69 posts · 15,853 views
Evolutionary Experimental Psychology
Jesse Marczyk
69 posts
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- June 10, 2013
- 11:18 PM
- 52 views
How Hard Is Psychology?
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
The scientific method is a pretty useful tool for assisting people in doing things related to testing hypotheses and discerning truth – or as close as one can come to such things. Like the famous Churchill quote about democracy, the scientific … Continue reading →... Read more »
Fanelli D. (2010) "Positive" results increase down the Hierarchy of the Sciences. PloS one, 5(4). PMID: 20383332
- June 4, 2013
- 12:48 AM
- 54 views
When (And Why) Is Discrimination Acceptable?
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
As a means of humble-bragging, I like to tell people that I have been rejected from many prestigious universities; the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and Yale are all on that list. Also on that list happens to be the University … Continue reading →... Read more »
Tetlock, P., Kristel, O., Elson, S., Green, M., & Lerner, J. (2000) The psychology of the unthinkable: Taboo trade-offs, forbidden base rates, and heretical counterfactuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(5), 853-870. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.78.5.853
- June 1, 2013
- 12:48 AM
- 63 views
Why Are They Called “Spoilers”?
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Imagine you are running experiments with mice. You deprive the mice of food until they get hungry and then you drop them into a maze. Now obviously the hungry mice are pretty invested in the idea of finding the food; … Continue reading →... Read more »
Leavitt JD, & Christenfeld NJ. (2011) Story spoilers don't spoil stories. Psychological science, 22(9), 1152-4. PMID: 21841150
- May 27, 2013
- 10:50 PM
- 68 views
Two Fallacies From Feminists
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Being that it’s summer, I’ve decided to pretend I’m going to kickback once more from working for a bit and write about a more leisurely subject. The last time I took a break for some philosophical play, the topic was … Continue reading →... Read more »
Mercier, H., & Sperber, D. (2011) Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34(02), 57-74. DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X10000968
- May 27, 2013
- 10:34 AM
- 38 views
It’s (Sometimes) Good To Be The King
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Given my wealth of anecdata, I would feel confident saying that, on the whole, people high in status (whether because of their wealth, their social connections, or both) tend to not garner much in the way of sympathy from third … Continue reading →... Read more »
Polman, E., Pettit, N., & Wiesenfeld, B. (2013) Effects of wrongdoer status on moral licensing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(4), 614-623. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.03.012
- May 18, 2013
- 11:40 AM
- 83 views
Why Psychology 101 Should Be Evolutionary Psychology
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
In two recent posts, I have referenced a relatively-average psychologist (again, this psychologist need not bear any resemblance to any particular person, living or dead). I found this relatively-average psychologist to be severely handicapped in their ability to think about … Continue reading →... Read more »
Smallegange, R., van Gemert, G., van de Vegte-Bolmer, M., Gezan, S., Takken, W., Sauerwein, R., & Logan, J. (2013) Malaria Infected Mosquitoes Express Enhanced Attraction to Human Odor. PLoS ONE, 8(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063602
- May 11, 2013
- 01:19 AM
- 72 views
Welcome To Introduction To Psychology
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
In my last post, I mentioned a hypothetical relatively-average psychologist (caveat: the term doesn’t necessarily apply to any specific person, living or dead). I found him to be a bit strange, since he tended to come up with hypotheses that … Continue reading →... Read more »
Cornwell, R., Palmer, C., Guinther, P., & Davis. H. (2005) Introductory Psychology Texts as a View of Sociobiology/Evolutionary Psychology’s Role in Psychology. Evolutionary Psychology, 355-374. info:/
- May 1, 2013
- 10:05 PM
- 107 views
I Find Your Lack Of Theory (And Replications) Disturbing
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Let’s say you find yourself in charge of a group of children. Since you’re a relatively-average psychologist, you have a relatively strange hypothesis you want to test: you want to see whether wearing a red shirt will make children better … Continue reading →... Read more »
Shanks, D., Newell, B., Lee, E., Balakrishnan, D., Ekelund, L., Cenac, Z., Kavvadia, F., & Moore, C. (2013) Priming Intelligent Behavior: An Elusive Phenomenon. PLoS ONE, 8(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056515
- April 27, 2013
- 11:09 AM
- 125 views
He’s Climbing In Your Windows; He’s Snatching Your People Up
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
One topic that has been addressed by evolutionary psychologists that managed to draw a good deal of ire was rape. Given the sensitive nature of the issue, the criticisms that the theorizing about it brought were largely undeserved, reflecting, perhaps, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Felson, R., & Cundiff, P. (2012) Age and sexual assault during robberies. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33(1), 10-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.04.002
- April 22, 2013
- 07:30 PM
- 129 views
Why Hang Them Seperately When We Can Hang Them Together?
