Congratluations to Drs. Stan Floresco (@psych.ubc.ca) and David Metzer (@ubcmusic.bsky.social) for being named as Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada 👏 @src-rsc.bsky.social Learn more about both Dr. Floresco and Dr. Metzer and this achievement ⬇️

Two Arts faculty members elected to the Royal Society of Canada - Faculty of Arts

Two Arts faculty members, Dr. Stanley Floresco and Dr. David Metzer, have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada.

arts.ubc.ca

In episode 1072, I talk with Dr. Steven Heine (@stevenheine.bsky.social) about his fantastic book, Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times. #Psychology #Science youtu.be/oQj1VpqU1kQ

#1072 Steven Heine: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times

YouTube video by The Dissenter

youtu.be

Why am I talking about being WEIRD? Because people in Western, individualistic cultures tend to choose more of these abstract pairings. @joehenrich.bsky.social @stevenheine.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"basic cognitive processes underlying explanatory reasoning give rise to a systematic inherence bias among practicing scientists—a tendency to explain phenomena in terms of their inherent properties rather than external factors" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I reply here to Mickey Inzlicht’s critique of our assessment of the TMT literature -led by former grad students, Lihan Chen and Rachele Benjamin. We consider the question of how can we best evaluate a literature and, judging from his critique, reach a controversial conclusion.

Michael Inzlicht@minzlicht.bsky.social · last yr.

Last week I declared terror management theory dead and accused my friend Steve Heine of motivated reasoning. Steve responded like the mensch he is with a solid rebuttal instead of blocking me. Read his guest post and tell us both who you think is right in the comments!

To be very clear, these kinds of polygenic scores are incredibly shit predictors of individual traits... HT @anjiolina.bsky.social #GATTACA

Short piece in The Conversation about our recent PNAS paper on (even atheists') intuitive preferences for religion! Enjoy & spread as you see fit! theconversation.com/did-humans-e...

Did humans evolve to prefer religion? Research shows many atheists intuitively favour faith

Research highlights Atheists often believe religious faith is positive, even though they don’t hold it themselves.

theconversation.com

Very nice in @pnas.org - people who slept closer to their own culture's norms for sleep duration had better overall health. Sleep duration is more complex than often considered in a strict neuroscientific or biomedical sense. @ChristineOuBC @stevenheine.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Healthy sleep durations appear to vary across cultures | PNAS

Past research finds that sleep duration is reliably linked with health yet sleep durations differ substantially between countries. We investigated ...

pnas.org

Think 8 hours of sleep is the magic number? Research from Dr. @stevenheine.bsky.social included the analysis of over 5,000 people in 20 countries, revealing that the hours of sleep required for good health varies significantly across different cultures. psych.ubc.ca/news/sleep-c...

What’s a healthy amount of sleep? It differs from one country to another - UBC Department of Psychology

Your optimal amount of sleep may depend on where you live, new UBC Psychology research has found.

psych.ubc.ca

What’s a healthy amount of sleep? 😴 A new UBC study analyzed sleep data and health outcomes for nearly 5,000 people in 20 countries, which revealed that the hours of sleep required for good health varies significantly across different cultures. Read more: bit.ly/4jEq3JG

What’s a healthy amount of sleep? It differs from one country to another - UBC News

New research challenges the common belief that everyone needs the same amount of sleep for good health.

bit.ly

"most [psychologists] thought ‘Homo economicus’ (self-interested rationality) poor model human behaviour...split on whether personality largely stable...researchers in evolution/comparative thought theories should focus more on evolution of mental faculties [evo psy]" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Differences in psychologists’ cognitive traits are associated with scientific divides - Nature Human Behaviour

Scientific disagreements are not just a matter of using different methods or having conflicting data. Sulik et al. surveyed psychological scientists and found that disagreements are also associated wi...

nature.com

Excellent critique of childhood development interventions: "The privileged of Global North & South can find solace in the idea they have little responsibility for inequality. If bad childcare & poor brain development are major contributing factors to poverty, then it's parents’ job to overcome it"

The problem with parenting interventions in the Global South | Aeon Essays

Early childhood development interventions in the Global South is a huge industry built on highly questionable assumptions

aeon.co

I had a great discussion with Kurt and Tim at Behavioral Grooves. The Existential Playbook: How to Make Sense of Your Life behavioralgrooves.com/episode/the-...

New episode (1072), with Dr. Steven Heine (@stevenheine.bsky.social). We talk about his new book, Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times. #psychology #Science YouTube: youtu.be/oQj1VpqU1kQ Podcast: bit.ly/4iWQfOS

#1072 Steven Heine: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times

YouTube video by The Dissenter

youtu.be

I had a great discussion with Ricardo about how people maintain meaningful lives.

