Snippets about: Scientific Study
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Six Degrees Of Separation
Stanley Milgram's famous experiment showed that most people are connected by about 6 links in a chain. A few key points:
- A very small number of people are connected to everyone else in just a few steps, while the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few.
- In a social epidemic, Connectors spread ideas to a wide range of people, Mavens provide the message itself, and Persuaders convince people to act on that message.
- Paul Revere was a Connector, spreading the word "The British are coming!" His social connections enabled him to tip public opinion and mobilize resistance.
"Six degrees of separation doesn't mean that everyone is linked to everyone else in just six steps. It means that a very small number of people are linked to everyone else in a few steps, and the rest of us are linked to the world through those special few."
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: The Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Are Monkeys More Rational Than Humans?
In the epilogue, Levitt and Dubner describe a provocative experiment by Yale economist Keith Chen. Chen taught capuchin monkeys to use money, then observed their economic behavior. Remarkably, the capuchins exhibited many of the same biases and irrationalities as humans:
- The monkeys responded to price changes, buying less of a food when its price rose
- They fell for the "sunk cost fallacy," eating more of a food they paid more for
- Like humans, the monkeys were loss-averse, strongly preferring gambles framed as bonuses vs. deductions
Levitt and Dubner argue the capuchin experiments hold a mirror up to human nature. If even monkeys exhibit economic biases, it suggests they may be more deeply hardwired than we'd like to admit. The authors believe acknowledging the limits of human rationality is a first step to devising policies and incentives that account for it. Rather than expecting people to act like Econs, they suggest we design systems that anticipate predictably irrational actors.
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Book: Super Freakonomics
Author: Steven D. Levitt , Stephen J. Dubner
An Experiment In The Power Of Words
Jeffers describes an exercise where participants state either "I am a weak and unworthy person" or "I am a strong and worthy person" and then attempt to resist as someone tries to push down their extended arm. Invariably, the arm is easier to push down after the negative statement and remains strong after the positive one. This demonstrates how the words we use have a direct impact on our physical state and inner resilience. Choose your words carefully, as they shape your reality.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway
Author: Susan Jeffers
The Inescapable Impact of Early Caregiving Relationships
Two landmark prospective studies, by Sroufe and colleagues and by Putnam and Trickett, definitively showed:
- The quality of early caregiving relationships, not temperament or IQ, was the most powerful predictor of mental health outcomes
- Abuse and neglect led to a host of cognitive, emotional, behavioral and health problems that often persisted into adulthood
- Supportive, consistent early caregiving relationships provided a buffer against adversity and promoted resilience
Section: 2, Chapter: 10
Book: The Body Keeps the Score
Author: Bessel van der Kolk
Split-Brain Patients Reveal The Divisibility Of Consciousness
Research on split-brain patients, whose cerebral hemispheres have been surgically disconnected, reveals some startling things about consciousness:
- The two hemispheres display a remarkable degree of functional specialization and independence when separated
- The hemispheres can have separate senses of self, different desires, and even fight against each other for control
- Consciousness itself is divisible by splitting the brain
Subjectively, there is only consciousness and its contents, but the unity of the mind depends on the normal functioning of the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Waking Up
Author: Sam Harris
People Love Talking About Themselves
In a study, commuters on Chicago trains were assigned to either talk to a stranger, sit in solitude, or do whatever they normally do. While subjects expected to be least happy talking to strangers, the opposite was true - those who engaged with strangers were most satisfied with their commute. The study suggests that people welcome the opportunity to talk about themselves and have someone take an interest in their lives, even if it's a stranger. But social norms discourage us from these interactions.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Book: You're Not Listening
Author: Kate Murphy
Misattributing Arousal Can Lead To Mistaken Emotions And Decisions
In a famous study, male subjects met an attractive female interviewer on either a scary suspension bridge or a stable bridge. The men on the scary bridge were more likely to mistake their physiological arousal (racing heart, sweaty palms, etc) as attraction to the interviewer and call her later for a date. Their conscious minds didn't realize their arousal stemmed from the bridge, not the woman.
Another study found subjects rated erotic pictures as more appealing after vigorous exercise, again mistaking the source of their physiological arousal. Emotions, and the decisions they fuel, arise from many unconscious influences beyond the obvious.
Section: 2, Chapter: 9
Book: Subliminal
Author: Leonard Mlodinow
Fairness Games
The Ultimatum Game is a famous experiment in behavioral economics that tests people's perceptions of fairness.
