Category: Society

Analysing data from three decades worth of MRI scans and postmortem brain tissue studies, scientists find no repeatable differences between male and female brains.
The average male has a 11% larger brain, but that doesn’t mean their brains work any better - only that the average male is bigger than the average female.
That’s pretty much the only reliable difference, as the sample size keeps growing bigger, any other differences prove to be statistically unreliable.
What this means is that we don’t have male or female brains, we just have brains - just like we have the same lungs, kidneys, or hearts.
The researchers didn’t look into biochemical / hormonal differences, which are speculated to be the cause of behavioral sex differences.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 5, 2021

In a conversation-based experiment with 252 strangers, researchers found that only in 2% cases both participants were happy with how long they talked.
It’s probably because we hide our true intentions for fear of being rude, even though we’d like to end a conversation early.
There was a big disconnect between what people wanted, and what they thought their conversation partners wanted.
This suggests that we’re really bad at guessing what other people want.
These findings show that we know very little about how conversations work, so it’s a great area for researchers to explore.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on March 5, 2021

Pollution from burning fossil fuels killed 1 in 5 of all the people that died in 2018.
By region, in the US and Europe it was 1 in 10 people, in eastern Asia 1 in 3, and it was the lowest in Africa and Southern America.
These numbers are larger than the death toll of smoking tobacco and malaria combined.
Air pollution is an invisible killer, but study authors were still shocked at how big this problem is.
Experts see this is a call to urgency, and suggest that the process of going carbon-neutral should be sped up.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on February 12, 2021

Researchers analyzed 250 US public corporations involved in securities fraud between 2005-2013, and compared them to a uninvolved sample.
The analysis showed that prestigious, big name companies are more likely to commit financial fraud, manipulate number and markets, lie to investors and the SEC.
Companies with Fortune 500 status were 4 times more likely to be involved in fraud compared to the no-fraud sample.
[Personal note - it’s good that scientists are uncovering basic facts that every 1st-grader knows, heh heh]

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on February 5, 2021

psypost.org

Psilocybin, found in magic mushrooms, is considered by people to be less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco, and other substances.
However, the group was recruited among followers of drug-use related websites and social media pages, so it’s not representative of all people.
Those who have used magic mushrooms reported it to be the least dangerous substance compared to prescription painkillers, tobacco, alcohol, cocaine and more.
But the laws show a completely different picture, with psilocybin generally classified as a harmful drug.
New studies show therapeutic benefits, and decriminalization slowly spreads to different countries, lawmakers should realize that psilocybin can be beneficial.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on January 22, 2021

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