I have just been reading an interview with noted psychologist Steven Pinker and three points were worth highlighting from this interview – How do you explain the decline in violence? I don’t think there is a single answer. One cause is government, that is, third-party dispute resolution: courts and police with a monopoly on the…

How does last-place aversion play out with regard to redistribution? In our surveys, we asked Americans whether they supported an increase to the minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour. Those making $7.25 or below were very likely to support the increase – after all, they would be immediate beneficiaries. In addition, people making substantially more than…

Because our impressions of how well each soldier performed were generally coherent and clear, our formal predictions were just as definite. We rarely experienced doubt or conflicting impressions. We were quite willing to declare: “This one will never make it,” “That fellow is rather mediocre, but should do O.K.” or “He will be a star.”…

Because our impressions of how well each soldier performed were generally coherent and clear, our formal predictions were just as definite. We rarely experienced doubt or conflicting impressions. We were quite willing to declare: “This one will never make it,” “That fellow is rather mediocre, but should do O.K.” or “He will be a star.”…

How does last-place aversion play out with regard to redistribution? In our surveys, we asked Americans whether they supported an increase to the minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour. Those making $7.25 or below were very likely to support the increase – after all, they would be immediate beneficiaries. In addition, people making substantially more than…

I am not certain of its application to trading but I am certain there is one somewhere. Putting Like a Pro: The Role of Positive Contagion in Golf Performance and Perception Abstract Many amateur athletes believe that using a professional athletes equipment can improve their performance. Such equipment can be said to be affected with…

A mate of mine in the medical profession lobed this in my inbox. I believe Jobs also tried acupuncture, herbal remedies, psychics and colonic irrigation – all of them profoundly unsuccessful and basically bullshit. In reading about Steve Jobs’ death, I was disappointed to learn that after his carcinoid tumor (a rare type of malignant…

I am not normally a fan of Malcolm Gladwell – I find his writing quite simplistic and often wide of the mark. I found his last missive Outliers to be particularly trite. Steven Pinker the noted psychologist wrote – The themes of the collection are a good way to characterize Gladwell himself: a minor genius who…