Player A is given a sum of money (the "pie") and told they must offer some share of it to Player B
- If Player B accepts the offer, both players get the agreed amounts
- If Player B rejects, neither player gets anything
Even though Player B should rationally accept any positive offer, since something is better than nothing, in practice offers perceived as unfairly low (usually below 20% of the total) are often rejected.
With skin in the game, people are even more willing to sacrifice to enforce fairness. The Ultimatum Game reveals a deep human aversion to getting shortchanged.
Section: 4, Chapter: 15
Book: Misbehaving
Author: Richard Thaler
Learned Helplessness
Psychologist Martin Seligman conducted experiments demonstrating "learned helplessness." Dogs who were given electric shocks with no ability to avoid them eventually stopped trying to escape the pain, even when later given the opportunity.
Similarly, people can learn to believe that their efforts don't matter. When people feel they have no choice, even in situations where they do, they tend to either give up or become overzealous and try to do everything. Both responses keep us from making the wisest decisions about where to invest our limited time and energy.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Essentialism
Author: Greg McKeown
The Milgram Experiment Shows How Readily People Follow New Authority
Lesson 1: Do not obey in advance: Don't voluntarily conform to a new authoritarian system before it fully takes hold.
The famous Milgram experiment at Yale in 1961 showed how quickly people will follow the commands of an authority figure, even if it means harming others. Subjects were told to administer shocks to unseen participants, and most continued to do so even when the person seemed to be in agony or dying, simply because the experimenter told them to continue. This reveals how people adapt to new authority, a key ingredient in the transition to tyranny.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: On Tyranny
Author: Timothy Snyder
Superforecasters Beat The Wisdom Of The Crowd By 60%
The Good Judgment Project (GJP), led by Philip Tetlock and Barbara Mellers, recruited thousands of volunteer forecasters to predict global events as part of a tournament sponsored by the research agency IARPA. Questions covered politics, economics, national security and other topics relevant to intelligence analysts.
The GJP used multiple methods to boost forecast accuracy, including training, teaming, and statistical aggregation. But its most striking finding was that a small group of forecasters, the "superforecasters", consistently outperformed others by huge margins.
Across the first 2 years of the tournament, superforecasters beat the "wisdom of the crowd" (the average forecast of all participants) by 60% - a stunning margin. They even outperformed professional intelligence analysts with access to classified data. This suggests that generating excellent prediction accuracy doesn't require subject matter expertise or insider information - just the right cognitive skills and habits.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Superforecasting
Author: Philip Tetlock
Your Brain Waves Sync Up With Someone When You're Truly Listening
Neuroscientist Uri Hasson conducted a study where he had subjects listen to someone telling a story while undergoing fMRI scans. He found that the greater the overlap between the speaker's brain activity and the listener's brain activity, the better the communication and understanding between them. Good listeners' brain waves literally sync up with the speaker, leading to greater connection.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: You're Not Listening
Author: Kate Murphy
What Is Attachment Theory?
Attachment theory is the most important concept for understanding romantic relationships. Through a famous experiment called the "Strange Situation," researcher Mary Ainsworth identified 3 attachment styles in children:
- Anxious - These babies became very distressed when separated from their mothers and weren't easily soothed even when reunited. They desperately craved closeness but didn't trust it.
- Avoidant - These babies seemed indifferent when their mothers left and returned. They learned to suppress their need for connection as a defense mechanism.
- Secure - These babies were upset when their mothers left but quickly settled when they came back. They felt safe in the relationship.
We often carry these same patterns into adult romantic partnerships.
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Book: How to Not Die Alone
Author: Logan Ury
Sleep Deprivation Kills Faster Than Food Deprivation
In animal studies, total sleep deprivation kills rats and flies faster than total food deprivation. Key findings include:
- Rats died after 15 days of total sleep deprivation, on average
- This was about the same time it took for rats to die from total food deprivation
- Rats lost their lives almost as quickly from selective REM sleep deprivation as from total sleep deprivation
- Prior to death, the rats developed skin lesions, weight loss, hypothermia and sepsis (bloodstream infection)
These animal experiments prove that sleep is a life-sustaining biological necessity, not just a "nice to have." Sleep is arguably more essential for survival than food in the short-term. Sleep deprivation essentially causes the body to "self-destruct" through multiple organ failure if pushed to the extreme.
