Professors threaten failing grade if students use the terms he or she and male or female

“The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc [the state ideology of Oceania], but to make all other modes of thought impossible.”

Be careful, your love of science looks a lot like religion

Was fire harnessed by scientific method? Did developed countries become developed through randomized controlled trials? Many innovations obviously work or plainly don't; testing is often for close calls. That isn't to deny the progress of science or its unique role but only to relativize it as one precious mode of discovery among others. Promoting science's quieter, humbler spirit would have numerous upsides.

Many psychology studies fail the replication test

"Not everything we do gets published. Novel, positive and tidy results are more likely to survive peer review and this can lead to publication biases that leave out negative results and studies that do not fit the story that we have," he says.

"If this occurs on a broad scale, then the published literature may become more beautiful than the reality."

The rise and fall of paranormal experimentation

"If you think your house is haunted, you don't need an exorcist, you just need a sceptic. Because I guarantee if I come along, nothing will happen."

Wikipedia is corrupting science with blowjobs and elves, scientists warn

"One commenter on the journal article notes that 'the authors seem to falsely correlate the number of changes to an article and the veracity of those changes' – the researchers assume that all changes are, by their nature, inaccurate and negative. But the pages with more changes are also areas of constant research. It's understandable that as the field of climate change develops, its Wikipedia page would too."

Why the World's Remaining Hunter-Gatherer Societies Are Some of the Biggest Pot Smokers

"Countless rituals have developed around food that do not relate to nutrition. The same goes for sex, clothing, shelter and other utilitarian behaviors. All these behaviors are (and were) essential to survival and reproduction, but we humans have a tendency to elaborate everything. We think the same might be true of recreational drugs."

Learning Might Buffer Brain Against Addiction

"At first, all the mice overwhelmingly returned to the chamber where they had presumably enjoyed the cocaine. But in subsequent weekly drug seeking tests, the mice who had received cognitive training showed less preference for the chamber where they had been high on cocaine. And that pattern continued."

The "Institutional Corruption" of Psychiatry

"Again, this is part of the 'institutional corruption' lens we were using to study the institution of psychiatry and its behavior. The assumption is that individuals within the institution can't see that their behavior has been corrupted by 'economies of influence.' And so, when those outside the institution begin pointing out the corruption in it, those within it may construct a narrative that protects their self-image. In this case, psychiatrists need to protect their image as honest researchers and as physicians who put the interests of their patients first. Cognitive dissonance theory reveals that there are a myriad of ways that people protect themselves in this manner."

Where are the missing mystics of the revolution?

"To the extent that opportunities for these interactions are spread through larger communities, social mysticism has the potential to undermine the wider social order in truly radical ways. Those who are used to looking up to see if collective action is successful should also look out and in to understand the power of change that’s inherent in mystical experience."

How Religious and Spiritual Beliefs Relate to Cancer Patients’ Physical, Mental, and Social Well-Being

"To date, this series of meta-analyses represents the most comprehensive summary and synthesis of a rapidly growing area of psychosocial oncology: the role of religion and spirituality for patients and survivors managing the experience of cancer."

FP's Shameful Attempt at Spinning Hiroshima Bombing as Beneficial for Japan

"What’s really disturbing, however, is how readily they’re being accepted by the West, which frighteningly opens up the possibility for a full-scale historical revisionism of the post-World War II era and the fact that unquestioned objectivity will be laid to waste in the pursuit of political subjectivity."

How emotions influence learning and memory processes in the brain

"It seems that when the emotion is social and positive, the brain tells the different areas to work according to one communication protocol. When a different emotion is involved, such a negative emotion of fear as in our experiment, the brain tells the same areas to use a different communication protocol. We will need to conduct additional studies, including studies on humans, in the future in order to understand the precise ramifications of each emotion on memory."

Pennsylvania to Become First State to Use “Precrime” Statistics in Criminal Sentencing

"We are discussing whether or not to use statistics on 'potential future crimes' in determining how much time a person will remain involuntarily locked in a cage. Obviously there will be errors, and any error that leads to someone spending more time in prison based on a flawed prediction is ethically indefensible. If you want to use such statistics to only reduce punishment I could be in favor of it, but to use it to justify harsher sentencing seems like a horrible idea."

Global War On Terror Has Killed 4 Million Muslims Or More

"As Ahmed points out in his article, the majority of those killed in these wars and those suffering most from these wars, statistically speaking, were Muslim — a stark contrast to the common view that radical Muslim terrorists are the deadliest group in the Middle East. Rather, it would seem the American military are the worst killers, and the death toll resembles religious genocide."

Bernie Sanders says the 1 percent have screwed-up brains

"Interestingly, the research shows wealthy people are less empathetic and tend to think of themselves and others in terms of fixed traits, instead of attributing a person’s emotional state to context and surroundings. And the rich tend to think of income inequality — from which they benefit — as the just result of meritocracy rather than a system rigged in their favor."

"The Senator barrels ahead, calling for expensive (and desperately needed) domestic social and environmental programs without making any serious reference to how the United States' gargantuan war budget devours more than half of the nation's federal discretionary spending."

Rationalists are Harshing My Empiricist Mellow

"Elsewhere they use a fair semblance of logic, but here their logic becomes wondrous weird. Elsewhere they generally succeed in preserving the standard scientific stolidity, but here they frequently manifest and confess a submission to emotions ill befitting those who sprang from the head of Brahma. Elsewhere they observe the knightly etiquette of the lists, but in this field think it no shame to decline the fair encounter, and, from the safe shelter of the barrier, to jeer about the presumptive quality of their opponents’ brains."

The Mind-Bending Science of Awe

"In their experiments, people in a state of awe were more likely to report belief in supernatural forces, and to believe that a random series of numbers was created by a human. His recent work indicates that awe also makes people more likely to report that science explains all natural events."