This episode features: -Who’s prettier, liberals or conservatives? -Who’s happier, liberals or conservatives? -Why do politicians sometimes intentionally make things worse? -Do we have an innate political instinct? -If most voters are ignorant, how could democracy work? -Is democracy good? -What are the upsides of monarchy? -What causes political g…

This episode features: -Is empathy bad? -Is there such thing as “real” altruism? -Why are people altruistic? -How do people decide which charity to donate to? -Why was the Ice Bucket Challenge so successful? -Can you make money by donating to charity? -What is the probability that your vote will determine the outcome of a presidential election? -Do…

This episode features: -Do babies have a sense of right and wrong? -How are liberals psychologically different from conservatives? -Is it morally permissible to recline your seat on an airplane? -The psychology of abortion rights, gay marriage, environmentalism, and organ trade -The psychology of drugs, gambling, and prostitution -Do genes influenc…

This episode features: -How do salespeople manipulate us? -Why do food delivery apps lie to us? -How do people use fashion to show off their social status? -Why do so many people hate the rich? -Persuasion techniques -Dating dynamics -Are most people conformist sheep? -Would most people electrocute a puppy just because an authority figure told them…

This episode features: -How to have a smart baby -Are people with bigger brains smarter? -Are people with bigger heads smarter? -Does mental illness make someone more creative? -What determines someone's personality? -What determines someone's intelligence? -Do smarter people make more money? -How does your personality change as you age? -Can intel…

-Why do people like scary movies? -What does your bedroom say about your personality? -Is the Myers-Briggs legit? -How do men and women differ in terms of personality? -Why do people choose to suffer? -Why do people like art? -Why do some people like exercising? -Why do religious rituals sometimes involve pain? -What can you know about someone afte…

-Does having children make people happy? -Are men happier than women? -What draws people into racist/sexist ideologies? -Are religious people happier than non-religious people? -Are polygraph tests effective at detecting lies? -Are police officers good at detecting lies? -Can money buy you happiness? -Are extroverts happier than introverts?…

-Does psychotherapy work? -Three massive experiments tell us that some modern medicine must be useless or harmful -Why are doctors biased towards more aggressive treatment and testing? -Is acupuncture effective? Chiropractic? Naturopathy? Reiki? -Freud's ideas about “penis envy” and the Oedipus complex -Why was bloodletting practiced for 2000 years…

-Why have rates of transgender identification increased in adolescents? -Why did anorexia become much more common starting in 1983? -Why is depression more common in women? -Is depression caused by low levels of serotonin? -Is depression a disease? -Why do most people with major depression have an anxiety disorder as well? -Does telling people abou…

This episode features: -Why do liberals and conservatives hate each other? -Are there hidden symbols in dreams? -Can dreams predict the future? -Can you learn while sleeping? -Why do we sleep? -Treatments for insomnia -How to learn better -How to accurately predict how long it will take to finish your Christmas shopping…

This episode features: -How often do people lie? -Do we deceive ourselves? -What happens when you disconnect the two hemispheres of the brain? -Blindsight: some blind people can still use visual information to make decisions -What is the most disliked personality trait? -Why can't people admit when they're wrong? -Why are most people overly optimis…

This episode features: -How common are homicidal fantasies? -Why are men overrepresented in high status professions? -Why are men taller than women (on average)? -Why are men strong? -Why isn't everyone beautiful? -Why isn't everyone smart? -Why does mental illness exist? -What is the purpose of romantic jealousy?…

This episode features: -How do humans detect cheaters? -Can you tell how generous someone is by the way they look? -What is the #1 rated most desirable trait in a long-term mate? -What does Maury Povich teach us about human nature? -Why is your mother's mother your nicest grandparent? -Why do mothers invest more in their children compared to father…

This episode features: -Do men have more sexual fantasies than women? -Why are men attracted to younger women? -Was homosexuality selected for by evolution? -What are women attracted to? -Why do pregnant women develop food aversions? -Why do people like spicy food? -Why do humans make art?

I started a new podcast! Here is the blurb: Professor Daniel Gambacorta and Behavior Interventionist Atanah Shannon explore the big questions in science and philosophy. What is consciousness? Do we have free will? Are we living in a simulation??? Find out on the next episode of... The Scientific Worldview.…

This episode features: -Will teaching your child to play violin make them smarter? -Do genes determine someone's personality? -Do genes determine how smart someone is? -Do genes affect how happy you are? -Do genes affect whether you'll get married? -Are psychopaths responsible for the crimes they commit? -Do parents affect the political beliefs of …

This episode features: -Why do some people turn red when they drink alcohol? -Do people around the world express emotion in the same way? -Why are so many people afraid of snakes? -If you have two siblings, can you be more genetically related to one than the other? -Why do giraffes have long necks? -Why do ostriches have wings? -Did humans “evolve …

This episode features: -Why do people wear ugly clothing? -Why do people overestimate how often they do the dishes? -How do marketers manipulate us into spending more money? -Why do people finish boring movies? -How to make optimal decisions (using math!) -The gambler’s fallacy -Is a hotdog a sandwich? -What is sex? -Is sex on a spectrum?…

This episode features: -What is probability? -Bayes’ theorem -Is there a God? -Can you prove that God does *not* exist? -Can morality exist without God? -Are religious experiences hallucinations? -Pascal’s wager -If there is a God, why is there so much suffering in the world?

This episode features: -Is the universe deterministic? -Do we have free will? -What is death? -Brain emulation -Cryonics -Is astrology accurate? -Are ghosts real? -Is it possible to speak with the dead? -Do psychic powers exist? -Do souls exist?

