Josh Greene has been at the leading edge of illuminating how the moral mind works. Together with his colleagues, he's demonstrated that many of the mind's moral judgments are driven by an ancient, intuitive calculus often based on the simple rule: do no harm. Although automatic rules such as these often work well, they can sometimes lead to questionable decisions. In those cases, Josh and others suggest, we might "put the brakes" on our intuitive assumptions and consciously direct our judgments using principles like utilitarianism. That may sound reasonable at first, but new research by Daniel Bartels and David Pizarro shows that this is exactly the strategy used by psychopaths. Read More...

Tags: utilitarianism, Psychopaths

Mimicry -- the tendency to automatically copy the gestures of an interaction partner -- has often been referred to as a "social glue." Most research has found that when others subtly mimic us, we like it. But new work by Jia Liu and colleagues is suggesting that mimicry might not always be a plus, especially when money is involved. Read More...

Tags: Mimicry

We have a piece in the The Times' Eureka Daily Science Blog today on why Prime Minster Cameron's assertions that the rioting reflects "criminality, pure and simple" stemming from "poor parenting" might just be a bit too simplistic. Unfortunately, we can't post it here, as it's behind the Times' pay wall. But for those of you who have access, check it out here. It makes a nice companion piece to the Times' lead story today on Natasha Reid -- a student who inexplicably, even to herself, joined the looting only to regret it later and turn herself in. Read More...

Tags: london riots, David Cameron

As we often note, life is full of long- vs. short-term tradeoffs. Should you work hard and invest your money or go spend it on a new Ipod right now? New work by Vladis Griskevicius and colleagues suggests that how we solve this decision might just be influenced by who is around us. Or, more specifically, the number of women to men -- the available mate ratio for men. Read More...

Tags: Temporal Discounting

The Portuguese translation of Out of Character launches today in Brazil. Maybe the upcoming Russian version should use the same graphic? You know -- nesting dolls. . . .

Nonconscious mimicry -- the human tendency to mirror the actions of another without awareness -- often leads to social benefits. It increases rapport, facilitates interactions, and, as our work has shown, can even lead to greater compassion and altruism. But the notion that mimicry is always a positive doesn't make sense. If it increases the "link" between two people, what happens if one of them is a boor? Read More...