Two Psychologists Four Beers

Yoel and Mickey try to settle their feud with the boys from Very Bad Wizards, Tamler Sommers and David Pizarro. They discuss what psychology, philosophy, and art can and can't do. Does psychology get more respect than it deserves? How has philosophy contributed to supporting the COVID-19 pandemic response? In principle, is it possible to measure authoritarianism or love or neuroticism? How has VBW not become an icon of the IDW?

Bonus: Who loves Tamler's step-mother the most?

Special Guest: Very Bad Wizards.

Links:

• Fin du Monde | Unibroue
• Roman Candle – Bellwoods Brewery
• Small Batch Whiskey | Premium Bourbon | Basil Hayden's
• Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response | Nature Human Behaviour
• David Pizarro's gift to the podcast
• Is the 'Intellectual Dark Web' Politically Diverse?

Yoel and Mickey welcome Northeastern University research scientist and science critic James Heathers to their show. Yoel, Mickey, and James discuss science reform and the need for robust science criticism. Why is it so hard for some (older) scientists to admit their mistakes? Do science critics feel empathy for the scholars they criticize? Is there a danger of science criticism going too far, even over-correcting? What exactly is Yoel drinking this episode?

Bonus: James discusses his fascinating research on people who can control their goosebumps.

Bonus Bonus: Yoel and Mickey submit to James's break-music request.

Special Guest: James Heathers.

Links:

• Molson Canadian | Premium Lager
• Big Cranky - Stony Creek BreweryStony Creek Brewery
• Retraction Watch – Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process
• Meet the ‘data thugs’ out to expose shoddy and questionable research | Science | AAAS
• Why We Find And Expose Bad Science – Medium — Why We Find And Expose Bad Science (It isn’t because we’re mean.)
• Here’s How Cornell Scientist Brian Wansink Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies About How We Eat -- BuzzFeed — Brian Wansink won fame, funding, and influence for his science-backed advice on healthy eating. Now, emails show how the Cornell professor and his colleagues have hacked and massaged low-quality data into headline-friendly studies to “go virally big time.”
• The voluntary control of piloerection [PeerJ]
• The People Who Can Control Their Goose Bumps - The Atlantic — Everyone cannot do it. But Palejko is not alone, either. He is among dozens of people that James Heathers, a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University, identified during and after a recent study on the phenomenon. Heathers posted a preprint—which has not yet been peer reviewed—describing 32 people who can control their goose bumps, and he’s been contacted by several others since. Many of them, like Palejko, had thought this ability was perfectly ordinary for most of their lives. Palejko told me his brother can do it, too.
• Creating goosebumps at will may be more interesting than it sounds | Ars Technica

Yoel and Mickey spend the first half of the episode discussing how thier lives have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. How has the pademic affected those with and without children? How has the pandemic impacted our various relationships? For the second half of the episode, they discuss what to make of the rush of psychology research on COVID-19. Given psychology's noted problems with replication, generalizability, and standards of evidence, should psychologists be trying to shape public policy? What actionable advice can psychology offer?

Bonus: Mickey finally says what he truly think of the Very Bad Wizards crew.

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Links:

• Canuck Pale Ale - Great Lakes Brewery
• Home - Welcome on the Chimay beers and cheeses website - Chimay
• Cat Lady – Bellwoods Brewery
• Don’t trust the psychologists on coronavirus - UnHerd
• Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

Yoel and Mickey welcome Stanford sociologist and psychologist Robb Willer to the show, who serves up hot takes about the replication crisis. Did the low replicabilty era in social psychology have consequences for political science or sociology? Has the open science movement benefited from motivated morality, only effecting change when change was easy? Despite intentions, will the open science movement make science even more elitist?

Bonus: Taking psychedelic drugs at music concerts is fun!

Special Guest: Robb Willer.

Links:

• Fog Breaker IPA | Anchor Brewing Company
• Transformative experience and social connectedness mediate the mood-enhancing effects of psychedelic use in naturalistic settings | PNAS
• Amon Tobin - One Shy Morning (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Yoel and Mickey welcome Paul Bloom to the podcast, who is not only a returning guest but also the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. We first give terrible advice on parenting. Does parenting affect happiness, relationship satisfaction, and meaning? Does parenting screw with prospective decision making because it leaves the decision maker utterly transformed? We next discuss perversity. Why do we enjoy doing transgressive things? Who is likely to be perverted? Is perversion ever a good strategy?

Bonus: How would Paul rate Yoel on a scale of 1 to 5?

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

Links:

• Parenthood and Marital Satisfaction: A Meta‐Analytic Review - Twenge - 2003 - Journal of Marriage and Family - Wiley Online Library — This meta‐analysis finds that parents report lower marital satisfaction compared with nonparents
• Long-term effects of pregnancy and childbirth on sleep satisfaction and duration of first-time and experienced mothers and fathers. - PubMed - NCBI — Following the sharp decline in sleep satisfaction and duration in the first months postpartum, neither mothers' nor fathers' sleep fully recovers to prepregnancy levels up to 6 years after the birth of their first child.
• In Defense of Parenthood: Children Are Associated With More Joy Than Misery - S. Katherine Nelson, Kostadin Kushlev, Tammy English, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2013 — The results indicate that, contrary to previous reports, parents (and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do nonparents.
• A Reassessment of the Defense of Parenthood — In this Commentary, we report a reanalysis of the data, which suggests that it is premature to abandon the idea that children reduce happiness
• WHAT YOU CAN’T EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING — It seems natural to choose whether to have a child by reflecting on what it would be like to have one. I argue that choosing on this basis is not rational, raising general questions about our ordinary conception of how to make this life-changing decision.
• Idealizing Parenthood to Rationalize Parental Investments - Richard P. Eibach, Steven E. Mock, 2011 — Although raising children has largely negative effects on parents’ emotional well-being, parenthood is often idealized as a uniquely emotionally rewarding role.
• Break Music: St.Vincent - Smoking Section
• The Strange Appeal of Perverse Actions — Why do we enjoy doing things for no good reason?