Section: 4, Chapter: 12
Book: Why We Sleep
Author: Matthew Walker
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study looked at effects of childhood trauma in 17,000 adults:
- 2/3 of participants reported at least one adverse childhood experience
- 1 in 5 were sexually abused; 1 in 4 beaten or witnessed domestic violence
- More ACEs led to more mental health issues, addiction, health problems and early death. The ACE study showed that childhood trauma is far more common and damaging than previously recognized
Section: 3, Chapter: 8
Book: The Body Keeps the Score
Author: Bessel van der Kolk
Belonging Cues Light Up The Brain
MIT's Human Dynamics Lab, led by Professor Alex Pentland, used sociometric badges to measure the behavioral signals exchanged in successful groups. They found that high-performing groups consistently displayed a set of subtle cues that generate feelings of belonging and safety:
- Close physical proximity (often in circles)
- Profuse amounts of eye contact
- Lots of short, energetic exchanges (no long speeches)
- High levels of mixing; everyone talks to everyone
- Few interruptions
- Intensive, active listening
- Humor, laughter
Pentland found that belonging cues were the single greatest predictor of group performance, more important than all the individual skills and intelligence of the group's members. These cues trigger the release of oxytocin and activate neural pathways of trust and cooperation, enabling the group to sync their behaviors and act as one.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: The Culture Code
Author: Daniel Coyle
The Futility Of Dieting For Most
An analysis of 2000 diet studies found that despite the intuitive appeal of "eat less, move more," diets simply don't work long-term for most people. The findings are stark:
- 2 years after starting a diet, people weigh on average only 2 lbs less than when they started
- 5 years out, the average loss is still only 6.6 lbs
- At most 20% of people maintain a 10% weight loss for a year
- Up to 66% of people actually gain fat mass despite exercising
This dismal track record is not due to individual failings, but to biological and environmental factors that doom most diets.
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
False Memories Feel Just As Real As True Ones
In a famous study, researchers were able to induce false memories in 50% of subjects that as children they had once been lost in a shopping mall, by having relatives recount the fictitious event to them. The "memories" subjects generated felt vivid and real to them. In other studies, subjects came to falsely remember events like being hospitalized overnight, or spilling a punch bowl at a wedding. This shows how readily false memories can be created through suggestion, while feeling indistinguishable from real memories.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Book: Subliminal
Author: Leonard Mlodinow
The Milgram Experiments - A Shocking Discovery About Obedience to Authority
Stanley Milgram's famous experiments at Yale tested obedience to authority to an unsettling degree:
- "Teachers" were instructed to give increasingly severe electric shocks to a "learner"
- The shocks weren't real, but the teachers thought they were
- Over 60% of subjects fully obeyed the experimenter and continued to the highest voltage, even with the learner screaming in agony
- Subjects were everyday people deeply distressed by their actions, but they still obeyed
- Shows the immense power of authority - and the human capacity for cruelty under its direction
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Book: Influence
Author: Robert Cialdini
Listening to Your Body
Gladwell discusses how our bodies often react to situations before our conscious minds do. He cites the Iowa Gambling Task experiment, where participants' palms began to sweat when they drew from disadvantageous decks of cards, long before they consciously realized which decks were "bad."
Pay attention to physical reactions like increased heart rate, sweating, or gut feelings. These bodily signals may provide valuable information before you consciously understand a situation. Your body's reactions may guide you to the right decision faster than deliberate thinking. Practice mindfulness to become more aware of these subtle physical cues
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Blink
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
The Enduring Legacy of Frederick Winslow Taylor's Scientific Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor pioneered the concept of "scientific management" in the early 20th century, seeking to optimize industrial efficiency through time-motion studies, process optimization, and centralized planning. His reductionist approach of breaking work down into specialized, repetitive tasks boosted productivity tremendously and left an enduring mark on management thinking across business, government and the military. However, the rigidity and top-down control inherent in "Taylorism" has limitations in environments with greater complexity and unpredictability.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Team of Teams
Author: Stanley McChrystal
Laboratory Pigeons Reveal The Power Of The Scarcity Loop
Experiments by psychologist Thomas Zentall show that pigeons will consistently choose a "gambling" game that provides less food overall, mimicking the human slots players Si Redd observed.
When pigeons can choose between:
- A "sure thing" game providing a medium food reward 50% of the time, or
- A "gambling" game with a larger food reward only 20% of the time
An overwhelming 96.9% of pigeons prefer the "gambling" game, even though it provides less food! The larger unpredictable reward taps into an instinctual attraction to variable payouts. This behavior is seen across many animals.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Scarcity Brain
Author: Michael Easter
