Obama is a Muslim, vaccinations cause autism, asylum seekers are breaking the law, GM foods cause cancer. These are all pieces of unsubstantiated misinformation that are commonly encountered on TV, talk-back…
In recent advertisements for Meat and Livestock Australia, actor Sam Neill told us, in David Attenborough-inflected tones, that: “when our early ancestors started to eat red meat, our brains began to grow…
Emotional intelligence is the order of the day, it seems, for trainee referees.
Colin Whelan/AAP Image
It was encouraging to read recently that promising young rugby league referees are being offered the opportunity and time to invest in the development of their mental skills prior to taking on the pressure…
In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence for climate change, people find ways to reject that evidence if it does not fit with their world view.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre
In a previous article on The Conversation, Stephan Lewandowsky asked, why do people reject science? I’m going to take a slightly different angle and consider how people are able to reject climate science…
The environment isn’t “out there”; it’s in us, and we’re part of it.
Forest Wander/Flickr
Calls to “protect the environment” ring out across issues as diverse as climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water conservation and chemical contamination. I believe it is time to abandon…
Our brains haven’t evolved to consider the long-term consequences of behaviour that brings short-term rewards.
Patrick van IJzendoorn
Cognitive dissonance is that uncomfortable feeling we have when we know we should invest in solar panels but the 46″ wide screen TV wins out; we know we should catch the bus but we take the car anyway…
Research finds men benefit psychologically from having a large family network.
http://happyfamiliesblog.blogspot.com.au/
Having a wide circle of friends is important to psychological wellbeing, but a network of relatives is more important for men according to new study from the UK. The research, published in the Journal…
What can brain imaging reveal about human intelligence?
PraveenbenK
When it comes to intelligence, what factors distinguish the brains of the exceptionally smart from those of average humans? New research by post-doctoral fellow Michael Cole and colleagues suggests as…
Don’t want someone sitting next to you? You’re not alone.
j.o.h.n. walker
On public transport, there’s an unspoken rule to not take the seat next to someone if there are other seats available. In especially longer public transport commutes, the entire ride can be done in silence…
Many Australians think they have experienced events associated with climate change.
AAP Image/Tony McDonough
Where one stands on “climate change” has been such a vexed and often confusing issue, at dinner parties, over coffee, with the taxi driver, and in terms of media reporting of where the Australian public…
Humans are very good at innovating and it would seem reasonable to expect our children would be too. But a recent study questions these assumptions, suggesting young children’s ability to problem-solve…
We all know the scene: a child, wrapped in his or her own imaginary world, fights off aliens while flying through space on a rocket fashioned from an empty box. But could such flights of fancy be critical…
Praising kids all the time might lead to inflated self-esteem and low regard for others.
Flickr/ymc_photos
When most people picture the typical school bully, they think of a kid who is likely to have been bullied themselves. A child with low self-esteem who is trying to make themselves feel better by picking…
The downward-V shape between a villain’s eyebrows may be terrifying by design.
Warner Brothers
What do Cruella de Vil, The Joker and Maleficent have in common? Beyond an implacable desire for evil and their cartoonish existence, they have pointy chins and a marked V shape between their arching eyebrows…
Our actions may be fully caused and determined by events that precede our very existence, but not all causes are alike.
Josef Grunig/Flickr
Neil Levy, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
For most of the last couple of centuries, philosophers have had the question of free will largely to themselves (prior to that date, the distinction between philosophy and the natural sciences was less…