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The Dirt Psychology — On turning scholarship into wisdom

• [article] Meditating for fun and for profit — 5 Jul 2024
  Meditation generally involves either acknowledging or excluding thoughts, but can be problematic. Movement-based meditations (e.g. yoga, running) are better for people who can’t sit with themselves. More generally, many everyday activities meet the broad criteria.
• [article] Common sense isn't as helpful as you'd like, and neither is the truth — 18 Apr 2020
  We covet common sense, especially at those times where the expertise of the academic world can seem so distant from our daily concerns. But the spirit of academic enquiry has something that common sense doesn’t and you don’t need to be an academic to have it too.
• [article] Alert - IQ scores are meaningless — 11 Jan 2019
  The Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, is commonly considered a representation of your raw intelligence. At least, that’s the folk wisdom. But the folk wisdom is wrong.
• [article] How being selfish can make people like you more — 8 Jan 2017
  <p>For some reason, <a rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin">Benjamin Franklin</a> is known for doing, like, everything first. This is no exception. This little brain quirk is …
• [article] What do dreams really mean? — 21 Nov 2016
  <p>I bet you’ve heard stories of ‘prophetic dreams’. Or maybe you’ve had one yourself. Well, if you’re here, you probably want to know what the science says.</p> <h2 id="dreams-as-a-psychological-tool">&lt;a href=“#dreams-as-a-psychological-tool“ class=“head…
• [article] Take action - be more creative (and other things) — 1 Jun 2016
  <h2 id="the-weekly-dispatch"><a href="#the-weekly-dispatch" class="heading-permalink" aria-hidden="true" title="Heading Permalink">¶</a>The <a href="https://btr.mt/analects/poverty-stops-performance-and-other-things">Weekly Dispatch</a></h2> <p>We curate …
• [article] Three ways science is being corrupted by money — 9 Apr 2016
  <p>Researchers don’t get paid per article. They get paid a salary based on a kind of ‘level’ system. The more eminent you are, the higher your level, the more you get paid. Publishing an article actually <em>costs</em> a researcher money. Most publishers,…
• [article] Why some science is ignored (even when it's crucial) — 25 Mar 2016
  <p>I’ll bet you can guess what kind of research gets more press. Research that gets RESULTS, am I right? No one wants to see research that doesn’t ‘prove’ something (although <a href="https://btr.mt/analects/scientific-fact">you can never really ‘prove’ a…
• [article] How scientists are lying to you — 16 Mar 2016
  <p>Science is a wonderful thing. Find a problem in the world, follow the scientific method, and we’re one step closer to utopia. From the &lt;a rel=“nofollow noopener” target=“_blank“ class=“external-link” href=“http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2013/05/01/pi…
• [article] Why a 'scientific fact' isn't quite what they taught you in school — 9 Mar 2016
  <p>Psychology is a type of science. Well, it is if it’s <a href="https://btr.mt/analects/critically-evaluate-research">done properly</a>, anyway. It’s a way to make our guesses about how the mind works into ‘facts’. A way of understanding the mind, just a…
• [article] Academic publishers - the biggest evil you didn't know existed — 2 Mar 2016
  Did you know that the main academic publishers have higher profit margins than Apple? Lucrative, no? Also, evil. The Guardian compares academic publishers to Rupert Murdoch and a quick search will show you that they aren’t the only ones complaining. Possibly because academic publishers also sometimes like to do arms trading.
• [article] How the media screws you with 'science' — 23 Feb 2016
  <p>The media is breaking science. <em>You’re</em> breaking science. And it’s screwing you out of knowing just what the heck you’re talking about. Scientific facts are guesses. A very well-designed kind of guess that is tested over and over again to make s…
• [article] How fake research articles are making you fat — 10 Feb 2016
  <p>Academic publishers are so evil; they could star as the villain in the next James Bond movie. Don’t believe me? Well, you might if you know that they’ve been known to <a href="https://btr.mt/analects/academic-publishers-are-evil">organise arms trade fa…
• [article] The brain quirk that changes what (and who) you like — 31 Jan 2016
  <p>Your brain will make you like other people more, even if you don’t want to. You see, our brain likes to <a href="https://btr.mt/analects/social-stereotypes">generate sweeping generalisations</a> to free up computing space, even if it causes you problem…
• [article] Four reasons you'll always agree to this kind of request — 28 Jan 2016
  <p>This is the only time that ‘no’ means ‘yes’. I’ll tell you why but first, did you know, asking someone for a favour can <a href="https://btr.mt/analects/ben-franklin-effect">make them like you more</a>? Well, in a kind of variation of that, if they &lt;em…