Imagine your morning routine: First, you’re about to take a shower. You turn on the water and wait for it to heat up while you undress. Although you’ve never kept track, you know exactly when to step into the shower to avoid a shock from the cold water. Now imagine you’re making some coffee. You […]
Implicit Processes
Olivia Newton’s Physical is a great song (so is the video!). This 1980’s classic candidly describes the experience of sexual desire without leaving out the feelings of reduced self-control that sometimes come with it (“It’s gettin’ hard this holdin’ back / If you know what I mean” [music intensifies]). Sexual arousal has been associated with positive emotions and can […]
We are bombarded by stimuli almost every instant of every day. Even logging off Twitter provides only temporary relief before more information arrives that we have to deal with. Being able to inhibit unwanted responses to stimuli is therefore a critically important cognitive ability, and researchers have shown considerable interest in such inhibitory and control […]
Cogito ergo sum. This famous utterance by René Descartes translates into “I think, therefore I am.” Thinking is what ostensibly makes us human—quite literally so because homo sapiens means “wise man”. But do we really think (much)? If we are so wise, how come fake election news stories outperformed real news on Facebook during the U.S. presidential […]
A philosopher and a theologian are discussing their respective fields over coffee. The theologian dismisses philosophy: “You know what a philosopher is like?” he demands. “A philosopher is a man searching in a dark room for a black cat that isn’t there.” The philosopher nods. “Maybe so,” he concedes, “but it takes a theologian to […]