Random drift and culture change
In April we chose to read Bentley, Hahn and Shennan's paper Random drift and culture change (2004).
This very interesting study explains cultural variants on three real-world datasets using a
Conviction, persuasion and manipulation: the ethical dimension of epistemic vigilance
In today’s political climate moral outrage about (alleged) propaganda and manipulation of public opinion dominate our discourse. Charges of manipulative information provision have arguably become
“True self” Journal Club General Discussion
Join the discussion of Nina Strohminger, George Newman, and Joshua Knobe's article and of the commentaries by Simon Cullen, Ophelia Deroy, Victoria Fomina, Larry Hirschfeld, Gloria Origgi, Brent
Nina Strohminger’s response: A friendly desultory philippic
Hello, everyone, and thank you for tuning in.
I would like to start by saying the opinions expressed below are purely my own. Josh Knobe and George Newman may or may not be on board with anything
Anthropological doubts about the moral “true self”
Do people everywhere believe there is a true self – a moral true self, what is more? This is a question of obvious anthropological relevance. Most anthropologists, however, would question the basic
Is there really no such thing as the true self?
In “The True Self: A psychological concept distinct from the self,” Strohminger, Knobe, and Newman (henceforth “SKN”) outline a fascinating and compelling body of research on people’s
The “true self,” more complex, more social
“I have entered upon a performance which is without example, whose accomplishment will have no imitator. I mean to present my fellow-mortals with a man in all the integrity of nature; and this man
Truth and consequences
I was delighted to discover that deep down the authentic me is a happy go lucky sort of guy, and others recognize this too. I am also a little skeptical, to be honest. The authors of acknowledge that
Article for February: All forms of writing
Hi everyone!
For February we chose to read Greg Downey's critique of Stanislas Dehaene's 2009 book Reading in the Brain. In his article titled All Forms of Writing (Mind & Language 2014), Greg
The True Self, Supernatural Agents, and the Problem of Evil
Nina Strohminger, Joshua Knobe, and George Newman’s compelling and thought-provoking piece on the “True Self” presents an original theoretical intervention into the vast body of literature on
To be or not to be two?
I could have been more courageous I will be more forgiving. Such thoughts are frequent, especially at the beginning of the year, like now. We believe that we stand for certain values, or deeper
The true self and the situation
You are probably already familiar with Darley and Batson's (1973) study. Participants were students at the Princeton Theological Seminary. As part of the study, they were asked to give a short sermon
Précis of “The True Self: A psychological concept distinct from the self”
Some recent work in experimental philosophy and in social psychology addresses central issues in cognition and culture. Case in point: an article by Nina Strohminger, George Newman, and Joshua
Article for January: Iconicity and the Emergence of Combinatorial Structure in Language
Our first paper in 2017 is Iconicity and the Emergence of Combinatorial Structure in Language by Verhoef, Kirby and de Boer (2016), published in Cognitive Science. They present experimental results
Article for December: Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity (?)
Dear friends of the Mint’s Journal Club,
For the last month of 2016 we decided to read the paper from Krist Vaesen et al. Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity.
Does Prospect Theory explain Trump and Brexit votes?
The quantity of votes in favor of the Brexit and in favor of Trump surprised most of us. We were surprised that Brexit and Trump voters would reject pretty safe options—remain in the EU and
Article for November: Probabilistic pragmatics
Hi everyone! November’s article for the Mint Journal club is a recent publication by Michael Franke and Gerhard Jäger called Probabilistic pragmatics, or why Bayes’ rule is probably important
Why would Japanese spirits haunt toilets and ghosts hitchhike? [Halloween special]
After getting lost in the meanders of the Internet—well, to be fair, of Wikipedia— a grayish Sunday morning, I ended up in the Urban legends section, and may have found some ‘blogpost’
Cow-tipping, and the strange performativity of ‘scientific studies’ – and cultural transmission
One of my all-time favorite scientific papers is the ‘Academic Urban Legends’ by Ole Bjorn Rekdal, published 2014 in the journal Social Studies of Science. Very briefly, the author goes through
Article for October: Pragmatic Choice in Conversation
In October we read the paper from Raymond W. Gibbs and Guy Van Orden, published in Topics in Cognitive Science in 2012, Pragmatic Choice in Conversation.
The authors are discussing regularity and
Article for September: Image, Memory and Ritual: Re-viewing the Antecedents of Writing
Welcome (finally!) to the new edition of Mint Journal Club, hosted by the International Cognition and Culture Institute!
This month we agreed on reading and discussing the paper by Sarah Kielt
Exit Ghost?
Biological Reviews publishes a 25-authors paper lead by Simon Townsend and titled "Exorcising Grice’s ghost: an empirical approach to studying intentional communication in animals." [1] I was quite
Could preschoolers learn to reason deductively?
Conceptual change or change of conception?
One basic issue raised by the study of both the history of science and human ontogenetic cognitive development is that of conceptual change: when should a