Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler go deep into Borges’ labyrinth to discuss the fascinating, multi-dimensional story “The Garden of Forking Paths.” What is the underlying reality of this story? What demands does Borges make of his readers? What is Borges telling us about time, freedom, war, and art? Is the story itself a maze for readers to wander and lose their way? We don’t have all the answers, but it was one of our favorite discussions in a long time. Plus, we give some brief non-spoiler opinions about Boots Riley’s movie "Sorry to Bother You," but a spoiler-filled Patreon episode is coming soon.Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Sorry to Bother You (2018) - IMDb Boots Riley - Wikipedia DJ Pam The Funkstress Scratch Routine Lakeith Stanfield - Wikipedia The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges (full text PDF) [mycourse.es] The Garden of Forking Paths - Wikipedia Collected Fictions: Jorge Luis Borges (translated by Andrew Hurley) [amazon.com affiliate link] "A Labyrinth of Symbols: Exploring 'The Garden of Forking Paths'" by Ethan Weed

David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around Jorge Luis Borges' “The Library of Babel” – a short story about a universe/library that contains every possible book with every possible combination of characters. How many books would this library contain? Would some of the books justify our lives (if we could find them)? Can we know whether a book is deeply meaningful or deeply misleading? Why are the librarians so alone and so consumed with anguish? Wouldn’t we all just end up just looking for the porn books? Plus, we talk about the ethics of doing research on data drawn from the Ashley Madison leak. Life is short, listen to this episode.Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: I. Y. Yunioshi - Wikipedia Eddie Murphy: White Like Me (SNL) Scarlett Johansson Withdraws from Controversial Role as a Trans Man Following Backlash Neuroskeptic on Twitter: ""Democrats were least likely to use Ashley Madison, Libertarians were most likely, and Republicans, Greens, and unaffiliated voters were in between." https://t.co/2cOeWlfTJu This one'll be controversial. For one thing, based on leaked data!… https://t.co/fQZRDZEuVa" The Ethics of Research on Leaked Data: Ashley Madison - Neuroskeptic Break Music: Nas Is Like (peez remix) The Library of Babel - Wikipedia The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel by William Goldbloom Bloch [amazon.com affiliate link] The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges

David and Tamler tackle the topic selected by their Patreon supporters - the psychology of personality. What are the different dimensions of personality that distinguish one person from another? How many dimensions are there - do the Big Five capture all of them? Do we share some of these differences with other species? Why don't personality psychologists include moral character traits? Plus - are you curious about your partner's true political commitments? No problem, just install a periscope in your toilet.Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Testing Inter-hemispheric Social Priming Theory in a Sample of Professional Politicians-A Brief Report Gary Lewis on Twitter: "I submitted a hoax manuscript to a predatory journal. The finding? Politicians from the right wipe their ass with their left hand (and vice versa) - big breakthrough! Manuscript accepted w/o review. I then haggled the OA fee down to $0 - so here it is -> https://t.co/SnozmgFgRJ" Break Music: Thief's Theme (peez remix) Personality psychology - Wikipedia Personality and Social Dynamics Lab | Sanjay Srivastava Simine Vazire The Black Goat – A podcast about doing science Big Five personality traits - Wikipedia — Myers–Briggs Type Indicator The Big Five Personality Traits & what they mean for your Political Views. | elephant journal HEXACO model of personality structure - Wikipedia Myers–Briggs Type Indicator - Wikipedia

