Apr 11, 20204 min
Risk vs pleasure in a pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic forces us to make an unsavoury calculation that most of us perform without realising. What is a life worth: how...
Mar 7, 20203 min
If you pay people less, they like their job more
Imagine that you’d agreed to take part in an experiment on factors affecting task performance. For the first half-hour, you put twelve...
Mar 25, 20192 min
Why is talking to yourself mad but talking to your computer normal?
The most powerful technique we have for predicting what other objects will do is the invention of minds. We endow those things with...
Mar 2, 20193 min
We care more about one person than a hundred
Giving money to charity makes us feel good. When we decide to give money, the same part of our brain is active which responds when we...
Feb 10, 20192 min
The bigger the crime, the more likely we are to find someone guilty
When we judge somebody, it’s not sufficient for us to know that they’ve caused harm; we also think it’s important to find out whether they...
Jan 10, 20193 min
What are people's biggest regrets in life?
The life not lived can be more vivid than the life we do live. What if I’d married Katie or Suzie instead of Charlotte? What if I’d...
