How likely is it that your baby will be abducted?:
rried that someone is out to nab your kid? Don't be: The truth is that no one is trying to steal your baby. It doesn't matter what kind of ID tags your hospital employs, or how many surveillance cameras are mounted in the hallway. The incidence of nonfamily infant abductions is so impossibly low—the actual crime so rare in practice—that it hardly matters at all... The NCMEC has systematically compiled information on every case of baby-snatching (PDF) since 1983, a…
1 min read
What are the chances of a high school football player eventually going on to win the Super Bowl?:
in over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert
1 min read
Thank you.
e blog has been getting a lot of attention lately and I'm quite flattered. Last night I realized "Barking Up The Wrong Tree" is now listed in the blogroll of the New York Times' "Economix" section. That was pretty cool. Lately it has been cited on a number of my favorite sites on the internet, including: The Economist The Washington Post The Atlantic Andrew Sullivan's blog Ben Casnocha's blog Jonah Lehrer's blog "Frontal Cortex" Ryan Sager's…
1 min read
Scary dreams? The solution might just be video games:
bsp; A study shows that because gamers frequently "resolve threats" during game play they would experience fewer "threat severity variables" in their dreams. That's right: blowing away zombies and defending the USA on your Xbox could mean fewer nightmares: Revonsuo proposes an evolutionary theory of dreaming in which dreams allow an individual to prepare for real world threats in the safety of the virtual setting of the dream world. Based upon previous work examining the dreams of video game players,…
3 minutes
If you give away a lottery ticket, is it more likely to win?:
, that's crazy-talk. However, a lot of people believe it: People are reluctant to exchange lottery tickets, a result that previous investigators have attributed to anticipated regret. The authors suggest that people's subjective likelihood judgments also make them disinclined to switch. Four studies examined likelihood judgments with respect to exchanged and retained lottery tickets and found that (a) exchanged tickets are judged more likely to win a lottery than are retained tickets and (b) exchanged tickets are judged more likely…
1 min read
When should you use statistical evidence and when should you use anecdotal evidence?:
der certain conditions, statistical evidence is more persuasive than anecdotal evidence in supporting a claim about the probability that a certain event will occur. In three experiments, it is shown that the type of argument is an important condition in this respect. If the evidence is part of an argument by generalization, statistical evidence is more persuasive compared with anecdotal evidence (Experiments 1 and 2). In the case of argument by analogy, statistical and anecdotal evidences are equally persuasive (Experiments…
1 min read
Does when you were born affect whether you’ll be a great athlete?:
e month of your birth influences your chances of becoming a professional sportsperson, an Australian researcher has found. Senior research fellow Dr. Adrian Barnett from Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation studies the seasonal patterns of population health and found the month you were born in could influence your future health and fitness. The results of the study are published in the Springer book Analysing Seasonal Health Data¹, by Barnett, co-authored by researcher Professor Annette Dobson…
2 minutes
Why UFC fighters should not take antidepressants:
ozac makes you less aggressive: We tested the theory that central serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT) activity regulates aggression by modulating response to provocation. Eighty men and women (40 with and 40 without a history of aggression) were randomly assigned to receive either 40 mg of paroxetine (to acutely augment serotonergic activity) or a placebo, administered using double-blind procedures. Aggression was assessed during a competitive reaction time game with a fictitious opponent. Shocks were selected by the participant and opponent before…
1 min read
