Empathy by the Book: How Fiction Affects Behavior – According to studies by University of Toronto researchers, books can inspire feelings of empathy in their readers, but the response depends on the type of genre and story. Interestingly, Romance novels are not on the empathy-producing genres, but literary fiction is, perhaps because ... more >
Facebook users live longer, study finds – Despite the way this study is being described in headlines, it’s not so much that Facebook extends your life expectancy – it’s that using Facebook to enhance sociability extends life. In other words, it’s Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone for the online world: A new study ... more >
Tom Wolfe challenges society’s understanding of evolution in latest book – So Tom Wolfe is now arguing that Darwin’s theory of evolution is a “myth.” It’s actually unclear from this brief interview with Wolfe what he really means by that, because I’m not sure that evolution as Darwin conceptualized it and ... more >
Study: Trolls Are Even Worse When Using Real Names – A new study published in PLOS ONE claims a counterintuitive conclusion: trolls outside the cloak of anonymity can actually be more aggressive. According to the abstract, this “effect is reinforced if selective incentives are present and if aggressors are intrinsically motivated.” ... more >
Confessions of a newspaper publishing exec: ‘We’ve screwed up by pursuing scale’ – I think almost every Q&A from this interview could begin with “Dear Twitter,” because the platform has become so twisted by the pursuit of NEW USERS and MORE CLICKS. For the sake of NEW USERS and MORE CLICKS. ... more >
Dallas Buyers Club abandons piracy court case – So once an Australian judge blocked the Dallas Buyers Club from pursuing major bucks from alleged infringers, the DBC announced that “it has better things to do for now,” thereby ending the case. If you’ve been following this case, you know that there ... more >