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
For those of you lucky enough to not have encountered it, there is a concept known as privilege that floats around in predominately feminist-leaning groups. The basic idea of the concept of privilege is that some groups of people have … Continue reading →... Read more »
DeScioli, P., & Kurzban, R. (2013) A solution to the mysteries of morality. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 477-496. DOI: 10.1037/a0029065
Uhlmann, E., Zhu, L., Pizarro, D., & Bloom, P. (2012) Blood is thicker: Moral spillover effects based on kinship. Cognition, 124(2), 239-243. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.04.010
- April 16, 2013
- 09:12 PM
- 80 views
An Implausible Function For Depression
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Recently, I was involved in a discussion about experimenter-induced expectation biases in performance, also known as demand characteristics. The basic premise of the idea runs along the following lines: some subjects in your experiment are interested in pleasing the experimenter … Continue reading →... Read more »
Moore, M., & Fresco, D. (2012) Depressive realism: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(6), 496-509. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2012.05.004
- April 11, 2013
- 01:28 AM
- 99 views
Mothers And Others (With Benefits)
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Understanding the existence and persistence of homosexuality in the face of its apparently reproductive fitness costs has left many evolutionary researchers scratching their heads. Though research into homosexuality has not been left wanting for hypotheses, every known hypothesis to date … Continue reading →... Read more »
Kuhle BX, & Radtke S. (2013) Born both ways: The alloparenting hypothesis for sexual fluidity in women. Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior, 11(2), 304-23. PMID: 23563096
- April 8, 2013
- 01:00 AM
- 118 views
Should Psychological Neuroscience Research Be Funded?
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
In my last post, when discussing some research by Singer et al (2006), I mentioned as an aside that their use of fMRI data didn’t seem to add a whole lot to their experiment. Yes, they found that brain regions … Continue reading →... Read more »
Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'Doherty, J., Stephan, K., Dolan, R., & Frith, C. (2006) Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others. Nature, 439(7075), 466-469. DOI: 10.1038/nature04271
- April 4, 2013
- 07:42 PM
- 138 views
Reactions To Reactions About Steubenville
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Around the middle of last month, CNN came under some social-media fire. The source of this fire came from the perception among some people that CNN had covered the Steubenville rape case inappropriately. More precisely, the outrage focused on the … Continue reading →... Read more »
Descioli P, & Kurzban R. (2013) A solution to the mysteries of morality. Psychological bulletin, 139(2), 477-96. PMID: 22747563
Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'Doherty, J., Stephan, K., Dolan, R., & Frith, C. (2006) Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others. Nature, 439(7075), 466-469. DOI: 10.1038/nature04271
- March 26, 2013
- 10:41 AM
- 197 views
Belief In “Belief In A Just World” Theory
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
I have a new theory that goes something like this: social psychologists have a need to believe in their own hypotheses – a belief in the truth of their hypotheses (or BTH for short). When evidence turns up that is … Continue reading →... Read more »
Callan, M., Powell, N., & Ellard, J. (2007) The Consequences of Victim Physical Attractiveness on Reactions to Injustice: The Role of Observers’ Belief in a Just World. Social Justice Research, 20(4), 433-456. DOI: 10.1007/s11211-007-0053-9
- March 16, 2013
- 05:37 PM
- 205 views
A New Theory For Homosexuality: A Lot Like The Old Ones
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Homosexuality – male homosexuality in particular – poses a real evolutionary mystery that researchers have been trying to solve for at least the past two decades without much success. Though many explanations have been put forth to try and find … Continue reading →... Read more »
Barthes, J., Godelle, B., & Raymond, M. (2013) Human social stratification and hypergyny: toward an understanding of male homosexual preference. Evolution and Human Behavior. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.01.001
- March 9, 2013
- 05:18 PM
- 190 views
Tropes Against Video Games
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Back in mid-May of last year, Anita Sarkeesian launched a Kickstarter project to help fund her video series on portrayals of women in video games called “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games”. Her initial goal was set at $6000 for … Continue reading →... Read more »
Zahavi, A. (1975) Mate selection—A selection for a handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 53(1), 205-214. DOI: 10.1016/0022-5193(75)90111-3
- March 4, 2013
- 07:14 PM
- 193 views
Do People “Really” Have Priors?
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
As of late, I’ve been dipping my toes ever-deeper into the conceptual world of statistics. If one aspires towards understanding precisely what they’re seeing in when it comes to research in psychology, understanding statistics can go a long way. Unfortunately, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Dienes, Z. (2011) Bayesian Versus Orthodox Statistics: Which Side Are You On?. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(3), 274-290. DOI: 10.1177/1745691611406920
- February 23, 2013
- 05:16 PM
- 213 views
Statisticial Issues In Psychology And What Not To Do About Them
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
As I’ve discussed previously, there are a number of theoretical and practical issues that plague psychological research in terms of statistical testing. On the theoretical end of things, if you collect enough subjects, you’re all but guaranteed to find some … Continue reading →... Read more »
Perneger TV. (1998) What's wrong with Bonferroni adjustments?. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 316(7139), 1236-8. PMID: 9553006
- February 21, 2013
- 07:49 PM
- 239 views
“Nice Guys”, The Friend Zone, And Social Semantics
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
A little over a year ago, a video entitled, “Why men and women can’t be friends” was uploaded to YouTube. In the video, a man approaches various men and women and presents them with the question, “can men and women … Continue reading →... Read more »
Trivers, R. (1971) The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46(1), 35. DOI: 10.1086/406755
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