Luck vs Merit (Part 2)
/Robert Frank discusses the role of skill vs. luck in producing success.
Read MoreWriting: Blog
Just My Luck (or is it?)
/Most people agree that success requires hard work and good fortune. Recent research suggests that people's politics can be swayed depending on which of these ingredients they focus on when thinking about their own success. Thinking about the role of hard work in your success makes you more likely to support more conservative social policies, while thinking about the role of luck and the help of others makes you more likely to support liberal ones.
Read MoreThe Public Benefits of Social Psychology
/Two recent editorials by Dick Thaler and Tim Wilson make a strong case for the public benefits of social psychology.
Read MoreCrimes and Misdemeanors: Reforming Social Psychology
/Is social psychology in need of reform? I propose that despite high profile cases of fraud, we should be more focused on fixing the mistakes that honest researchers make all the time.
Read MoreAdapting to Change
/Some really interesting ideas from biologist Razib Khan (@razibkhan) on political ideology at his Gene Expression blog. The basic idea is that the degree to which people think for themselves, rather than simply do what everyone else is doing and has always done, depends on how quickly the world around them is changing.
Read MoreDoes Obama's Support Increase Republican Opposition to Marriage Equality?
/Following Obama's endorsement of marriage equality Republican opposition to the cause grew stronger. Social psychology research tells us that this is what we should probably expect: people are often more often influenced by who is supporting a policy than the actual content of the policy itself.
Read MoreFirst Impressions
/Welcome to Random Assignment! This is my first post on the blog and what better way to get things rolling than a post on first impressions?
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- The New York Times
May 1st, 2015