Medium Psychology Highlights (Issue 3)
Mea culpa, psychology myths, decisions, and more
Forgive me Medium, for I have sinned.
Not because I didn’t publish an Issue last week—I announced the series as quasi-weekly, after all ;). Forgive me not for being lazy; forgive me for being rude and impulsive. For trying to guard the door to my sacred house of Writing About Psychology and finding myself barking at the visitors. You see, this week I read a very popular post. I read the title, “Why Women Need Twice As Much Sex As Men”, and the subtitle—something about brain differences—and I felt intrigued. I knew the chances of disagreeing with the article were high, but I also knew that it could be an opportunity to learn something. So I read. And what I found infuriated me.
Spreading neuromyths, oversimplifying ad absurdum, misrepresenting a study’s findings: this article had it all. What else did it have? 15 thousand fucking claps. So I acted. I found the worst passages and responded all over them. You know, the kind of response that shows up as a little asterisk, begging you to click on it lest you are left out of some important information? I even started at least two responses with “Actually, […]”
What a douche.
Was it jealousy? Indignation? Fear for how many more people would be misinformed and the damage it could cause to society? A sense that I should somehow protect the community from false psychology? Disappointment that the Medium community gave such drivel a standing ovation? Maybe it was all of those things. But besides alerting some people to the falsehoods being spread, was it truly useful? Probably not. So it’s time I go back to my real “job”: highlighting those pieces that do get it right, as opposed to shaming those that don’t; writing something meaningful and informative and well-researched, as opposed to criticising what doesn’t meet my standards. Let’s get to it.
Highlights
In no particular order this time; just an eclectic collection of recent-ish posts.
- Psychology is full of myths. Some findings are misinterpreted by the media a few times and the misinformation is still circulating decades later. Donnell King wants to help correct that, and he asks us to Please Stop Spreading the Nonverbal Myth (3 min). After reading his post, I invite you to scroll a bit through Albert Mehrabian’s Wikipedia page to learn more about the studies he conducted.
- Want a life-tip that is certainly not a myth? Let Junaid Mubeen convince you of Why ‘sleep on it’ is the most useful advice for learning, and also the most neglected (4 min). And make sure to check out his publication Q.E.D. right here on Medium if you’re into maths and education.
- Do you love stories? I sure do. But what’s so special about them? Why do we love them? Why are they structured the way they are? To find some answers, check out Tomas Pueyo’s amazing four-part series on why stories take the shape they do. Start with What is the hidden structure of stories, and why is it rooted in our brains? (6 min)
- How do you save a city from running out of water? One way is to harness the power of behavioural science. Gravity Ideas is a consultancy that does just that. Don’t know what that means in practice? Read their take on What the Cape Town Water Crisis taught us about applying behavioural science (12 min) to find out! (non-disclaimer: I was not paid to Highlight this post, or any other post by a company you might see me mention.)
- Should you guide your decisions based on intuition, pure reason, or maybe something else entirely? Charles Chu delves into some of Gerd Gigerenzer’s ideas on decision making in Divination as a Decision Tool: Can Superstition Help Us Make Better Decisions? (6 min). If you know anything about the work of Kahneman and Tversky (hint hint, check out the previous Highlights issues!), you’d do well to look up Gerd Gigerenzer, one of their fiercest opponents; let Charles pique your interest.
- Complement Charles’s post (or vice-versa) with Lakshmi Mani’s Distinction Bias: Why You Make Terrible Life Choices (6 min), where she explains an all-too-common mistake we humans make when predicting our own happiness and gives you practical steps to avoid it. Plus, so many cute illustrations!
Two Medium users seem to really like being Highlighted, because they keep producing posts that I just can’t ignore:
- Tyler Kleeberger takes you on a journey through the psychology of learning and memory (without a you-need-to-do-THIS-to-succeed–technique attached!) in aptly-named How You Remember (Some) Stuff (18 min)
- Melissa Chu pits talent against deliberate practice in Play to Your Strengths, Hide Your Weaknesses (8 min). I find this post particularly interesting because, if I didn’t know Melissa’s writing, I would not have clicked on the title. Hide your weaknesses? I disagree! Isn’t life about growth—being better at what comes naturally to you and improving what doesn’t—rather than being the absolute best in a field? And yet… I clicked on the post, enjoyed reading it, and came out knowing more than I did at the beginning. I gather you will, too.
Thank you for reading! And I hope the nice highlighted posts somehow make up for my previous transgressions :) See you next week (ish)!
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