Tag: psychology

Wealth and Happiness

In a forthcoming paper, Norton and his colleagues track the effects of getting money on the happiness of people who already have a lot of it: a rich person getting even richer experiences zero gain in happiness. That’s not all that surprising; it’s what Norton asked next that led to an interesting insight. He asked these rich people how happy they were at any given moment. Then he asked them how much money they would need to be even happier. “All needed 2-3x more than they had to feel happier”. The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that money, above a certain modest sum, does not have the power to buy happiness, and yet even very rich people continue to believe that it does: the happiness will come from the money they don’t yet have. To the general rule that money, above a certain low level, cannot buy happiness there is one exception. “While spending money upon oneself does nothing for one’s happiness, spending it on others increases happiness.”

Real life Milgram

a McDonald’s manager take a phone call from a man pretending to be a police officer. The caller orders the manager to strip search an employee. And then much much worse. lest you think this was an isolated incident featuring exceptionally weak-minded people, the same caller was alleged to have made several other calls resulting in similar behavior.

Evolution of marriage advice

this is interesting, from a better angels of our nature perspective. things do get better eventually.

The early ‘Can This Marriage Be Saved?’ columns have an unpleasant chiding tone. Popenoe, along with his organisation’s marriage counsellors, thought of female clients as unrealistic babies: immature, and expecting too much glitz from their marriages. There was a strong element of intergenerational critique in their counsel – a sense that young women were seduced by popular culture, and hopelessly unable to ‘keep house’ and make sacrifices. ‘Don’t expect too much romance’.

Robot enforcers


In Kinshasa, traffic congestion is a serious problem. Few drivers bother to obey signs, lights, or even human traffic directors. It was a snarled free-for-all. Until the robots showed up. Isaie Therese designed and built 2 2.5m, classic Robbie the Robot-style automatons to take over traffic-directing duties, and the plan is working.

this will be interesting to watch as the novelty wears off and the robot overlord has to smash a few things for “encouragement”

Putin abs

Putin warns about showing chiseled 6 pack

“Specifically, gay spectators should remain fully clothed at all times, and resist the temptation to unveil their chiseled biceps or shredded abdominals. under no circumstances should gays oil, grease, or otherwise lubricate their torsos in an effort to highlight their glistening, ripped pectorals.”

et tu, putin?
2015-06-18:

Photos of Putin looking shirtless, healthy, and powerful are a way to reassure the public that there’s no need to worry. If Putin is fine, then Russia is fine. But consider the implication of that assertion: if Putin is not fine, then neither is Russia. The scary part is that’s probably correct.

Politics of Fear

one might suppose that modern democratic states, with the lessons of history at hand, would seek to minimize fear or at least minimize its effect on deliberative decision-making in both foreign and domestic policy. But today the opposite is frequently true. Even democracies founded in the principles of liberty and the common good often take the path of more authoritarian states. They don’t work to minimize fear, but use it to exert control over the populace and serve the government’s principle aim: consolidating power.

2014-01-30:

Machiavelli notoriously argued that a good leader should induce fear in the populace in order to control the rabble. Hobbes in “The Leviathan” argued that fear effectively motivates the creation of a social contract in which citizens cede their freedoms to the sovereign.

ring a bell?