All posts tagged: people

People with psychopathic traits fail to learn from painful outcomes

People with psychopathic traits fail to learn from painful outcomes

Published by José

A recent study published in Communications Psychology reveals that individuals with higher psychopathic traits show reduced sensitivity to pain, which affects their ability to learn from painful consequences. The researchers found that people with elevated psychopathic traits tend to revert quickly to initial beliefs after experiencing pain. This new insight could help us understand why individuals with these traits often struggle to adapt their behavior despite negative consequences. People with psychopathic traits frequently ignore the negative consequences of their actions, likely due to differences in how they process punishment. Past studies have indicated that psychopathy is associated with both an insensitivity to punishment and an excessive drive toward reward, but this study aimed to explore the computational learning processes specifically related to pain. Pain can serve as a powerful teaching signal, so understanding how reduced pain sensitivity influences learning in people with psychopathic traits could shed light on the mechanisms behind their often harmful decision-making. “One of the hallmarks of psychopathy is aggressive, exploitative behavior with little regard for the wellbeing of others,” said study …

People whose parents suffered from substance use disorders are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders

People whose parents suffered from substance use disorders are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders

Published by José

A study of over a million people in Sweden found that individuals whose parents had a substance use disorder face an increased risk of receiving a psychiatric diagnosis. The risk was found to be 80% higher for males and 56% higher for females. The findings were published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. Substance use disorders are a group of conditions involving the recurrent use of substances, like drugs or alcohol, despite harmful consequences to physical, mental, or social health. These disorders are characterized by an inability to control usage, intense cravings, and continued use despite negative impacts on relationships, work, or health. While it is well-known that substance use disorders have negative consequences for the individual, research has recently begun to focus on the effects of these disorders on others, known as the “harm to others” framework. A key area of these studies is the impact on children growing up with parents affected by substance use disorders. These children have been found to have lower academic achievement than their peers whose parents do not …

Black People Across the Country Are Getting Racist Text Messages Saying They’re Going to Be Enslaved

Black People Across the Country Are Getting Racist Text Messages Saying They’re Going to Be Enslaved

Published by José

“I knew it was a prank, but to see that so early after the election I was shook.” Harmful Prank Across the United States, Black Americans are getting horrible text messages telling them that they’re going to be enslaved under Donald Trump’s second presidency. As CBS News reports, people in states as politically and demographically diverse as New York, Ohio, California, Alabama, and Pennsylvania have reported these horrible anonymous texts to authorities. As a result, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Federal Communications Commission, and at least one state attorney general, are investigating the matter. The nature of the texts vary slightly according to location, but all seem to adhere to a specific script telling Black recipients that they had been “selected for cotton picking” and should pack up their things to head to “the plantation.” Though not all texts include references to the president-elect, many seem to. In its investigation, CBS found that area codes from 25 different states had been used to send these vile missives sent to people as young as …

Carl Jung Psychoanalyzes Hitler: “He’s the Unconscious of 78 Million Germans.” “Without the German People He’d Be Nothing” (1938)

Carl Jung Psychoanalyzes Hitler: “He’s the Unconscious of 78 Million Germans.” “Without the German People He’d Be Nothing” (1938)

Published by José

Were you to google “Carl Jung and Nazism”—and I’m not sug­gest­ing that you do—you would find your­self hip-deep in the charges that Jung was an anti-Semi­te and a Nazi sym­pa­thiz­er. Many sites con­demn or exon­er­ate him; many oth­ers cel­e­brate him as a blood and soil Aryan hero. It can be nau­se­at­ing­ly dif­fi­cult at times to tell these accounts apart. What to make of this con­tro­ver­sy? What is the evi­dence brought against the famed Swiss psy­chi­a­trist and one­time close friend, stu­dent, and col­league of Sig­mund Freud? Truth be told, it does not look good for Jung. Unlike Niet­zsche, whose work was delib­er­ate­ly bas­tardized by Nazis, begin­ning with his own sis­ter, Jung need not be tak­en out of con­text to be read as anti-Semit­ic. There is no irony at work in his 1934 paper The State of Psy­chother­a­py Today, in which he mar­vels at Nation­al Social­ism as a “for­mi­da­ble phe­nom­e­non,” and writes, “the ‘Aryan’ uncon­scious has a high­er poten­tial than the Jew­ish.” This is only one of the least objec­tion­able of such state­ments, as his­to­ri­an Andrew Samuels …

Thousands of People Are Cloning Their Dead Pets. This Is the Woman They Call First

Thousands of People Are Cloning Their Dead Pets. This Is the Woman They Call First

