Daily Kos, & the NY Times - October 15, 2011
Liberals vs. Conservatives:innocent until proven guilty? - September 11, 2011
Does social psychology try too hard to be perceived as a “science”? - August 31, 2011
Equity trumps Equality in arguments about taxation - July 31, 2011
Hypermoral Debt Ceiling Quotes - July 17, 2011
Libya as a moral war (except for libertarians) - July 10, 2011
Oregon’s Medicaid Experiment vs. Motivated Reasoning - June 18, 2011
Relative vs. Absolute Good Choices for Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians - May 23, 2011
Personality profiles of readers vs. non-readers and saving your local bookstore. - May 9, 2011
When Ingroup Love does not equal Outgroup Hate - May 2, 2011
Osama Bin Laden’s Death is a chance to escape Zero-Sum thinking - April 23, 2011
Liberals place more value on being funny than conservatives and libertarians. - April 21, 2011
Jon Kyl’s Moral Confabulation is something we all do. - March 30, 2011
Why should the US lead in Libya? Liberal-Conservative Value Differences. - March 24, 2011
Perceptions of Scarcity & Responsibility inform Budget Negotiations - February 27, 2011
Psychological Correlates of Feelings Toward Labor Unions among Liberals - February 22, 2011
Reagan was a Union Member – Visiting his Library as an exercise in Civil Politics - February 15, 2011
Psychology is generally Continuous, not Categorical - February 11, 2011
Are liberals more neurotic than conservatives? - February 10, 2011
Can liberal academics study conservative ideology? - January 17, 2011
Rush Limbaugh says Civility is the New Censorship
Civil Politics Posts
- What Does it Mean to be Civil? May 8, 2012 Hal
- WNPR Connecticut Hosts a Discussion of Civil Politics April 27, 2012 Ravi Iyer
- The No Labels 12-Point Plan: CivilPolitics Analysis March 22, 2012 Jonathan Haidt
- My data-driven conversion to (relative) political moderation March 15, 2012 Jarret Crawford
- Today is Town Meeting Day in Vermont (and what that has to do with civil politics) March 6, 2012 Liz Joyner
Hyperpartisanship & Obama’s speech to kids in US schools
This was the actual speech which Obama gave for the nation’s kids which generated so much controversy. What does that say about the polarization and lack of ability to form consensus in our country? I find it hard to believe that 95% of the country doesn’t agree with these messages, yet many still [...]