In what has to be the most somber VBW to date, David and Tamler welcome Harvard psychologist Matthew Nock to the podcast to talk about suicide and other forms of self-harm. Matt tells us what we know – and what we don’t know - about the causes of suicide and the ways to prevent it. In the first segment we talk about the recent exposé of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. Were the guards told to be brutal? Were the prisoners never aware that could have left the study at any time? What is Tamler going to do about the Zimbardo interview in A Very Bad Wizard the book? Is David going to continue teaching it in his intro psych course? And does Yoel Inbar need to preregister his beers?Special Guest: Matthew Nock.Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Stanford Prison Experiment: why famous psychology studies are now being torn apart  - Vox The Lifespan of a Lie – Trust Issues – Medium Reicher, S., & Haslam, S. A. (2006). Rethinking the psychology of tyranny: The BBC prison study. British journal of social psychology, 45(1), 1-40. Episode 176: Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part One) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog Matthew K. Nock, Ph.D., Director | Nock Lab Cha, C. B., Franz, P. J., M. Guzmán, E., Glenn, C. R., Kleiman, E. M., & Nock, M. K. (2018). Annual Research Review: Suicide among youth–epidemiology,(potential) etiology, and treatment. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 59(4), 460-482.

David and Tamler tackle the topic of implicit bias and the controversy surrounding the implicit association test (IAT). What is implicit bias anyway? Does it have to be linked to behavior in order to truly count as a "bias"? Has the IAT been overhyped as a reflection of individual or group prejudice? And why is the debate on this topic so depressing? Plus, some deep thoughts on the intellectual dark web, how to join it, and what the analogy is supposed to reflect.Sponsored By: RXBAR Promo Code: badwizardsSupport Very Bad WizardsLinks: Opinion | Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web - The New York Times Psychology’s Racism-Measuring Tool Isn’t Up to the Job -- Science of Us Implicit-association test - Wikipedia Take the Implicit Associations Test (IAT) Greenwald, A. G., Poehlman, T. A., Uhlmann, E. L., & Banaji, M. R. (2009). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-analysis of predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(1), 17. Oswald, F. L., Mitchell, G., Blanton, H., Jaccard, J., & Tetlock, P. E. (2013). Predicting ethnic and racial discrimination: A meta-analysis of IAT criterion studies. Journal of personality and social psychology, 105(2), 171. Nock, M. K., & Banaji, M. R. (2007). Prediction of suicide ideation and attempts among adolescents using a brief performance-based test. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 75(5), 707. Uhlmann, E. L., Pizarro, D. A., & Bloom, P. (2008). Varieties of social cognition. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38(3), 293-322. — This is a paper in which Eric Uhlmann, Paul Bloom and one of your humble hosts try to tackle the ways in which the word 'unconscious' is used (and abused) in the literature on social cognition.

Honor shmonor, David and Tamler return to their repugnant roots for this one. First, we pay an overdue homage to the great anonymous blogger and twitter-redeemer Neuroskeptic. We pick a few of our favorite pithy tweets and crazy science article links from his @neuro_skeptic twitter account. Topics include: How much would you pay for porn? Should we be stereotyping zoophiles? Animal or fist - how to distinguish? And what do the left and right brain actually do? In part 2, we discuss an experiment that aims to finally answer the question: do our judgments in sacrificial dilemmas (like the trolley problem) -actually- predict our behavior? Plus, we find out live (on tape) if David is a Laurel or a Yanni - or is he a Samantha? Thanks to our sponsor www.awaytravel.com. Sponsored By: Away Promo Code: BADWIZARDSSupport Very Bad WizardsLinks: Neuroskeptic - Wikipedia Neuroskeptic (@Neuro_Skeptic) | Twitter Neuroskeptic's Blog for Discover Magazine @Neuro_skeptic: "If one post sums me up" Two Psychologists Four Beers — New podcast hosted by VBW regular Yoel Inbar and Michael Inzlicht. Tatter (podcast) — New podcast, hosted by social psychologist Michael Sargent, with interviews and discussions on politics and policy. The Political Theory Review by Jeffrey Church on Apple Podcasts Bostyn, D. H., Sevenhant, S., & Roets, A. (2018). Of Mice, Men, and Trolleys: Hypothetical Judgment Versus Real-Life Behavior in Trolley-Style Moral Dilemmas. Psychological Science, 0956797617752640.

