December 10, 2007
Mind and brain science storms NYT's 'Year in Ideas':
The New York Times seems to have been publishing loads of mind and brain articles recently and their end of 2007 round-up of 'hot ideas' contains no less than 11 articles on developments in psychology and neuroscience - including everything from Alzheimer's to Zygotes (via Lap Dancing).
I was alerted to the series by Matthew Hutson, who emailed to say he'd written the article on 'neurorealism' - the tendency for people to believe even quite outlandish claims if they think they're backed up by neuroscience.
In a blog post about his piece, he notes some of the sources and origins of his article, including some peer reviewed research and our own Tom Stafford, who coined the term 'neuroessentialism' (independently, as did two others!) to describe the same phenomenon.
The other psychology and neuroscience articles cover a whole range of topics, and are all two-minute write-ups of ingenious studies or theories (sort of like a behavioural science tapas selection):
* Alzheimer’s Telephone Screening
* Faces Decide Elections
* Lap-Dance Science
* The God Effect
* Hope Can Be Worse Than Hopelessness
* Mindful Exercise
* Quitting Can Be Good for You
* Starch Made Us Human
* Zygotic Social Networking
UPDATE: Two more with mind and brain themes!
* The ‘Cat Lady’ Conundrum
* Ambiguity Promotes Liking
