The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal is perhaps best known for Pascal’s Wager which, in the first formal use of decision theory, argued that believing in God is the most pragmatic decision. But it seems the French thinker also had a knack for psychology. As Brain Pickings points out, Pascal set out the most effective way to get someone to change their mind, centuries before experimental psychologists began to formally study persuasion: When
November 22, 2021
A philosopher’s 350-year-old trick to get people to change their minds is now backed up by psychologists
November 15, 2021
Why eight hours a night isn’t enough, according to a leading sleep scientist
For something that we spend a third of our lives doing (if we’re lucky), sleep is something that we know relatively little about. “Sleep is actually a relatively recent discovery,” says Daniel Gartenberg, a sleep scientist who is currently an assistant adjunct professor in biobehavioral health at Penn State. “Scientists only started looking at sleep 70 years ago.” As anyone who has lay awake at night contemplating the complexities of
October 30, 2021
24 of the Most Powerful Life Lessons
How you approach life says a lot about who you are. There are some who are content to passively coast through, hoping they land where they need to be and know what to do when the time comes. Then there are others, who make active choices to understand who they are and what they want, and set the goals that will keep them moving in the right direction. But a