The Dissenter@thedissenteryt.bsky.social · 2y ago

New episode (1072), with Dr. Steven Heine (@stevenheine.bsky.social). We talk about his new book, Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times. #psychology #Science YouTube: youtu.be/oQj1VpqU1kQ Podcast: bit.ly/4iWQfOS

Two common findings from sleep research are that 1) short sleep durations predict worse health outcomes, and 2) people from some cultures sleep much less than those from others. Do people from cultures with short sleep durations have worse health outcomes? 🧵

Today "Start Making Sense" was named Book of the Day by the Next Big Idea Club. bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com/p/the-world-...

The World is Chaotic — Here's How to Find Meaning

How existential psychology can keep you steady in absurd times.

bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com

Here's a blogpost I wrote on the ironic challenges that we face from having too many choices in our lives. People tend not to appreciate how much anxiety comes with the responsibility of blazing your own trail. www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/ma...

Embracing Our Freedoms, but at What Cost?

People in individualistic cultures celebrate their many choices. But we often fail to recognize the psychological costs that come with having to figure everything out on our own.

psychologytoday.com

Thanks Beth for your thoughtful review!

Beth Bonness@bethbonness.com · 2y ago

"Start Making Sense" I'd never heard of existential psychology & love David Lynch so bought the book. It did not disappoint. "Meaning is ultimately about connections: the meaning in our own lives is determined by how well our lives are connected." @stevenheine.bsky.social

I wrote a piece for Aeon's Psyche Guides on how to find meaning in your life as a buffer against anxiety – psyche.co/guides/how-t... via @aeon.co

Here's a review of Start Making Sense by the Greater Good. Seven Ways to Bring More Meaning to Your Life greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item...

Seven Ways to Bring More Meaning to Your Life

A psychologist argues that asking ourselves existential questions and recognizing our values can make life more fulfilling and meaningful.

greatergood.berkeley.edu

I had a really fun discussion of my book, Start Making Sense, with Kelly Leonard at Second City. www.secondcity.com/network/cate...

I'm thrilled that the @nextbigidea.bsky.social has selected my new book, Start Making Sense, as a monthly must-read! nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/cul...

How to Cultivate Meaning When Life Feels Absurd

Author Steven Heine shares 5 key insights from his new book, Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times.

nextbigideaclub.com

Nietzsche proclaimed “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” I write here about how existential psychology has revealed much evidence in support of this. The Curious Relations Between Suffering and Meaning | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/ma...

The Curious Relations Between Suffering and Meaning

These have been trying times. Perhaps they can help us in our efforts to pursue a more meaningful life.

psychologytoday.com

Here's a tribute that I wrote for David Lynch. We used his films in our research to reveal how people strive to find meaning in what can seem meaningless. I discuss some of this work in my new book: hachettebookgroup.com/titles/steve...

Start Making Sense

A "beautiful, deep, thoughtful" (Angela Duckworth, New York Times-bestselling author of Grit) investigation into the science of why we crave meaning—and ...

hachettebookgroup.com

Beth Bonness@bethbonness.com · 2y ago

Sad to see David go too … “Rest in peace, David Lynch. Thanks for leaving us with your beautiful & masterful films. You made us confront some of our most potent emotions & your work illuminated some of the darker recesses of our minds.” @stevenheine.bsky.social @nautil.us nautil.us/david-lynch-...

You can take the DeepSeek out of China but you can’t take the China out of DeepSeek

It’s PUBLICATION DAY!! Very happy to announce the release of my new book, Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help us Build Meaning Lives in Absurd Times. A 🧵 www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/steve...

Start Making Sense

A "beautiful, deep, thoughtful" (Angela Duckworth, New York Times-bestselling author of Grit) investigation into the science of why we crave meaning—and ...

hachettebookgroup.com

Thanks so much to Behavioral Scientist for naming my new book, Start Making Sense, as one of the notable book of the year! behavioralscientist.org/behavioral-s...

Behavioral Scientist’s Notable Books of 2024 - by Antonia Violante and Evan Nesterak - Behavioral Scientist

Our list of noteworthy behavioral science books published in 2024.

behavioralscientist.org

Got friends into books like The God Delusion, The Righteous Mind, and The WEIRDest People in The World? Try Disbelief, which dives in similar waters! (& at times points out where their evidence is dodgy) Give you & yours the gift of science this year, nerds 📚💙 🧪 www.amazon.com/Disbelief-Or...

New Paper Alert! How can we evaluate the evidential value of a literature? We submitted the published literature on the mortality salience hypothesis (k = 825) to a thorough systematic review consisting of 7 different assessment tools. A 🧵.