Category Archives: Psychology and human nature

Gullibility in the first degree

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Reclusive Leftist laments people’s gullibility and points to this “ESP experiment”. Go to it and see. What’s amazing is not the experiment itself (you do see the simple trick, don’t you?), but people’s responses: naturally it must be something paranormal.

We could conjecture all day about the evolutionary advantage of gullibility as a means of group cohesion, but it seems pretty clear to me it’s serving us ill in this day and age. This is one of the topics to which my thoughts return, and there’s an essay just waiting to be written. Stay tuned…

Of smarts and effort

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The type of praise you give children, it turns out, can be counter-productive.

Executive summary: Kids told they are “smart” rather than “putting forth a good effort” tend to be risk-averse, preferring to defend their smart status rather than work on new challenges. Scientist think its due to the feeling of control (versus innate ability) that the praise engenders. It’s related to the delayed gratification circuit in the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex of the brain, a circuit reinforced by intermittent gratification. The praise must be specific and meaningful, though: vacuous plaudits are suspect in children’s eyes past the age of seven.

(Thanks to All too aware)

Supporting gender-variant kids

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From The New York Times, an article on how society is slowly learning to support gender-variant children:

[A]s advocates gain ground for what they call gender-identity rights, evidenced most recently by New York City’s decision to let people alter the sex listed on their birth certificates, a major change is taking place among schools and families. Children as young as 5 who display predispositions to dress like the opposite sex are being supported by a growing number of young parents, educators and mental health professionals.

Doctors, some of them from the top pediatric hospitals, have begun to advise families to let these children be “who they are” to foster a sense of security and self-esteem. They are motivated, in part, by the high incidence of depression, suicidal feelings and self-mutilation that has been common in past generations of transgender children. Legal trends suggest that schools are now required to respect parents’ decisions.