Published by skeptic

Nine years ago, a pair of freshly weaned British longhair kittens boarded a private plane in Virginia and flew to their new home in Europe. These kittens were no different than any other, except that they’d been created in a lab. They were clones: genetically identical to their predecessor, now sadly deceased. It had taken seven months and cost $50,000, but that cat was one of the first pets to be commercially cloned in the United States. Since then, a couple thousand dog, cat, and horse clones have followed, and every year the waiting list grows longer. Of course it does. Haven’t you ever wished your pet could live, if not forever, then at least as long as you? Now it can, sort of. WIRED spoke to a longtime customer service manager for the largest commercial pet cloning company. She guides pet owners through the entire process, from when they send in a piece of the old pet to when they meet—remeet?—the new one. Half of our clients come to us after their pet has …

The true class divide in British politics is not which party people choose, but whether they vote at all

The true class divide in British politics is not which party people choose, but whether they vote at all

Published by Sam

Traditionally, Britain was regarded as the class society. And class was pre-eminent among the factors used to explain political party allegiance. In broad terms, working-class voters chose Labour, the party set up to represent them. Middle-class voters chose the Conservatives, the party that represented homeowners and business owners. Since the 1960s, there has been a decline in class-based voting. Our social background is no longer such a good predictor of our party. That may be because there are more parties to choose from, or because the big two have changed their offering to appeal to a wider audience, but it’s also about class-based abstention. In the 1960s, most working-class people voted in elections, and when they did so they tended to vote for Labour. Now, many more working-class people do not vote at all. And when they do, they are less drawn to any party in particular. Class differences with respect to turnout have thus become greater than class differences with respect to vote choice. Or put another way, class is now more important as …

Labour MP Says “Unneighbourly” Use Of Fireworks Is “Hugely Detrimental” To Vulnerable People And Pets

Labour MP Says “Unneighbourly” Use Of Fireworks Is “Hugely Detrimental” To Vulnerable People And Pets

Published by Sam

Bonfire Night is coming up on Wednesday 5 November (Alamy) 5 min read03 November Labour MP Sarah Owen has said the use of noisy fireworks is becoming “unneighbourly” as she leads a cross-party effort to restrict their sale to the public. The MP for Luton North has introduced a Private Members’ Bill to ban the sale of the loudest fireworks to the public, and ensure fireworks can only be purchased from licensed shops. If the bill gets passed, the public sale of fireworks would be limited to fireworks with noise levels of 90 decibels or under, which is about as loud as a lawnmower. With Bonfire Night approaching on Tuesday, Owen said she did not want to “stop people’s celebrations”, but that fireworks being set off throughout the year and in the early hours of the morning was having a “hugely detrimental effect” on people and animals. Owen described how people with post-traumatic stress disorder, including those who have served in the armed forces, children with special educational needs, and families with young children …

‘Dozens of people saved lives all around here’

‘Dozens of people saved lives all around here’

Published by Sam

José Luiz Cambronero counted aloud. “Four, five, no six, with the lady over there.” These are the dead in his street. His neighbors swept away, crushed, smashed or drowned by the wave of water, mud, wood, metals of all kinds, household appliances, stones, concrete blocks, pieces of tar and cars that swept through the town of Paiporta, Spain, population 25,000, on the night of Tuesday, October 29. It caused immense damage and killed at least 62 people in the town, almost a third of the total number of victims recorded in the Valencia region (155). Cambronero is 66 years old and has never been in such a desperate situation. He himself escaped at the last second. He was with his daughter and two grandchildren, aged 7 and 10. The water rose in a matter of minutes, blocking the doors of the houses from the outside. The adults in the family formed a chain to carry the children out through the window to a neighbor’s slightly higher window. Those with steel security grills on the first …

You Have Two Choices In Life — The Most Successful People Choose This One

You Have Two Choices In Life — The Most Successful People Choose This One

Published by skeptic

I’ve been criticized all my life. Mostly, these center around being ‘too quiet,’ ‘boring,’ ‘serious,’ ‘morose,’’ ‘sleepy,’ ‘as I’ve just woken up,’ and ‘angry.’ I’m pretty introverted, and it can look like I’m sleepy and grumpy a lot of the time.  Of course, being criticized doesn’t make me unique or a special case. Nor does it mean that this reflects who I am, or how I feel, or that I haven’t had people praise me for my confidence, too. But I cling to the comments that have bothered me the most. And these are the ones that have turned into a complex for me like a gnarly toad stuck on my back. Research published by the Journal of Advances in Experimental Social Psychology indicates that people tend to “cling” to negative comments more readily than positive ones due to a phenomenon called “negativity bias,” where our brains are naturally wired to register and dwell on negative stimuli more intensely than positive ones, causing us to remember insults or criticisms more vividly than compliments. This can lead …