We're all dumb as hell.
Some people may be attracted to others over minimal similarities
Apr 2023, phys.org
Participants who scored high on self-essentialism were more likely to express an attraction to an individual who agreed with their position.
So, simply believing that you are defined by an unchanging essence of self, and that our attraction to others depends on shared identities, beliefs, etc., leads you to use another person's identity to decide whether you like them or not, and sometimes it can be only one characteristic that triggers your decision to like someone.
But let's focus on the important part -- if you don't believe that your own sense of self can be described by a list of personal beliefs, then you're more discriminating about who you like.
via Boston University Questrom School of Business: Self-Essentialist Reasoning Underlies the Similarity-Attraction Effect, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2023). DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000425
Image credit: AI Art - Blank - 2023. But look at the "mastercard logo" at the bottom, very nice
Placebo effect found to be growing stronger for transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy used for depression
Sep 2023, phys.org
Tests with placebo pills are now providing even more benefits than those that were used in the past. Some in the psychiatry field have suggested it is due to an increase in trust in the psychiatry profession.In this new effort, the researchers wondered if a similar increase might be observed with transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy."
(It was).
via Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Central South University and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, all in China: Yangting Xu et al, Growing placebo response in TMS treatment for depression: a meta-analysis of 27-year randomized sham-controlled trials, Nature Mental Health (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s44220-023-00118-9
Many Wordle users cheat to win, says mathematics expert
Sep 2023, phys.org
Dilger imported statistics covering four months of user guesses into an Excel spreadsheet and calculated that the odds of the 860 players randomly guessing one of the 2,315 5-letter words of the day at 0.043%. Yet, Times statistics show that the number of players making correct first guesses in each game never dipped below 4,000."We are baffled as to how first-word cheaters actually have fun playing," Dinger said, "but that does not diminish our enjoyment of the game."
via one curious professor from Stony Brook University in New York: James P. Dilger, Wordle: A Microcosm of Life. Luck, Skill, Cheating, Loyalty, and Influence!, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2309.02110
Post Script: The science of statistics is pure magic; its secrets are protected by the law of large numbers, which prohibits most humans from fully understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment