Compassion is making a comeback in America Think back to the United States as it was a year ago, a decade ago, a generation ago. Is the US a more caring or less caring nation now than it was back then? If you think Americans have lost their compassion, the data would be on your side — until recently. Since the late 1970s, psychologists have measured empathy by asking millions of people how much they agreed with statements such as “I feel tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.” In 2011, a landmark study led by researcher Sara Konrath examined the trends in those surveys ..read more

Is It All a Fluke? Lessons From Playing God in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment Or understanding of human history is a battle between contingency and convergence. Do stable, long-term trends drive change? Or does history pivot on the tiniest details? We’re left to speculate between the two worldviews because we can’t experimentally test the past. But what if you could create multiple worlds? And what if, within them, you could not just control what happens inside but also control time? Imagine the ability to play God, pressing pause at will, even rewinding and replaying key moments. That wou ..read more

Choosing Between a Road and a Reserve President Biden just said “No” to a road. More than some gravel connecting two places, this Alaskan road represented a much bigger dilemma. Alaska had asked the Biden Interior Department for permission to build a road to a proposed copper mine in the Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve. With an estimated value of approximately $7.5 billion, the mine would provide jobs, taxes, and economic development. Already, the Biden administration said Alaska’s Willow Project–with perhaps 180,000 barrels of oil a day– could proceed. Described in a Washingt ..read more

Low-frequency Noise Is Pervasive. Does That Matter? For two years, Erica Walker routinely wore ear plugs to dampen the sound of stomping footsteps penetrating her basement apartment ceiling. Still, the noise from her upstairs neighbors, undetected by sound level meters, rumbled in her chest day and night. “The funny thing about it was that the noise wasn’t loud,” she said. But it bothered her, this unwelcome sensation she couldn’t control. The pleasant and unpalatable sounds that envelop daily life travel through the air in different frequencies perceived as pitch. In bustling cities, the high ..read more

Are emotionally resilient people also skilled at soothing others? We all experience emotions, but we certainly don’t all handle them in the same way. Some people are sensitive and ride frequent ups and downs. By contrast, others are gifted with a thick skin and an even temperament. In the psychological jargon, they are highly skilled at emotional regulation. Perhaps you can think of friends, family or colleagues in your own life who match this description. At the same time, there’s a social side to managing emotions. Many of us have friends or relatives who are able to provide steady emotional ..read more

When Is da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” like Mickey Mouse? Residing in Italy’s Gallerie dell Accademia, Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man is 500 years old. However, the questions about its ownership are rather recent. Owned by everyone (and no one), the Vitruvian Man is in the public domain. And yet, saying it had some ownership rights, the museum in Venice where it resides sued the puzzle manufacturer that used the image. The Gallerie dell Accademia took puzzle maker Ravensburger to court because Italy’s Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code permits public institutions to prohibit or be paid for th ..read more

Why do some people always get lost? Like many of the researchers who study how people find their way from place to place, David Uttal is a poor navigator. “When I was 13 years old, I got lost on a Boy Scout hike, and I was lost for two and a half days,” recalls the Northwestern University cognitive scientist. And he’s still bad at finding his way around. The world is full of people like Uttal — and their opposites, the folks who always seem to know exactly where they are and how to get where they want to go. Scientists sometimes measure navigational ability by asking someone to point toward an ..read more

Many of us have the wrong idea about poverty and toughness Imagine this upsetting scenario: two women are both suffering physical abuse from their partners. One woman is relatively affluent, while the other struggles to make ends meet. In this kind of situation, where two people of different means are experiencing similar harm, who will receive help? Are the neighbours of both women, upon learning of the violence, equally likely to reach out or call the authorities? Or might they decide in one of these cases that getting help isn’t so urgent? One might guess that people in poverty are generall ..read more

Where Money Grows On Trees The life of a Japanese 10,000 yen note began on a Himalayan hillside. Starting as the stripped, beaten, and dried bark from a wigeli shrub, it traveled almost 3,000 miles to a Japanese printing press: According to Deutsche Bank research, from 1995 to 2022 Japan’s circulating cash grew from less than 10% of GDP to 23%. However, like most other high income countries, the trend reversed toward a cashless economy. During the first half of 2023, cash circulation declined while coin use had been sliding for more than a year. Covid is one reason for the cashless surge. ….[R ..read more

William James was right about our strange inner experiences Rather than Freud’s cynicism or Jung’s enthusiasm, we need an inquisitive approach to unusual forms of consciousness In 1901, William James stood at the podium in a lecture hall at the University of Edinburgh and gave the first in a series of 20 lectures supposedly on theology. He had been invited to present the prestigious Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion at the Scottish university, but he introduced himself as a scientist and psychologist, not a theologian. He chose to ‘hardly consider theology or ecclesiasticism at all’, he lat ..read more