Comment

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 7, 2012 at 7:00pm

Politics vs. Empathy

Politics makes us stupid. This is one of my recurring themes. This is the principal reason I refuse to be a partisan or ideological team player. People call me libertarian but I don't in part because I'm not one, but mostly because I suspect that accepting any such label dings my IQ about 15 points. It turns out politics not only makes us stupid. It also makes us callous. Here's the abstract of "More Than Skin Deep: Visceral States Are Not Projected Onto Dissimi..." by Ed O'Brien and Phoebe C. Ellsworth of the University of Michigan [via : healthcanal.com]

What people feel shapes their perceptions of others. In the studies reported here, we examined the assimilative influence of visceral states on social judgment. Replicating prior research, we found that participants who were outside during winter overestimated the extent to which other people were bothered by cold (Study 1), and participants who ate salty snacks without water thought other people were overly bothered by thirst (Study 2). However, in both studies, this effect evaporated when participants believed that the other people under consideration held opposing political views from their own. Participants who judged these dissimilar others were unaffected by their own strong visceral-drive states, a finding that highlights the power of dissimilarity in social judgment. Dissimilarity may thus represent a boundary condition for embodied cognition and inhibit an empathic understanding of shared out-group pain. Our findings reveal the need for a better understanding of how people’s internal experiences influence their perceptions of the feelings and experiences of those who may hold different values from their own.

Got that? We overestimate the extent to which others feel what we're feeling, unless they're on another team. [coninue]

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on October 25, 2011 at 2:01pm

Ethics Matter: A Conversation with Peter Singer

Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer lives up to his beliefs, giving away 25-30 percent of his income to alleviate absolute poverty, and defending animal rights--or as he puts it, "extending equality beyond the species boundary." Here are his thoughts on these topics and more.

Since 1999 he has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.

Listen to the podcast here.

Comment by Kris Feenstra on March 10, 2011 at 2:18pm

At least they put Hitler on the right side of the line this time.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on March 10, 2011 at 2:07pm

If you are in need of a good laugh, please take the time to check out the entry on Morality on Conservapedia. Bwahahahahaha!

 

http://www.conservapedia.com/Morality

Comment by Don on March 4, 2011 at 10:49am

What happened?  It wasn't so long ago that many of us moved from Atheist Nexus to this site.  True, I have not spent a lot of time here, but whatever the inadequacies have proven to be, I've missed them.

Comment by T A A on March 4, 2011 at 10:43am

She is no longer a member of T|A :(

Comment by Don on March 4, 2011 at 10:05am

Adriana, can you say a little more about the reasons for moving to another site?

Comment by JD Stockman on February 26, 2011 at 5:53am

I hate just flat out plugging myself, but I have been a Christian and I have to say: it really was the moral inequities that drove me to question and then leave god. I am a 'godless bastard' now and honestly, I feel a little less uncertain of my moral fiber without god.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5979898/a_brief_account_of...

Comment by Jaume on February 25, 2011 at 8:06am

Found in the WP: "Irony of ironies: People who don't believe in evolution are the most avid advocates for Social Darwinism." - Tom Toles

Comment by Jaume on February 22, 2011 at 8:11am

Bonobos are also more talkative and introspective. I never had an interesting philosophical conversation with chimps, but about Nietzsche. You'd better not tell them they're 'sub sapiens' - they actually think they're Überaffen and would take offense.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• …
• 9
• Next ›
• Page