critical thinking
6 free cognitive tests to help you know your own mind
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
What lies beneath our irrational decisions
In a new book, an MIT scholar examines how game-theory logic underpins many of our seemingly odd and irrational decisions.
Improve your problem-solving with elastic thinking
Elastic thinking can reveal the assumptions that hamstring our ability to solve seemingly intractable problems.
System 1 vs. System 2 thinking: Why it isn’t strategic to always be rational
People believe that slow and deliberative thinking is inherently superior to fast and intuitive thinking. The truth is more complicated.
Why you should always question your perceptions
“Who ya gonna believe: me or your own eyes?” Until you can assess your perception, the answer should be neither.
People trust AI fake faces more than real ones, study finds
Not only that, but AI learns what type of faces we like.
I no longer grade my students’ work – and I wish I had stopped sooner
I hate grading. I love teaching, though, and giving students feedback is teaching.
Men think they’re brighter than they are and women underestimate their IQ
Psychologist Adrian Furnham has termed this effect the male hubris, female humility problem.
Endurance captain Frank Worsley’s incredible navigation skills
“I watched closely for the sun or stars to appear, to correct my chronometer, on the accuracy of which our lives and the success of the journey would depend.”
Objection: No one can understand what you’re saying
“It’s not a secret that legal language is very hard to understand. It's borderline incomprehensible a lot of the time.”
These are the most international universities in the world in 2022
The ranking is encouragingly diverse, with the top 10 featuring representation from five regions.
Memes as propaganda: 22 devious techniques used to weaponize social media
Memes communicate complex ideas quickly and efficiently, but that’s precisely what makes them so dangerous.
These are the world’s top young universities
Africa has the most universities in the 2022 rankings with over two thirds of the world’s youngest universities.
Three cognitive biases that allow bad ideas to scale
It took a series of ingenious experiments in the 20th century to uncover some of our biggest cognitive biases.
What do students’ beliefs about God have to do with grades and going to college?
Religion fosters traits that are helpful in a school system that relies on authority figures and rewards people who follow the rules.
What is tactical empathy and how can it help in negotiations at work?
And what if both parties are skilled at mirroring each other? Will it produce a stalemate?
Why chess should be required in school
More than a decade ago, Armenia made chess a required subject in school because it teaches kids how to think and cope with failure. The U.S. should follow suit.
Is there such a thing as “Eastern philosophy”?
Non-Western thought is vast and ancient, so why don't some consider it philosophy?
Scientific certainty survival kit: How to push back against skeptics who exploit uncertainty for political gain
When reading critiques that inflate the uncertainty of science, ask these 7 questions.
How to nurture creativity in your kids
A professor of educational psychology explains what and what not to do.
What belongs in the “gray area” between science and pseudoscience?
In determining what qualifies as solid science, controversy is inevitable.
Believe in astrology? You might score high in narcissistic traits
Or you might just be a Leo.
How John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” changed the way we look at art
Released in 1972, "Ways of Seeing" has proven to be as worthy of study as the artistic traditions it investigates.
The philosopher Tarski on truth: “Snow is white” is true only if snow is white
Truth needs us to define the rules, grammar, and criteria for true statements. But can we do this within language itself?
Busting the learning styles myth: Why learning generalists perform best
Learning styles are supposed to help learners take ownership of their education, but research doesn’t back up this well-intentioned myth.
Keeping offended people safe from “harmful” speech threatens intellectual liberalism
The most unpleasant aspect of intellectual liberalism is that when speech causes emotional or mental pain, the offended parties are morally entitled to nothing.
Reciprocal bond: When do we learn to trust others?
We are more likely to agree with someone who also agrees with us. Young children, though, only trust themselves. We have to learn to trust.
Hasty generalization: how to escape your biases and be more rational
We all employ heuristics to help us deal with the world. But when we make a hasty generalization, we risk making a big error in our thinking.
Why philosopher Henri Bergson rejected the word “time”
Our temporal experience of the world is not divided into a series of neat segments, yet that's how we talk about time.