Everyone has at least one hobby horse, I have a stable's full. One of mine is the relationship between copper and psychiatric disorders. I first became interested in this connection when someone gave me a copper supplement to take and over a few days I became very anxious. The relationship is understudied, but what research … Continue reading Blood copper and psychiatric disorders- some correlational studies
Category: Psychology
The pursuit of virtue & politics in Europe
TLDR: European Social Survey data suggests Leftwing people care more about being a virtuous person when it comes to values of altruism, humility & loyalty to friends. However people on the extreme end of the right care less than the leftwing, but more than moderate rightists. It's important to be clear what we are considering … Continue reading The pursuit of virtue & politics in Europe
The interpersonal comparison is a general problem across psychology- not merely a specific problem about comparing welfare
EDIT: Today I happened to reread Angner's "Is it possible to measure happiness" and it's probably important to mention that all the basic elements of my argument can be found in Angner's article, though it isn't spelt out in quite the same way by Angner. If you're bored and want something to read check out … Continue reading The interpersonal comparison is a general problem across psychology- not merely a specific problem about comparing welfare
Agnotphantasia
Many have been astonished to discover the existence of aphantasia. Per Wikipedia: Aphantasia is the suggested name for a condition where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot voluntarily visualize imagery. I believe I may have an even stranger condition, which I call Agnotphantasia. I am unsure of whether or not I … Continue reading Agnotphantasia
The Joyous Hypocrite
For most people, being hypocritical is uncomfortable- at least if they become aware of that hypocrisy. Hypocrisy means guilt, denial, etc. A minority of sociopaths and sociopathy adjacent types seem unaffected by hypocrisy- able to wear the mask quite comfortably. A lot of politicians and clergy, for example. But every so often one hears about … Continue reading The Joyous Hypocrite
The feeling of disgust in depression
Secondary to my OCD, I suffer relatively mild depression. One of the symptoms of this depression with which I am well acquainted, but eluded my description for years, is a low level sense of disgust at everything. And I do mean disgust- disgust and contempt very specifically, and not just “anger” or “irritation”. When this … Continue reading The feeling of disgust in depression
The conscientious conservatives?
1.The relationship between conscientiousness and conservatism is very small I was talking with a friend the other day when I casually mentioned that there are no large correlations between big-five personality traits and political beliefs. He jumped in to correct me saying that obviously I didn’t mean to include conscientiousness, which was strongly correlated with … Continue reading The conscientious conservatives?
The relationship between self-enhancement and inequality is high, and that means the relationship between inequality and unhappiness is almost certainly larger than it appears.
In a study in Psychological Science a large (R=.79) correlation was found between self-enhancement as measured by higher ratings of your own abilities against others in your society and inequality, as measured by the Gini Index. In layman's terms, economic inequality is associated with people talking big game about themselves. Now this is a very … Continue reading The relationship between self-enhancement and inequality is high, and that means the relationship between inequality and unhappiness is almost certainly larger than it appears.
Googling habits suggest we are getting a lot more anxious
All graphs are either ratios of one topic or search against another topic or search, or percentages of the maximum level of interest ever achieved in a month for that topic or search. I’ve applied 12 month smoothing. Edit: As I finished writing this post I became aware that the New York times had done analysis of this … Continue reading Googling habits suggest we are getting a lot more anxious
Googling habits suggest we are getting a lot more anxious
All graphs are either ratios of one topic or search against another topic or search, or percentages of the maximum level of interest ever achieved in a month for that topic or search. I’ve applied 12 month smoothing. Edit: As I finished writing this post I became aware that the New York times had done analysis of this … Continue reading Googling habits suggest we are getting a lot more anxious
DePonySum 