It took two tries (the first one led to a big non-productive fight), but David and Tamler end up with a good discussion of honor and its connection to identity, pride, and personal relationships. Why have we rejected honor in favor of dignity? What are the costs and benefits of doing that? How do people "find themselves" in an industrialized anonymous society? What should you do when someone insults your sister and you're playing in the final of the World Cup? The seminal paper by Peter Berger "On the Obsolescence of the Culture of Honor" (along with Tamler's new book) was the launching point for the discussion (links to both in show notes). This episode is brought to you by Simple Contacts.Sponsored By: Simple Contacts Promo Code: WIZARDSSupport Very Bad WizardsLinks: Why Honor Matters by Tamler Sommers [amazon affiliate link] Berger, P. (1970). On the Obsolescence of the Concept of Honor. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie/Europäisches Archiv für Soziologie, 11(2), 339-347. Materazzi finally admits what he said to Zidane in the World Cup Final | For The Win

Award-winning screenwriter and medieval philosophy scholar Yoel Inbar joins us for a deep dive on the Charlie Kaufman/Michel GondREY masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. When relationships go bad is it better to believe they never happened? What is the nature of memory, how is it constructed, and is it possible to zap them out existence with an Apple IIe? Will Tamler have a more optimistic take on the ending of the movie than David? (Hint: yes) Also--only two more weeks to preorder Why Honor Matters and get your free bonus episode! Upload your receipt here Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Yoel Inbar Michel Gondry - IMDb Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - IMDb Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Movie Review (2004) | Roger Ebert The Science of Sleep (2006) - IMDb Be Kind Rewind (2008) - IMDb Jay Electronica - Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) (Full 15-minute version) - YouTube

Why are we always attracted to people who mock us, resist our advances, and play hard to get? Maybe because it’s extra satisfying when you finally get them to… appear on your podcast. In our first live episode (recorded in San Antonio), the philosopher Shaun Nichols joins us to discuss his recent article “Death and the Self”. You might think that Buddhist conceptions of the self as illusory would reduce their fear of death (after all, if there’s no real self, why worry about it ceasing to exist?). But the evidence collected by Shaun and colleagues suggests exactly the opposite. Why would that be? Plus, David and Tamler choose six finalists for the Patreon listener selected episode (did Jordan Peterson make the list?), and we announce a special bonus for people who pre-order Tamler’s forthcoming book "Why Honor Matters."Special Guest: Shaun Nichols.Sponsored By: RXBAR Promo Code: badwizardsSupport Very Bad WizardsLinks: Why Honor Matters by Tamler Sommers Nichols, S., Strohminger, N., Rai, A., & Garfield, J. (2018). Death and the self. Cognitive science. Shaun Nichols | University Center for Human Values

From Very Bad Wizards to Megyn Kelly Today back to Very Bad Wizards, Laurie Santos has traveled the typical trajectory of the celebrity academic. Laurie joins us to talk about her cult status after creating the most popular course in Yale University history: Psychology and the Good Life. Why are we so bad at predicting what will make us happy? What makes it so hard to do the things we know are good for us? Why are young people more stressed, anxious, and overworked than they used to be? And how can we nudge ourselves into living better lives? Plus we take a test for determining the virtues that come easiest to us and the ones that come.. harder. This episode is sponsored by Audible and Casper. Special Guest: Laurie Santos.Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Laurie Santos | Comparative Cognition Laboratory Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness - The New York Times Psychology and The Good Life 2018 Course Syllabus Matt Killingsworth: Want to be happier? Stay in the moment | TED Talk Character Strength Survey Audible Casper

David and Tamler take a break from complaining about psychological studies that measure utilitarianism to complain about the moral theory itself. We talk about one of the most famous critiques of utilitarian theories from Bernard Williams. Does utilitarianism annihilate our integrity--our unity--as people? Would trying to maximize well-being fracture our identities, and swallow up our projects, motivations, and moral convictions--the same convictions that make utilitarianism seem appealing in the first place? Is it ultimately self-defeating as a moral theory? Plus, we talk about the adventures of Tamler's based step-mom Christina Hoff Sommers' at Lewis and Clark law school. Will David stay woke?Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Protesters try to shut down Christina Hoff Sommers at Lewis & Clark Law School - YouTube Statement on the Christina Hoff Sommers Event at the Law School - Newsroom - Lewis & Clark We’re All Fascists Now - The New York Times "The Usual Suspects" final scene *spoilers* Bernard Williams - Wikipedia Williams, B. "Consequentialism and Integrity" [published originally in "Utilitarianism: For and Against", ed. Smart and Williams (Cambridge University Press, 1973), pp. 82-118.] Smart, J. J. C., & Williams, B. (1973). Utilitarianism: For and against. Cambridge University Press. [Amazon.com affiliate link] — Worth reading the whole book!