This episode features: -The doomsday argument -Is our universe fine-tuned for life? -Are we living in a simulation? -What is consciousness made of? -Are animals conscious? Which ones? -The Sleeping Beauty problem -Panpsychism

This episode features: -Why is there something rather than nothing? -How big is space? -Do parallel universes exist? -Are there aliens? -How did life originate? -The Fermi paradox -What is time? -Is time travel possible? -Quantum mechanics

This episode features: -Why does men’s testosterone go down when they fall in love? -Does “power posing” have any psychological effects? -What is “humblebragging” and why does it pervade social media? -Is our preference for democracy really a preference for high status? -What is self-esteem? -How to increase self-esteem (the answer is disappointing…

This episode features: -Why does high status reduce creativity? -How to remain creative as you gain status -When should you distrust your own moral reasoning? -How do we come to learn what counts as high status in our culture? -What are the psychological underpinnings of “inspiration”? -How to feel less motivated to engage in conspicuous consumptio…

This episode features: -How do people behave differently when they are high vs low status? -How did human social status evolve? -Should you try to dampen your desire for status? -Are EAs too credential-focused? -Is publishing in academic journals overrated? -Can you get more done by working alone than by starting an organization? -What causes group…

This episode features: -How to evaluate your chance of successfully completing difficult projects -Can you be justified in believing that you are an extraordinary person who can do extraordinary things? -When to trust the advice of others and when not to -How to fail faster -How to judge a project based on how well it fails -How to avoid repeating …

This episode features: -What are the best and worst studying techniques? -Do “learning styles” exist? -How to squeeze more learning into your day -How to start learning a new field -How to cultivate viewpoint diversity -How to avoid getting parasitized by bad ideas -Should you study in the morning or at night? -Can napping enhance learning? Full tr…

This episode features: -Arguments against utilitarianism -What moral views do philosophers favor? -Why you should consider moral uncertainty when deciding how altruistic to be -How does giving away 10% of your income affect your happiness? -Why donating 10% of your income is not too demanding (for middle class members of affluent countries) -How sh…

This episode features: -Are people with autism spectrum disorder more utilitarian? -Do utilitarian judgments in trolley problems predict interest in effective altruism? -What is the “identifiable victim effect” -Why empathy is bad for morality -Are effective altruists more empathetic than average? Less empathetic? -Why do EAs disproportionately stu…

This episode features: -Are effective altruists especially prone to anxiety and depression? -Are effective altruists high in autistic-like traits? -Is effective altruism especially appealing to people high in autistic-like traits? -Are people high in autistic-like traits more rational? -Why do we fall prey to biases like the attraction effect, the …

This episode features: -Why the Myers-Briggs is wrong, yet popular -What is the structure of personality -How does personality change throughout the lifespan -Can you intentionally change your personality? -Do we change more than we think we will? -What is the effect of genes on personality -What is the effect of parenting on personality -Which uni…

This episode features: -What proportion of effective altruists decrease their involvement over time? -Why do people decrease their involvement with effective altruism? -Why effective altruist values are particularly vulnerable to drift -Should you expect your values to get better or worse over time? -Should you try to prevent value drift? -How you …

This episode features: -How do our values change as we age -How does empathy shape values -Why are we so conformist? -Why we underestimate our risk of corruption -Why many people argue that death is good/necessary -How ethical slippery slopes lead to severe moral transgressions -How evil behavior leads to worse values Full transcript -References- A…

This episode features: -Do you need 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert? -What is the connection between creativity and mental illness -Can drugs make you more creative? -Can electrically stimulating your brain make you more creative? -Are smarter people more creative? -How do psychologists measure creativity -Which personality trait predicts …

This episode features: -What to consider when choosing a graduate program -Why I was told to avoid getting A’s in my classes, and why it might be a good idea for you as well -What are your chances of graduating from grad school -What are your chances of getting an academic position after grad school -How to avoid being corrupted by the academic inc…

This episode features: -Can political symbols change political beliefs? -What makes pseudoscience appealing -How to evaluate futurism -How do chronically accessible concepts change our perception -How to think about the complexity of theories -Priming: fact or fiction? -Can barely-noticeable changes in the environment have big effects on behavior? …

This episode features: -Are smart phones causing young people to be more lonely and depressed -How can the supplement industry stay afloat if so many supplements are useless -Discussion of how a paper on psychic powers got published in a top psychology journal -Why people are often less incompetent than you think -Why so many professors are bad tea…

This episode features: -A quiz to test your intuitions about which studies replicate and which don’t -An effective altruist origin story -Heuristics for evaluating scientific research -The role of incentives in the replication crisis -What should your prior be for whether research will replicate -Which subfield of psychology has the worst replicati…

This episode features: -Why breakups are always the other person’s fault -Why does love cause us to see our partner as better than they really are -How much do people lie -What do people lie about in their online dating profile -Is it possible to detect lies -What traits make somebody likable vs unlikable -How do we deceive ourselves -Why we often …

This episode features: -Why men perceive more sexuality in women’s behavior than women say they intend -Several opportunities to test your own biases -Examples of how both evolutionary psychologists and social psychologists have explained bias the wrong way -Why it’s unsatisfactory to say that we have false beliefs in order to “make ourselves feel …

This episode features: -How to get outside of your head -Why optimal performance sometimes requires “not trying” -What are the psychological traps that can make us dull and uncreative -A framework for overcoming bias -Examples of how to correct for the planning fallacy and confirmation bias -The phenomenology of creativity -How do artists reconnect…

This episode features: -Why people can’t justify their moral decisions -How is it that some blind people can use visual information -What is the basic structure of the brain -Why it is we can both want something and not want it -Why people can be unaware of their decision-making process -Basic principles of public speaking -Particular fixes to impr…