Missives

One a month, to the Armchair Collective.

Keep track of what's happened since you were last here with the newsletters and the changelog.

October 16, 2020

Changelog

Updates to high traffic articles:

On the link between reading fiction, the development of empathy, and theory of mind.

On the weirder effects of subliminal messaging.


October 10, 2020

Changelog

Article on how we choose our psychic predators and the ancient tension between natural law and social law.

Update to the article on Bandura’s famous bobo doll experiments, about how children model violence.


October 2, 2020

Changelog

New article on hydraulic despotism.


If you don’t do the thinking, the thinking will be done for you.

Join the Armchair Collective. Once a month, a brain scientist’s musings on patterns of human behaviour, so you can choose the ones you keep.

Over 2000 of us so far. Once a month, no fuss, leave whenever.


September 20, 2020

Changelog

New article on the loneliness epidemic.

More updates to ranking search results—the psychology of needs and a primer on psychological theories.


September 15, 2020

Changelog

New article on the predictability of humans.


September 10, 2020

Changelog

New article on folie à deux.

Large extension to Successful Prophets.

In response to questions and a general amazement that we don’t take this very seriously, a new project on protecting our digital selves started, with step one complete.


September 4, 2020

Changelog

New article started on motivation, success, and (accidental) talent.


August 27, 2020

Changelog

New article on repressed memories. Follow up on therapeutic perspectives toward detailing traumas in response to reader questions. New article on the false narrative of teenage brain development.

Site is even thinner again. No more cover images anywhere. Vastly different styling on home and articles pages to eliminate clutter.


August 19, 2020

Changelog

New project article: successful prophets. A couple other new standalone articles too. All links in newsletter. Newsletter will now print articles in full, in response to feedback.

Moving to a lighter version of the site, which means getting rid of cover images. So much time spent finding images for articles just to adhere to convention. Why not try to be visually interesting in a less conventional way? So far, I like it. See what you think.