“Evidence to suggest” suggestive behavior in nightclubs

This study required keep, persistent observatory behavior (or behaviour) on the part of the researchers: “Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds,” Colin A. Hendrie [pictured here], Helena D. Mannion and Georgina K. Godfrey, Behaviour, vol. 146, 2009, pp. 1331-1348. (Thanks to Neil Martin for bringing this to our attention.) The […]

“Humans will befriend a stick — as long as it moves properly”

Maggie Koerth-Baker profiles, in BoingBoing, the story behind this moving video of how people respond to a stick that moves in ways that seem un-stick-likely. BoingBoing sums it up with the headline “Humans will befriend a stick — as long as it moves properly“: A 2011 paper, by scientists at the University of Calgary, documenting […]

Instruction for those who would behave too rationally

Ig Nobel Prize winner Dan Ariely is teaching a new online course called “A beginner’s guide to irrational behavior.” Perhaps irrationally, it’s free. Ariely and colleagues Rebecca L. Waber, Baba Shiv, and Ziv Carmon were awarded the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize in medicine for  demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine. [REFERENCE: “Commercial Features of Placebo […]

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