Tag: study
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Howdy Neighbor!
Gallup Polls, famous for its political odds-making every election cycle, has released a new poll that attempts to draw correlation between general happiness and certain everyday activities - like saying hello to your neighbors. As Anthony and Jeff dig into the data, however, it reveals the way polling can seemingly justify misleading conclusions. [more]
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Intelligence and Personality
An enormous new publicly available dataset containing over 1,300 studies of millions of people from across the world, establishes reliable relationships between personality traits and cognitive abilities. Jeff and Anthony dig into this vast amount of information to see if our assumptions about the relationship between intelligence and personality are true. [more]
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Is Dunning-Kruger Wrong?
The Dunning-Kruger effect is the idea that the least skilled people overestimate their abilities more than anyone else. But a new study suggests that the mathematical approach used to show this effect may be incorrect. Jeff and Anthony discuss one of the most often cited psychological papers of all time and why it might not say what we all think it says. [more]
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Take a Nap
According to a new study, napping appears to be associated with a larger brain volume in adults, raising the possibility that it could offer some protection against neurodegeneration. Anthony and Jeff are big fans of naps, and discuss all the ways we need to rethink our society to make them more acceptable. [more]
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The Chimps are Talking
A study was published in Nature examining communication among chimpanzees. It found that chimps use "words," and can combine the words into "syntactic-like structures," the beginnings of phrases and sentences. Jeff and Anthony dig into how the researchers came to this conclusion, and discuss how this might alter their perception of primates. [more]
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Future Oriented People
A new study suggests that Future Oriented People - those you act in ways that affect their future states, rather than their current well-being - are happier, more at peace, and better able to sleep at night. Anthony and Jeff analyze this notion and compare it to their own experiences as... well, as people who don't generally live like that. [more]
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How Many People Have Ever Lived?
It is a simple question that requires some pretty complicated investigation. Calculating the number of people who have ever lived since the dawn of humanity is part science and part art. Jeff and Anthony dig in to the fascinating process by which scientists have come up with a pretty definitive answer. Are you able to guess it? [more]
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Work Less, Have More Kids, and Be Kind
Sometimes, when something seems obvious, science still needs to confirm it. This week, Anthony and Jeff take a look at a trio of stories that may seem not to require investigation, but reveal interesting subtleties upon further study. First up, a look at how working fewer hours may lead to happiness. Then, a report on how and why Americans are having fewer children. And finally, a report that shows acts of kindness are actually therapeutic. [more]
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The Goldfish’s Bad Rap
A team of researchers at the University of Oxford has found via experimentation that goldfish use markings on the floor below them to measure how far they have traveled. The study disproves the long-held belief goldfish have little or no memory. Anthony and Jeff talk about what this means for goldfish reputations, worldwide, and other animals who fight with unfair stigmas. [more]
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Mutating Astronaut Blood, A Cautionary Tale
Researchers at NASA have been holding on to astronaut blood for 20 years. But that's not the story. The story is that over that period, the blood has been mutating. Anthony and Jeff discuss this new wrinkle in the dangers of space travel - and space colonization - and how some very smart people are thinking about it. [more]
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