EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY How Algorithms Shape Our Taste In Music Key Takeaway: Spotify’s algorithmically generated “daylist” is a prime example of how tech platforms have shaped our music tastes over time. For over 15 years, the platform has been trying to predict or “compute tastes” based on data about users and everyone streaming on the platform. This data has influenced our tastes, as our preferences […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE SOCIOLOGY The Theory Of The Collective Mind Key Takeaway: Shared attention amplifies experiences and builds relationships, according to studies in various countries. Research shows that synchronous attention with others yields stronger memories, deeper emotions, and firmer motivations. This can be observed in labs across the US, Australia, Hungary, Germany, and Denmark. Shared attention can also build relationships across the political divide and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY Why Do People Share Fake News? Key Takeaway: Misinformation is the top risk facing society over the next two years, with key elections in the US, UK, and other nations this year. Many people share political news online, with some sharing it by mistake. Around 20% of people report having shared a story they later found out was untrue, while around […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE The Mysterious Phenomenon Of Jamais-Vu Key Takeaway: Researchers have discovered that déjà vu is a window into our memory system, alerting us to strangeness when the brain detects familiarity de-synchronizes with reality. Jamais vu, the opposite of déjà vu, occurs when something familiar feels unreal or novel. The researchers conducted experiments on jamais vu, where participants repeatedly wrote the same […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY PSYCHOLOGY The Philosophy Of Humour Key Takeaway: Humour is a human phenomenon that has been observed in every known human culture, with the average person laughing around 17 times a day. Humour is fundamentally social and is more likely to be laughed when in a group. To be more humorous, four rules of thumb should be followed: be playful, contradict […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE How Christmas Music Brainwashes Us To Spend More Key Takeaway: Research shows that people worldwide are unaware of how what they hear affects their attitudes and behavior. This year, Tesco’s Christmas advert features OMC’s “How Bizarre” song, while John Lewis’s features a young boy raising a Venus flytrap to Andrea Bocelli’s “Festa”. Morrisons and Waitrose use 1980s hits, while Marks & Spencer uses […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY Understanding The Sunk Cost Fallacy Key Takeaway: The sunk cost fallacy is a common tendency where people make decisions based on past costs rather than current events or future events. This can lead to high-stakes decisions and can affect choices that have bigger consequences for our lives. For example, Bob might base his decision on the original price of a […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY Does Music Manipulate Our Memories? Key Takeaway: Studies in psychology are beginning to understand how music helps people remember films, scenes, and characters. Music can help us understand characters, create deeper emotional links, and create mood-congruency effects when the music and movie both make us feel the same way. Irony and mood-incongruity effects occur when music and movies make us […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE The Secrets Of Our Mental Dictionary Key Takeaway: Your mental lexicon is a unique and personalized collection of words, influenced by your educational, professional, cultural, and other experiences. It varies in size from person to person and according to age, with the average American English speaker being around 42,000 words richer at 20 than at 60. The brain’s memory is dynamic […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY Inside The Minds Of Magicians Key Takeaway: A study examining the mental health of magicians found that they exhibited similar traits to people with mental illnesses like schizophrenia and autism. Magicians, who both create and perform their own shows, require precision and technical skills to entertain the audience. They scored lower on nearly every psychotic symptom compared to the general […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Real Art Of War Key Takeaway: The Art of War, an ancient Chinese war manual from the 5th century BCE, is often cited as a cliché by teen edgelords and management gurus. However, the book is actually a work of clear-sighted and sometimes ruthless realism, influenced by philosophy and strategy. The book, which is attributed to Chinese general and […] Written by Jamie Roberts July 18, 2024July 18, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Democracy Of Bees Key Takeaway: Honey bees, originally tropical insects, evolved complex nest-choosing patterns 600,000 years ago to survive cold climates. However, research into honey bee pressures and behavior rarely takes into account these nest preferences. Researchers have found that tree nests lose less heat than conventional hives and that features of man-made hives inserted for convenience increase […] Written by Derek Mitchell July 17, 2024July 17, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Fusion Power Our Future? Key Takeaway: Nuclear fusion could be a promising solution to climate change and energy security issues, as it offers a clean, abundant, and safe energy source. However, the technology’s realisation may come into tension with the issues it aims to solve. The technology’s appeal may mask deeper ethical questions, such as environmental sustainability and the […] Written by Sophie Cogan July 11, 2024July 11, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How People Can Influence Our Memories Key Takeaway: A study has found that our memory helps us learn from experiences and develop new knowledge by integrating and updating information. Memory can forge inferred connections beyond direct experiences, which can sometimes lead to false inferences. The study found that people may prioritize information from liked sources more than those from disliked ones, […] Written by Ines Bramao July 10, 2024July 10, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Does Space Change Astronaut Biology? Key Takeaway: Astronauts are experiencing a new era of human spaceflight, with longer missions ranging from minutes to months. As humanity looks to return to the Moon over the coming decade, space exploration missions will be longer, with more space travelers and tourists. Researchers in space health are seeking to better understand the human health […] Written by Susan Bailey July 9, 2024July 12, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Who Really Was Mona Lisa? Key Takeaway: The Mona Lisa, a Renaissance icon, has been a subject of debate for over half a millennium. The painting has been traditionally associated with Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. However, another theory suggests Isabella of Aragon, a princess deeply entwined in the political and cultural fabric of […] Written by Darius von Guttner Sporzynski July 5, 2024July 5, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Science Fiction Feedback Loop Key Takeaway: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sparked controversy by referencing the 2013 movie “Her” to highlight the novelty of ChatGPT’s latest iteration. Actor Scarlett Johansson accused the company of improperly using her voice after she spurned their offer to make her the voice of ChatGPT’s new virtual assistant. This highlights the “sci-fi feedback loop,” which […] Written by Rizwan Virk July 4, 2024July 4, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked