Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler shrug off inside baseball concerns and argue whether to go to grad school, what to do when you get there, and share horror stories about the job market.   Also, Tamler explains why the sorority sister who wrote the infamous email is a "civil rights visionary," Dave refuses to say "c*#t punt," and listener contributions from Boomer Trujillo, Yoel Inbar, Rachel Grazioplene, Dave Tucker, and Nina Strohminger.  Links Michael Shannon Reads Sorority Letter [funnyordie.com] David Ortiz Pregame Speech [youtube.com]  Twitter beef "Thesis Hatement" by Rebecca Schuman [slate.com] "Thesis Defense" by Katie Roiphie [slate.com]  The Impossible Decision by Joshua Rothman [newyorker.com]  VBW Bonus content: Dave and Yoel inbar on the "replicability crisis." Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler begin with a brief, heartfelt discussion about the Boston Bombings.  Tamler talks about why Patriots' Day and the Boston Marathon mean so much to a kid growing up in Boston.  They speculate a bit about the motive behind the attack and ask why the perpetrators didn't come out and claim responsibility.   In the second and third segments, Molly Crockett joins us to challenge Fiery Cushman for the prize of classiest episode ever.  She tells us about her research on the effects of serotonin depletion on retributive behavior, and how it was reported as "Chocolate and Cheese help you make better decisions" in the popular media.  We talk about the responsibility that scientists have to make sure that their studies are reported properly, and how brain research can (despite David's previous claims) help shed light on human nature and behavior.  Also: Tamler mangles the pronunciation of roughly 14 brain regions, Dave yearns for the days when restrictions of human experimentation were non-existent, and both Dave and Tamler subtly and then not so subtly try to get Molly to hook them up with...molly.  Enjoy! Links Dirty Water by the Standells [youtube.com] Patriots' Day [wikipedia.org] Molly Crockett  [mollycrockett.com] Crockett, M. J., Clark, L., Tabibnia, G., Lieberman, M. D., & Robbins, T. W. (2008). Serotonin modulates behavioral reactions to unfairness. Science, 320, 1739. Serotonin [wikipedia.org] Striatum [wikipedia.org] DMT [wikipedia.org]     Special Guests: Fiery Cushman and Molly Crockett. Support Very Bad Wizards

Re-recording a not-so-tragically lost episode (it kinda sucked), Dave and Tamler talk about the things they hate most about philosophy and psychology.  But first they discuss a blog post by a Rochester professor that wonders why it's not OK to rape someone who's passed out.  Also: same-sex marriage, telling dirty jokes to your daughter, Meredith Baxter Birney, Lifetime movies, how to eat crawfish, and Dave takes a bold, even heroic, stand by criticizing a Republican senator.     Links In honor of our 19th episode, some Paul Hardcastle for you.. Opening clip: Bridge on the River Kwai [youtube.com]  Economist: Rapists reaping rewards of passed out girls  [gawker.com] Molly Crockett's TEDx Talk on Neuro-Bunk  [TED.com] Friendship and Freedom (blog post, Flickers of Freedom--Tamler and Saul Smilanksy get into it about the "dubiousness" of gratitude in the comments ) The Ikea Effect [hbr.org]  Paul Bloom and David talk about social psychology's dismissal of reason [bloggingheads.tv]  Donate to Oxfam. It will feel good.  And then afterwards...   Support Very Bad Wizards

Joe Henrich joins the podcast to tell us that we know nothing about his work and that how we got to teach a class in anything is absolutely amazing.   We continue our discussion from Episode 17 about his critique of the social and behavioral sciences in "The Weirdest People in the World" and his work in small scale societies on fairness norms.  We also talk about the weird American obsession with happiness, monkeys throwing cucumbers, and why some people reject "hyper-fair" offers of more than the half the pot in the ultimatum games.   Links "I happen to have Marshall Mcluhan right here."   (From Woody Allen's Annie Hall.)  Longer HD version here Joe Henrich UBC.ca | Wikipedia  The Machiguenga [wikipedia.org]  Henrich on Brosnan and DeWaal's capuchin inequity aversion study.  Chicha [wikipedia.org]  How much money would it take for you to kill a puppy? [liveleak.com]  Relevant papers are listed in the notes for Episode 17: Learning About Bushmen from Studying Freshmen?    Special Guest: Joe Henrich. Support Very Bad Wizards

Thousands of studies in psychology rely on data from North American undergraduates. Can we really conclude anything about the "human" mind from such a limited sample-- especially since Westerners are probably more different from the rest of the world's population than any other group?  We talk about Joseph Henrich and colleagues' critique of the behavioral sciences in their paper "The WEIRDEST People in the World."    David offers a defense of psychology, arguing that it's usually not the goal of lab studies to generalize findings to all humans in the first place.  Also, Tamler  gives a brief, heartfelt, completely non-awkward rant about monkey torturer Harry Harlow and David defends the practice of electrocuting baby monkeys for no reason.  Links The Gods Must Be Crazy [IMDB.com] Bushmen [wikipedia.org] Homo Economicus [wikipedia.org] The Ultimatum Game [wikipedia.org] Müller-Lyer illusion [wikipedia.org] We aren't the world [psmag.com] Harlow studies [wikipedia.org] Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010).The weirdest people in the world. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61-83. Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., & McElreath, R. (2001). In search of homo economicus: behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. American Economic Review, 73-78. Mook, D.G. (1983). In Defense of External Invalidity. American Psychologist, 38,379-387.   Support Very Bad Wizards

For those who thought our most uncomfortable topics were behind us, on this episode we are joined by David's childhood friend Damani McDole [facebook.com] to discuss several potentially offensive topics surrounding race and justice in America, such as slavery, reparations, affirmative action, and the use of the N-word. When Damani mounts an economic and moral defense for reparations for the descendants of slaves, David prefers to point to the difficulties in deciding who gets paid ( someone who's 1/16th descended from slaves? Jamaican-Americans? African immigrants?) and who should be responsible for paying (only people whose descendants benefitted from slavery? all non-slave descended taxpayers?). Tamler proposes (taking a note from Lenny Bruce) that if we use the N-word often enough it will lose its sting, and decides to practice what he preaches. And Damani reveals a surprising theory about race and geography (surprising for a Black man, at least) that leaves Tamler awkwardly speechless.  For those who are visually inclined: here's a one-minute set of behind-the-scenes clips from our Google+ Hangout: Links  Nigger [wikipedia.org] Leonardo DiCaprio bleeds for his role in Django Unchained [cinemablend.com] Lenny Bruce- Are there any niggers here tonight? [youtube.com]  60-year old white man slaps Black baby  [thesmokinggun.com]  The truth about 40 Acres and a Mule [theroot.com] The "great migration" of American Blacks out of the South [inmotionaame.org] 1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion [theroot.com] Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle on Iconoclasts [sundancechannel.com] Bonus: Dave Chappelle imagines reparations [youtube.com]  Special Guest: Joseph Damani McDole. Support Very Bad Wizards

You don't need to be a psychologist or a philosopher to enjoy a good, old-fashioned bitch-fest. In the first of a two-part episode (no single compact disc, 8-track, or LP could hold all our complaints), Tamler and David list two of the things that bug them about their respective fields. We take issue with bad writing, brain worship, meaningless questions, and psychologists' obsession with the number two. Enjoy and try not to hold it against us.  Links Simpsons clip on philosophy majors [youtube.com] Peter Hacker on philosophy [leiterreports.typepad.com] Business-speak buzzwords [wikipedia.org] Dual process theory [wikipedia.org] Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman [amazon.com] Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology [amazon.com] Gettier Problem [wikipedia.org] Seduced by the flickering lights of the brain by Paul Bloom [seedmagazine.com]   Support Very Bad Wizards

In a break from tradition, we recorded a 25-minute episode on the morality of tattletaling, snitching, ratting, and whistleblowing. We discuss why these people seem especially despicable (except for maybe "Bubbles" from "The Wire" and the guy from "The Insider"), and David gets Tamler to agree that he'd never turn him into the police. We also puzzle over the existence of porn theaters, and the origins of the expression "flip a bitch."  Links Stop Snitchin' campaign [wikipedia.org] Bubbles (character from "The Wire") [wikipedia.org] Time Magazine Persons of the Year: Whistleblowers [time.com] Ingram, G. P., & Bering, J. M. (2010). Children’s tattling: The reporting of everyday norm violations in preschool settings. Child development, 81, 945-957. Obie Trice feat. Akon "Snitch" "Dry Snitching" [urbandictionary.com]   Support Very Bad Wizards

Our classiest episode yet (OK, that's not saying much, but still...)--Psychologist Fiery Cushman joins us for a discussion about collective punishment and collective responsibility. We use Fiery's recent paper on the practice of "beaning" in baseball (punishing one player for a teammate's offense by throwing a 95 MPH fastball at the player's head) to illustrate the phenomenon. Is the "innocent" player being punished because he is somehow morally responsible for his teammate's offense?  Or does deserve have nothing to do with it?  Also in this episode: listener feedback (sort of, we're just psyched to have a Norwegian stand-up comic as a listener), and Fiery solves the 3,000 year-old problem of moral responsibility just so he can get out of Dave's hotel room.   Links Fiery Cushman [brown.edu] Beanball [wikipedia.org] Hatfield-McCoy Blood Feud [wikipedia.org] Major League (1989) [imdb.com] Blood Revenge, by Christopher Boehm "The Two Faces of Revenge: Moral Responsibility and the Culture of Honor." T Sommers. "John Kruk and Desert." [Flickers of Freedom blog post] Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler square off the role of the victim in criminal punishment and find little to agree about. Tamler defends the restorative justice approach, while Dave expresses skepticism about its value and worries it might even be damaging. Arguments ensue, but be sure to stick around for the third segment as it features an unusually focused and productive discussion--for them anyway. Also discussed:  the best character on "The Wire," the startling specificity of KG's trash-talking, and a listener calls us out on not justifying the meaningfulness of life.  Links Family Guy- Breaking Bad (and The Wire)  [youtube.com] The Wire- Omar in court [youtube.com] Restorative Justice [wikipedia.org] Christie, N. (1977). Conflicts as Property. British Journal of Criminology Greg Ousley is sorry for killing his parents. Is that enough? [NY Times magazine] "The Caging of America" by Adam Gopnik.  [New Yorker] "Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?" [NY Times magazine] Support Very Bad Wizards