Mind Games

Steven Pinker is every bit the populist. All but three of his nine books are aimed at the general
public (The Better Angels of Our ature! "hy #iolence $as %eclined& is available in '(
formats and editions) the *% comes out this +eek,. %r. Pinker-s teaching is similarly accessible.
.ust look at the test /uestions here0 culled from one of his $arvard courses0 Psychological
Science.& $e e1plains his approach! The /uestions that psychology tackles are the ones that
obsess us in everyday life! family relations0 se1uality0 kindness and aggression0 the reliability of
kno+ledge. ot surprisingly0 many concepts in academic psychology have crossed over into
popular culture0 such as conditioning0 2reudian psychoanalysis and cognitive dissonance. 31ams
that invoke these memes test +hether students understand the theories +ell enough to reason
about them +hen they are presented a+ay from a familiar te1tbook conte1t and are applied to
real life.& AP456 ((0 '7(8
1 According to Leon Festingers theory of cognitive dissonance, why do the office
workers in the comic strip think they have learned something?
%ilbert 9(::; Scott Adams. 4eprinted +ith permission of <niversal <click
The team=building e1ercise forces them to cooperate0 and they reali>e they cannot
accomplish a task if they bicker and fight.
Teams of people learn more after they have set aside their differences and sho+n signs of
solidarity (hugging, and shared emotion (crying,.
People +ho succeed +ith one difficult task +ill be more confident in taking on ne+ ones.
People +ho have been manipulated into a pointless task +ill rationali>e their behavior
and conclude that it must have been +orth+hile.
2 id yo! hear the "oke a#o!t the statistician who drowned while wading across
a river whose average depth was three feet? $hat did the statistician forget to
take into acco!nt?
The standard deviation
The correlation coefficient
The median
5nferential statistics
% &magine a movie called 'Lam# to the (la!ghter,) in which the heroine
#l!dgeons the victim with a fro*en leg of lam#+ (he then cooks the lam# and
feeds it to the police, who are searching her ho!se for a #ase#all #at, which they
think is the m!rder weapon+ ,he fact that the police never considered the leg of
lam# as a weapon is a perfect e-ample of.
The availability bias
The effect of language on reasoning
2unctional fi1edness
The representativeness heuristic
/ A h!s#and and wife are considering divorce+ 0nder what circ!mstances wo!ld
they #e said to #e in a 'prisoners dilemma)?
The la+yers- fees are so e1pensive that they forgo divorce and remain trapped in the
unhappy marriage.
3ach spouse +ants to hire an ine1pensive la+yer0 but both hire e1pensive la+yers
because they reali>e the outcome +ill be better for both of them.
either spouse +ants to hire an e1pensive la+yer0 but each ends up doing so out of fear
that the other spouse +ill do so and leave them at a disadvantage.
"hen one spouse hires an e1pensive la+yer0 less money is available to the other for a
la+yer0 so +hoever hires the more e1pensive la+yer first has an advantage.
1 2ete ,ownshend, lead g!itarist of ,he $ho, has p!#lici*ed his ailment to warn
fans of the negative long3term effects of too m!ch.
Se1
%rugs
4ock -n- roll
Alcohol
4 5onsider this cartoon+ 6ow wo!ld the man in the chair and a contemporary
psychologist, respectively, e-plain the dogs pro#lem?
9 6eighton?The e+ @orker *ollection?*artoonbank
Primary process thinking) operant conditioning
Transference) stimulus discrimination
%efense mechanisms of the ego) stimulus generali>ation
Oral fi1ation) classical conditioning
7
6iggledy3piggledy,
6amlet of 8lsinore
9!ffled the critics
#y dropping this #om#.
'2hooey on Fre!d
And his psychoanalysis+
:edip!s, schmoedip!s,
& "!st loved Mom+)
&n the do!#le dactyl a#ove, 6amlet cr!cially disagrees with Fre!d #y denying
that his feelings for his mother were.
*onditioned
Se1ual
*onfined to the phallic stage& of psychose1ual development
<nresolved
; 9o#ert ,riverss arg!ment that evol!tion can select for self3deception is similar
to which aphorism?
Ano+ledge is po+er.
$onesty is the best policy.
The best liar is the one +ho believes his o+n lies.
A liar must have a good memory.
< &f =imi 6endri-s song 'Manic epression) had #een written #y a clinical
psychologist, what wo!ld its title #e?
ervous Breakdo+n&
Bipolar %isorder&
Anhedonia&
Borderline Personality %isorder&
1> $hat wo!ld an evol!tionary #iologist say a#o!t 5alvins !se of the word
'altr!ist)?
*alvin and $obbes 9 (::;. 4eprinted +ith permission of <niversal <click.
$e is using it incorrectly0 because he shares half his genes +ith his father.
$e is using it correctly0 because he is being asked to confer a benefit to someone else at a
cost to himself.
$e is using it incorrectly0 because the cost to himself is small and the benefit to his father
is large.
$e is using it correctly0 because his motives are selfish and he is +ithholding a favor
accordingly.