Rogers and Grebner were coming from a different set of questions but arriving at a similar understanding of what drove political activity. No one decided to vote in a vacuum, and interpersonal interactions mattered. In fact, their psychologically minded tests and feints were moving toward something that felt very familiar to Gerber. Rogers’s project to […]
Entries Tagged as 'Psychology'
Political Behaviour as a Pro-Social Activity – “The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns”, Sasha Issenberg
December 6th, 2012 · Comments Off on Political Behaviour as a Pro-Social Activity – “The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns”, Sasha Issenberg · Campaigning, Democracy, Politics, Psychology, Social Psychology
Tags:Politics·ProSocial Pressure·Social Psychology·Voluntary Voting·Voting
Ask Them About Their Neighbours – “The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns”, Sasha Issenberg
December 5th, 2012 · Comments Off on Ask Them About Their Neighbours – “The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns”, Sasha Issenberg · Electoralism, Multi-culturalism, Psychology
One night Binder asked, “Do you think your neighbors would be willing to vote for an African-American for president?” Some of the voters answered no, and Strasma watched them closely. Something in that response—perhaps a feeling of being liberated to publicly share an unpopular opinion—convinced him that the people who acknowledged their neighbors’ racism might […]
Tags:multiculturalism·Polling·public opinion·racism·Revealed Preference
Anosognosia – “The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction” – Nate Silver
November 24th, 2012 · Comments Off on Anosognosia – “The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction” – Nate Silver · Psychology
Schelling suggests that our problems instead run deeper. When a possibility is unfamiliar to us, we do not even think about it. Instead we develop a sort of mind-blindness to it. In medicine this is called anosognosia: part of the physiology of the condition prevents a patient from recognizing that they have the condition. Some […]
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Tags:Blind Spot·Blindness·Self-Awareness·Self-Deception
The Narrative and Political Prediction – “The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction”, Nate Silver
November 17th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Narrative and Political Prediction – “The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction”, Nate Silver · Electoralism, Journalism, Newspapers, Politics, Prediction, Psychology, Spin, The Media
You can get lost in the narrative. Politics may be especially susceptible to poor predictions precisely because of its human elements: a good election engages our dramatic sensibilities.
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Tags:Experts·journalism·journalists·Political Coverage·Politics·Polling·prediction·Statistics·The Media
Men May Construe Things After Their Fashion – “The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction”, Nate Silver
November 11th, 2012 · Comments Off on Men May Construe Things After Their Fashion – “The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction”, Nate Silver · Data, Prediction, Psychology, Quotes, Statistical Inference, Statistics
[But] men may construe things after their fashion / Clean from the purpose of the things themselves,” Shakespeare warns us through the voice of Cicero—good advice for anyone seeking to pluck through their newfound wealth of information. It was hard to tell the signal from the noise. The story the data tells us is often […]
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Tags:Bias·Confirmation Bias·Data·prediction·Statistics
Corrupted Power Structures – “Gang leader for a day: a rogue sociologist takes to the streets”, Sudhir Venkatesh
November 5th, 2012 · Comments Off on Corrupted Power Structures – “Gang leader for a day: a rogue sociologist takes to the streets”, Sudhir Venkatesh · Politics, Power, Social Psychology, Sociology
That a tenant leader—one who was respected by politicians, shop owners, the police, and others—would praise a crack gang and work so closely with its leader made me realize just how desperate people could become in the projects. But I was learning that Ms. Bailey’s compromising position also arose out of her own personal ambitions: […]
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You Have Always Written Before and you Will Write Now – “A Moveable Feast”, Ernest Hemingway
October 28th, 2012 · Comments Off on You Have Always Written Before and you Will Write Now – “A Moveable Feast”, Ernest Hemingway · Psychology, Quotes, Writing
But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the splutter of blue they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs […]
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Tags:mindfulness·pressure·Process·prose·writers block·writing
Good People – “Freedom: A Novel”, Jonathan Franzen
October 24th, 2012 · Comments Off on Good People – “Freedom: A Novel”, Jonathan Franzen · Psychology
Richard had a strong (if highly intermittent) wish to be a good person, and he was scrupulously polite to people, like Dorothy, whom he considered Good.
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Denial – “Freedom: A Novel”, Jonathan Franzen
October 22nd, 2012 · Comments Off on Denial – “Freedom: A Novel”, Jonathan Franzen · Psychology
At the time, she believed that it was because she was selflessly team-spirited that direct personal compliments made her so uncomfortable. The autobiographer now thinks that compliments were like a beverage she was unconsciously smart enough to deny herself even one drop of, because her thirst for them was infinite.
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Self-Deprecating Condescension – “Freedom: A Novel”, Jonathan Franzen
October 22nd, 2012 · Comments Off on Self-Deprecating Condescension – “Freedom: A Novel”, Jonathan Franzen · Psychology
There were people with whom her style of self-deprecation didn’t sit well—who detected a kind of condescension in it, as if Patty, in exaggerating her own minor defects, were too obviously trying to spare the feelings of less accomplished homemakers.
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Tags:elitism·Self-deprecation·Self-Superiority