8/7/16

Famous Faces

So which of these famous people do you think published an article on psychology?

I'll give you a minute ...

Yes, you're right!  All of them!  I was surprised, too, when this very long list showed up in my inbox this morning from the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. I am excited to share my favorites with you. And I think at least a third of them touch on the topic of politics and influence as well as psychology.

Some of these are obvious, right?  Carl Sagan was a scientist, but mostly he published about astrophysics and planetary science.  However, in the mid 1980s he wrote a lovely and entertaining article called  “Night walkers and mystery mongers: Sense and nonsense at the edge of science” for the magazine The Skeptical Inquirer. It wasn't really a journal, hardly a magazine, but the Sagan article is just as relevant today as it was then.  The beginning description of the second century con man Alexander of Abonutichus could have been written about people today.  Anti-vaxers and climate change skeptics take note. You can find the article HERE. It's a fun read.


Albert Einstein was a scientist, too, but he was also acquainted with Sigmund Freud.  They published a series of letters in which they discussed the causes of war and possible ways of preventing it. Freud invokes his idea of "Thanatos" or a death instinct, which is not generally considered to be valid today.  Nevertheless, the letters are compelling.  You can find them HERE. 



So much for the obvious.  But how about the rest of these folks?



Mayim Bialik plays the brainy girlfriend of fellow nerd Sheldon on Big Bang Theory.   I had no idea she had a doctorate in neuroscience from UCLA. She published what was probably her dissertation research on brain imaging during affective and linguistic prosody conditions. No, I don’t know what that means, either, but I’m impressed!




(Totally off topic, but did you know that Brian May, of Queen, has a doctorate in astrophysics? He started on it before Queen became famous and finally went back and finished his dissertation in 2007. There's an asteroid named after him!!!)

The Dalai Lama teamed up with one of my heroes, social psychologist Paul Ekman,  in a series of conversations looking at the linkages between Buddhism and the science of emotion. Ekman delayed his retirement to supervise some serious research on the relationship between meditation and emotional responses, which the Dalai Lama sponsored. The authors feel that mindfulness-based meditation can help enhance compassion, which is a touchstone for the Dalai Lama. I’ve read their book. It’s fascinating and has increased my appreciation for both men. Amazon has it HERE. 

Colin Firth, yes that Colin Firth, Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame, commissioned a study on the relationship between various parts of the brain and political leanings. He and his coauthors found a tie between conservatism and greater amygdala size (related to sensitivity to threat) while liberalism was related to greater size in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is in turn related to increased ability to manage conflict. This sounds, and is, really technical, but if you want to have a go at it, you can find the article HERE.I hope to have a more user friendly blog on brains and politics later.   

I read this several years ago. Their research was part of a growing realization that brain structure was related to political leanings.  And then you have to wonder, if politics is biology, then can your political philosophy be inherited?  Political leanings run in families, after all...

Benjamin Franklin.  If Colin Firth is my current swoon, Franklin is my historical swoon. You can keep your Hamilton. If I had a time machine, I'd be headed straight towards 18th century Philadelphia.  

Back in the 1700s, the King of France, Louis XVI, asked then-ambassador Franklin, along with chemist Lavoisier and physician Guillotin (the man who popularized the device that would execute Lavoisier a few years later; the French Revolution was full of irony...), to investigate the claims of Frans Anton Mesmer regarding what he called “animal magnetism”. Mesmer said that he could use this magnetism to cure diseases and well as other infirmities.   They concluded that Mesmer’s claims, “…were not legitimate and instead were attributable to the effects of imagination, belief, and suggestion.” On the other hand, hypnosis, as mesmerism is known today, has more widespread acceptance.  You can find the text of Franklin's report, in English, HERE. 

American poet and writer Gertrude Stein studied under William James (the Father of Psychology!) at Harvard.  She was looking at how the unconscious, slight hand movements of the players can send the planchette skittering across the Ouija board. Who knew? Stein's paper is HERE.  






Teller, of Penn and Teller fame, collaborated with The Amazing Randi and others on an article “on how knowledge of magic can inform the psychological study of perception, attention, and memory.” Magicians are really good at misdirection, and their knowledge can help psychologists better understand things like inattentional blindness and change blindness.

Here’s an example.  Can you figure out WhoDunnIt?

That's change blindness.  Here's another example. Pay attention to the rules and follow the directions in the video.

That's inattentional blindness.  You get so focused on one thing that really obvious stuff just slips by.

I hope you enjoyed this brief journey through psychology geekdom.  The original article on famous people and psychology is this one:
Lilienfeld, Scott O. and Lynn, Steven J. (2016) You'll never guess who wrote that: 78 surprising authors of psychological publications. Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 11 no. 4, 419-441.

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