Free Talk Live - Published news - Psychology / Sociology

5 Ways Your Brain Is Tricking You into Being Miserable

Karrde188 — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:18:39 +0000

Your brain contains more than 100 billion neurons that flawlessly work together to create consciousness and thought. It is an astonishing marvel of evolution and adaptation, and it is also a huge dick.What do we mean by that? Well, everyone wants to be happy, but the biggest obstacle to that is the mushy thing inside your skull that you think with. Evolution has left your brain with all sorts of mechanisms that are heavily biased toward misery. We can't guarantee that reading this article will help, for your brain is as crafty as it is sadistic. But at least you'll understand it better.

Stefan Molyneux Makes Sweeping Generalizations About Gays & Lesbians

csmith71 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:39:49 +0000

The "philosopher" & cult leader reads from the Focus on the Family playbook.

5 Ways Your Brain Tricks You into Sticking With Bad Habits

Karrde188 — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:46:49 +0000

Bad habits can ruin your life. Whether you're gorging on Haagen-Dazs or dressing up like a Power Ranger and flaying hobos every night, you know on some level that things have to change, or disaster will follow. But no matter how badly you want your life to be different, things just keep plowing on the way they are. Why?
Because your brain has a long list of diabolical mechanisms intended to keep your habits exactly as they are.

Thomas Szasz, Relentless Freedom Fighter, Dead at 92

jtk3 — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:20:02 +0000

"I am sorry to report that Thomas Szasz, the great libertarian critic of coercive psychiatry, the "therapeutic state," and the war on drugs, died over the weekend at his home in Manlius, New York. He was 92"

"In addition to opposing involuntary psychiatric treatment and the insanity defense, Szasz objected to medically sanctioned state interference in what ought to be private decisions, ranging from drug use to suicide. "

Szasz On Gender Identity Disorder

jtk3 — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:34:10 +0000

Szasz's analysis is highly relevant to the story Mark and Stephanie covered Sunday about the prisoner receiving gender re-assignment surgery. To call this required medical care is to identify the person's condition as a disease. Is that really where we want to go? It wasn't that long ago that homosexuality was considered a disease. I think Szasz would say the prisoner in question was unhappy with his/her lot in life, which is a fairly common condition that should not be medicalized or politicized.

New Weapon Against Soldier Suicides: Anti-Depressive Nasal Spray

kelvin — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 06:18:39 +0000

The U.S. Army tallied 38 confirmed or suspected suicides among its ranks last month--that’s among both active- and non-active-duty members including the Army National Guard and Army Reserve--the highest rate of suicide within the branch yet observed, further underscoring a mental health crisis that the services have yet to get a handle on. But help may be coming in an unlikely form: nasal spray.

Little Words with Absolutely Huge Meaning - Use Them

Mattfree88 — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:05:46 +0000

Little Words with Absolutely Huge Meaning - Use Them

As children many of us hyped the statement, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Clearly, it doesn’t take long to realize that words have far more weight than we want to realize. They influence thoughts, feelings, actions and states of mind. Even little words often have big meaning.

Think about it. Whether you want to land your dream job, improve your friendships, save your marriage or retain your employees; the words you choose can make all the difference.

Paradigm Lost: Why the rEVOLution Has Not Been Televised

mikesylvia — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:05:15 +0000

Any paradigm worthy of the name -- such as this American political paradigm -- lasts for a long time and is hard to unlearn.

But when it is about to collapse, a few things happen.

French TV Milgram experiment has 80% obedience

TheAllen4 — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:23:53 +0000

A French TV documentary features people in a spoof game show administering what they are told are near lethal electric shocks to rival contestants. Those taking part are told to pull levers to inflict shocks - increasing in voltage - upon their opponents. Although unaware that the contestants were actors and there was no electrical current, 82% of participants in the Game of Death agreed to pull the lever.

Authoritarian Sociopathy: Part 1 (The Stanford Prison Experiment)

MuslimNonarchist — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:01:38 +0000

For those interested in the science behind authoritarian sociopathy no studies are more poignant, or more chilling in their ramification than the Milgram Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment. But their sentiment was perhaps best expressed by Thomas Jefferson in an often overlooked passage of the Declaration of Independence:

“All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

Authoritarian Sociopathy: Part 4: Power and Hypocrisy

MuslimNonarchist — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 02:53:52 +0000

In each of five experiments the method of inducing a powerful feeling, and the method of determining moral double standards was different, but in every one the results were the same. Powerful people judge others more harshly but cheat more themselves. But what’s especially interesting is his last experiment where distinguishing between legitimate power and illegitimate power garnered the opposite results.

Authoritarian Sociopathy: Part 2: Power and Deception

MuslimNonarchist — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:04:05 +0000

Dana Carney, a professor at Columbia University, conducted an experiment intended to discover whether “leaders” and “subordinates” experience the same physiological response to lying. She found that power not only makes lying easier, but pleasurable.

Professor Carney speculates that authority could have a similar impact on other unethical behavior with similar physiological responses, such as cheating, stealing, exploitation, reckless behavior and even political corruption. She concludes, “Power will lead to increases in intensity and frequency of lying.”

5 Scientific Reasons You're a Bad Employee

Karrde188 — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:51:13 +0000

There is a rule of thumb that says in any company, 20 percent of the employees will give you 80 percent of the top-notch work. Which means the other 80 percent of us are just a waste of company money and vending machine sandwiches.

So why do so few of us really excel at our jobs? Well, science says...

Nearly One Million Children in U.S. Potentially Misdiagnosed With ADHD

earthdome — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:00:19 +0000

Nearly 1 million children in the United States are potentially misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder simply because they are the youngest -- and most immature -- in their kindergarten class, according to new research by a Michigan State University economist.

Overpopulation: The Perennial Myth

Takeshi Kovacs — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:18:28 +0000

Where people are hungry, it is because of war (Somalia, Ethiopia) or government policies that, in the name of modernization and industrialization, penalize farmers by taxing them at prohibitive rates (e.g., Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya), not because population is exceeding the natural limits of what the world can support.

'Thundercats' Cartoon Writer Murdered, Severed Arm Found

RottingNation — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:53:08 +0000

56-year-old Stephen Perry, who wrote for the 1980s cartoon series Thundercats, was officially announced murdered. He'd been missing for nearly two weeks, and police reportedly found his arm inside of his abandoned van

Study Finds: as Porn Increases, the Rate of Sex Crimes Goes Down

Fizzul — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:42:12 +0000

In every region investigated, researchers have found that as pornography has increased in availability, sex crimes have either decreased or not increased.