In which researchers squabble for centuries about the secret ingredient that made one Cremonese craftsman the greatest musical instrument-maker of all time, and John seasons guitars under a bus. Certificate #36611.
Social Science Bites - Iris Berent on the Innate in Human Nature
How much of our understanding of the world comes built-in? More than you’d expect.
That’s the conclusion that Iris Berent, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University and head of the Language and Mind Lab there, has come to after years of research. She notes that her students, for example, are “astonished” at how much of human behavior and reactions are innate.
“They think this is really strange,” she tells interviewer David Edmonds in this Social Science Bites podcast. “They don't think that knowledge, beliefs, that all those epistemic states, could possibly be innate. It doesn't look like this is happening just because they reject innateness across the board.”
This rejection – which affects not only students but the general public and sometimes even social and behavioral scientists -- does have collateral damage.
So, too, is misinterpreting what the innateness of some human nature can mean. “[I]f you think that what's in the body is innate and immutable, then upon getting evidence that your depression has a physical basis, when people are educated, that psychiatric disorders are just diseases like all others, that actually makes them more pessimistic, it creates more stigma, because you think that your essence is different from my essence. … [Y]ou give them vignettes that actually underscore the biological origin of a problem, they are less likely to think that therapy is going to help, which is obviously false and really problematic”
Berent’s journey to studying intuitive knowledge was itself not intuitive. She received a bachelor’s in musicology from Tel-Aviv University and another in flute performance at The Rubin Academy of Music before earning master’s degrees in cognitive psychology and in music theory – from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1993, she received a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Pittsburgh.
As a researcher, much of her investigation into the innate originated by looking at language, specifically using the study of phonology to determine how universal – and that includes in animals – principles of communication are. This work resulted in the 2013 book, The Phonological Mind. Her work specifically on innateness in turn led to her 2020 book for the Oxford University Press, The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature.
Bay Curious - Scarlot Harlot Made Sex Worker Rights Her Life’s Work
It has been called "the world's oldest profession," but it's not one that's often discussed openly. Of course, we're talking about sex work. Attitudes about certain parts of the industry—from porn to strip clubs—have evolved over time, and so has the language used to discuss it. Even the term "sex work" is relatively new. This week, reporter Steven Rascón brings us the story of the woman who coined the term, and the history of the sex worker rights movement.
This episode contains frank discussions about sexual acts, and sex work—some of which is criminalized in California. And it includes some outdated language.
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This story was reported by Steven Rascón. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and Ana De Almeida Amaral. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Nastia Voynovskaya, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.
Curious City - What Lessons Were Learned From The ’68 DNC In Chicago?
As Chicago prepares to host the Democratic National Convention, we look back at a volatile year: 1968.
The Intelligence from The Economist - Yuan direction: Chinese firms head south
As domestic demand in China slows, and the West puts up trade and political barriers, Chinese firms are shifting their focus to poorer parts of the world. After Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure intensify, our correspondent visits a wrecked power plant (9:10). And how the doner kebab became a cultural touchstone (17:00).
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The Daily Detail - The Daily Detail for 8.1.24
Alabama
- Sen. Tuberville says Democrats are crazy if they think JD Vance is "weird"
- AG Marshall files an appeal after a District court judge allows Title IX changes
- A Dem running for Clay County Commission charged with felony voter fraud
- AL House Majority leader says the anti-ballot trafficking law did its job
- Settlement reached between 2 couples and Mobile IVF clinic re:embryos
- First female garrison commander to be installed today at Redstone Arsenal
National
- Federal Reserve meets on Wednesday, declines to lower interest rates again
- Telegram channel is being used by Chinese illegals for criminal activity in US
- Kamala Harris speech in Atlanta preceded by rapper with "weird" lyrics
- Donald Trump attends convention in Chicago for black journalists
- FL congressman seeks docs after Google/Meta AI censors Trump shooting
- Kari Lake wins primary to become GOP senatorial candidate
- Forensic experts in AZ say election fraud still not cleaned up ahead of 2024
Divided Argument - Reticulated Python
We continue our breakneck pace and dig into two substantive criminal law opinions: Fischer v. United States and Snyder v. United States.
Honestly with Bari Weiss - Can You Drink Your Way to Sobriety?
Today, we have a special story from two friends and former Free Pressers, Andy Mills and Matt Boll. They have a new podcast, Reflector, that I think you’re going to love, and we’re sharing an episode where they look at some of the hidden truths and misconceptions about alcoholism and how to treat it.
Alcohol consumption increased more during the Covid years than it had at any time in the past 50 years. In fact, Americans were drinking so much that from 2020 through 2021, there were approximately 178,000 alcohol-related deaths, which is more deaths than from all drug overdoses combined, including opioids.
And yet most Americans with a drinking problem never speak to their doctors about their drinking, and fewer than 6 percent of them receive any form of treatment whatsoever.
Today, a woman named Katie tells the story of her self-experimentation with a little-known but highly effective drug to combat her alcohol addiction.
It’s not only an incredibly moving story of one woman’s journey but it also gets to the bigger question of why these types of medications aren’t widely used in America, and it challenges everything we know about alcoholism and how to treat it.
Check out Reflector wherever you get your podcasts, or by going to reflector.show and becoming a subscriber.
If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com/subscribe and become a Free Press subscriber today.
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WIRED Politics Lab - How QAnon Destroys American Families
Q hasn’t posted anything since 2022. But a staggering number of Americans still buy into QAnon, the conspiracy movement steeped in claims that Satan-worshiping pedophiles run the US government. Today on the show, journalist and author Jesselyn Cook on QAnon’s lasting political ramifications and the relationships it destroys.
Leah Feiger is @LeahFeiger. David Gilbert is @DaithaiGilbert. Jesselyn Cook is @JessReports. Write to us at politicslab@WIRED.com. Be sure to subscribe to the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter here
Mentioned this week:
The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family by Jesselyn Cook
NBN Book of the Day - Oliver Traldi, “Political Beliefs: A Philosophical Introduction” (Routledge, 2024)
The idiom of contemporary politics is a kind of philosophical hodge-podge. While there’s plenty of talk about the traditional themes of freedom, justice, equality, and autonomy, there is also an increasing reliance on ideas like misinformation, bias, expertise, and propaganda. These latter notions belong, at least in part, to epistemology – the area of philosophy that deals with issues concerning knowledge, rationality, evidence, and belief. Relatively recently, the subfield of political epistemology has emerged. Political epistemologists explore philosophical issues of political belief, political expertise, political information and so on. But they also are concerned to examine the ways in which political arrangements can go well or badly, depending on the character of the epistemic practices that prevail in society.
Political epistemology is — by philosophy’s standards – a new subfield. Perhaps it is no more than two decades old. Yet the field is organized around a few disputes. In Political Beliefs: A Philosophical Introduction (Routledge 2024), Oliver Traldi surveys the terrain, often leading the reader to the conclusion that things are more complicated than they might seem.
This book is available open access here.
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