Enlarge / Wales’ forward Gareth Bale misses a penalty kick during the UEFA EURO 2020. (credit: VALENTYN OGIRENKO / Getty Images ) The world of sports is full of people who choke under pressure in very visible and humiliating ways. But as it turns out, humans aren’t the only species capable of underperforming when the […]
Enlarge / YouTube’s recommendation algorithm probably didn’t send them to Washington, DC. (credit: Brent Stirton / Getty Images ) We’ve all seen it happen: Watch one video on YouTube and your recommendations shift, as if Google’s algorithms think the video’s subject is your life’s passion. Suddenly, all the recommended videos—and probably many ads—you’re presented with […]
Enlarge (credit: EyeEm / Getty Images) Bees manage some impressive feats. They not only remember the location of good food sources, but they’re able to communicate this information to their peers. They also care for the hive’s young and organize attacks against intruders. It’s easy to overlook that they’re brilliant at construction. Almost every honeycomb […]
Enlarge / A Eurasian jay takes a skeptical view of magic. (credit: Luc Viatour) Most magic tricks require a fairly sophisticated understanding of how humans perceive the world. To fall for a trick, people have to see things they perceive as important and ignore things that are actually important. Understanding why magic works can tell […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) The Dunning-Kruger effect is perhaps both one of the the most famous biases in human behavior—and the most predictable. It posits that people who don’t understand a topic also lack sufficient knowledge to recognize that they don’t understand it. Instead, they know just enough to convince themselves they’re […]
Enlarge (credit: Luis Alvarez) Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was possible to believe that the US public’s skepticism of scientific information had some limits. Once a crisis hit a critical point—when things became a matter of life and death—people would come around, the thinking went. Obviously, that hasn’t been the case. The US public’s skepticism […]
Enlarge / The stuff we call “laughter” from hyenas? It’s not. (credit: Getty Images) Among humans, laughter can signify a lot of different things, from intimacy to discomfort. Among animals, however, laughter usually signifies something along the lines of “this is playtime—I’m not actually going for your throat.” According to new research from the University […]
Enlarge (credit: Jim Pennucci / Flickr) As a society, we seem to have mixed feelings about whether it’s better to add or subtract things, advising both that “less is more” and “bigger is better.” But these contradictory views play out across multibillion-dollar industries, with people salivating over the latest features of their hardware and software […]
Enlarge / Do you notice the homeless person’s tent or the city’s skyscrapers? (credit: Wally Skalij / Getty Images) The COVID-19 pandemic has helped draw attention to the persistent disparities in health care in the US, with minorities and the poor suffering disproportionately worse outcomes from the disease. When it comes to inequality, however, the […]
Enlarge (credit: Lewis Ogden / Flickr) We don’t need a study to know that misinformation is rampant on social media; we just need to do a search for “vaccines” or “climate change” to confirm that. A more compelling question is why. It’s clear that, at a minimum, there are contributions from organized disinformation campaigns, rampant […]