Vox, 2019, 6:48… We work in diverse places. We live in segregated ones. America policies engineered our segregated homes. But the workplace? That had the chance of being a place where we interact with people of other races — and form meaningful relationships. These maps show that this hasn't exactly happened. In fact, the most personal parts of our lives is still very segregated.
Quartz, 2018, 5:03… Urban Thinkscape is more than just a playground. It was designed by a team of psychologists and architects to encourage families to play while waiting for the bus. The researchers behind the project argue that play is crucial for early childhood development and that there needs to be more of it built into public spaces — more than a playground for kids. In 2050, 70% of the world’s children will live in cities. If the team can prove Urban Thinkscape’s success, it’s a concept that can be replicated almost anywhere.
PBS NewsHour, 2018, 9:12… Against the backdrop of simmering tensions over race and police violence against African Americans, police departments like the NYPD have introduced a relatively new training program aimed at teaching officers about implicit bias. Special correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports on the research behind “Fair and Impartial Policing” and whether it’s really effective.
PBS NewsHour, 2018, 5:36... The placebo effect influences all types of healing, from yoga to laying of hands to remedies in your doctor's office. While researching his book, “Suggestible You”, on the science of belief, science writer Erik Vance visited healers in the U.S., China and Mexico. He has been blessed, cursed and tortured in countless ways. He joined ScienceScope to journey from Mexico to Maryland to show how these beliefs influence healing.
Vox, 5:39... Chocolate is good for your health, one study concludes. Another study indicates chocolate can be a useful aid to weight-loss. Senior moments? Chocolate may be the answer to your problems. These are just a few of the headlines about chocolate's effect on your health. However, the claims made about chocolate's glorious benefits need to be taken with a grain of salt.
A good example of how important it is to be transparent with our categorical requirements. Much of what we would normally consider "unemployed" is not officially categorized as such in the US, and with the emerging dominance of the "gig economy", underemployed people are even more at risk of becoming invisible in the struggle for fair-paying, secure jobs.
The concepts of nominal age, lunar age, and East Asian age reckoning (Korean Age), and why our constructions of age depend on societal contexts.
Are humans rational thinkers? If so, then why do some people continue to hold false beliefs in the face of overwhelming proof against such beliefs? There’s a high cost to accepting evidence that contradicts our thinking, though this cost is much higher in the political field than in the scientific field. It turns out we all want to preserve our sense of self when presented with challenging information. Furthermore, the modern-day news media exacerbates this problem by frequently airing misinformation from politically-motivated parties. Even if such misinformation is later scrutinized on air, it may have already done irreversible damage since the people who have come to believe it will are now psychologically incentivized to combat countering evidence.
An interesting example of how masculinity and femininity are found in taking selfies. Men look down at the camera (signaling dominance) while women look up to appeal to men. There's a brief discussion of online dating data as well. A downfall of this video is the interpretation based in evolutionary theory, rather than sociology.
I've been looking for a way to incorporate America's Test Kitchen into my classes and believe their equipment reviews are an excellent example of competing sources of knowledge.
From my own experience, every cutting board I've ever owned cracked and warped. Although I must admit I bought these cheap, experience would tell me to purchase the thickest, heaviest board available. My intuition tells me a different truth. If I was interested in purchasing a new cutting board, I would be attracted to the most vibrant colors and the sexiest design. Intuition also tells me that the most expensive board would be the best board. Tradition tells me a different truth as well. I can vaguely remember the cutting board my parent's owned and if I wanted traditional advice, I can call my parents and ask for their suggestion as to the best board. But a scientific approach to "the best cutting board" reveals a different truth than these former sources of knowledge. Gadget Guru Lisa McManus shows us her sample, method, and results from testing a variety of cutting boards, and the winner of this evidence-based approach differs from what my experience, intuition, and tradition would tell me. The best cutting board isn't the heaviest, sexiest, or most expensive, and the video above proves this with empirical data and methodological transparency. Another video that works with these 4 competing sources of truth is their review of collanders.
A hypothesis must be able to be proven wrong in order to be suitable for logical and scientific inquiry. Conspiracy theorists tend to advance non-falsifiable arguments resulting in no amount of evidence being able to sway their (often ridiculous) stance. In the words of Shaquille O'Neal, "I drove from coast to coast and that shit looked flat to me”.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to measure speaking time on screen between male and female characters. Results indicate that men get significantly more lines than women. For example, if looking at just the 2016 Oscar-nominated films, men speak 73% of the time and women 27%. This is similar to the Bechdel-Wallace Test to measure gender bias, which asks three questions: (1) Does the film contain at least two named female characters (2) who talk to each other (3) about something other than a man? Less than 60% of films pass the Bechdel Test.
How accurately is science represented in popular film and television? This short video explores an organization dedicated to providing accurate scientific information to movie makers. While it would be nice if they touched a bit more on social science, we see here issues related to scientific representation and valid facts. There's an excellent bit on implicit biases as well.
A superb video on a controversial study involving gun shot victims in Philadelphia. Is too much medical intervention actually hurting victims' chances of survival and recovery? Researchers want to test this hypothesis by limiting the care given to victims by emergency responders and the issue of informed consent is front and center. As we ask ourselves "is this ethical?", it is important that we not forget the numerous abuses minority populations have suffered in the name of scientific research.
Largely based in the biomedical sciences with some psychology, this is a good video on the reproducibility crisis in modern science. The discussion on the scientific process and the social construction of knowledge is rather insightful and made easy to understand.
Original Video: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365934840/