It's been 5 years since Molly Crockett has been guest on VBW. During that time she's completed a post-doc at University College, London and become a professor at Yale University. And we're...well, we're still doing the podcast. Today Molly joins us to talk about moral outrage in the age of social media. Has the outrage changed now that we express so much of it online? Does it contribute to polarization and social division, or give a voice to the less powerful? How can we harness the benefits of online outrage while minimizing the costs? Plus, Dave and Tamler perform an exorcism on the unholy offspring of evolutionary psychology and trolleyology.Special Guest: Molly Crockett.Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Brown, M., & Sacco, D. F. (2017). Is pulling the lever sexy? Deontology as a downstream cue to long-term mate quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 0265407517749331. Crockett, M. J. (2017). Moral outrage in the digital age. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(11), 769.

David and Tamler talk about the nature of death. Is being dead a bad thing? If so, what makes it bad? How can anything be bad for a subject that no longer exists? We didn't have a problem with oblivion for the thirteen billion years before we were born, why fear it now? Plus, a discussion about the "it was all a dream" trope in TV and film. Why is it so infuriating in some works but not others?Support Very Bad WizardsLinks: Tommy Westphall - Wikipedia 20 Years Ago: 'Newhart' ends with a shock | EW.com Dallas (1978 TV series) (season 9) - Wikipedia It's Just a Cartoon, How can SpongeBob and friends go to the beach if... Nagel, T. (1970). Death. Noûs, 73-80.

What's the best way to build self-control, patience, productivity, and delayed marshmallow eating? For decades psychologists and economists have told us to develop traits like willpower and grit. But psychologist David DeSteno describes a better, easier, and more effective path--the emotions. We talk to David about his new (not-self-help) book "Emotional Success," which argues that the emotions of gratitude, pride, and compassion can help us fulfill long-term goals and (as a special bonus) make us happier and better people. Plus, David and Tamler take a quiz that measures how utilitarian they are, and you won't believe the results!!! (Actually, you will.) This episode is sponsored by Casper. Visit www.casper.com and enter offer code BADWIZARDS to get $50 toward select purchases. Special Guest: Dave DeSteno.Sponsored By: Casper Promo Code: BADWIZARDSSupport Very Bad WizardsLinks: How Utilitarian Are You? The Oxford Utilitarianism Scale | Practical Ethics Everett, J. A., Pizarro, D. A., Crockett, M. J. (2016). Inference of trustworthiness from intuitive moral judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 772–787 David DeSteno's website Emotional Success: The Power of Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride

David and Tamler break down two episodes (with full spoilers) from the new season of Charlie Brooker's bleaker-than-bleak Netflix series Black Mirror. First up, "The USS Callister," a Star Trek parody that becomes a meditation on fandom, humiliation, and cowardly revenge. Next we talk about "Black Museum" - could it be the final episode of Black Mirror? Should it be? After four seasons of indicting humanity, has Charlie Brooker turned his critical lens on himself? Plus, you thought it was bad for children to tell lies, but it turns out that it's good! This episode is brought to you by RXBAR. Visit www.rxbar.com/wizards, and enter promo code "BADWIZARDS" at checkout for 25% off your first purchase. Sponsored By: RXBAR Promo Code: badwizardsSupport Very Bad WizardsLinks: Is Your Child Lying to You? That’s Good - The New York Times "Black Mirror" USS Callister (TV Episode 2017) - IMDb "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison "Black Mirror" Black Museum (TV Episode 2017) - IMDb ▶ Bruised by peez