Did Trump demand a quid pro quo? Harvard cognitive psychologist weighs in.

Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker reminds us that innuendo and euphemism yield better quid pro quo results than an "or else" ultimatum.

(Photo: The White House/Flickr)
  • Lawmakers and pundits disagree over whether President Trump proposed a quid pro quo arrangement with Ukrainian President Zelensky.
  • In a recent op-ed, Steven Pinker reminds us that even simple requests often beat around the euphemistic bush.
  • But accepting the common sense reading is only the beginning of its legal analysis.
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How we view our environment impacts our wellbeing, says Australian philosopher

In his book, Earth Emotions, Glenn Albrecht coins "psychoterratic."

Photo credit: Frédéric Soltan / Corbis via Getty Images
  • Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht has written the manual for understanding how societies must grapple with climate change.
  • Language not only reflects reality but produces it, prompting Albrecht to coin several new words.
  • Among them is psychoterratic, which relates to how our view of nature impacts our wellbeing.
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Want to seem more authentic? Use politically incorrect language.

Politically incorrect speakers seem less calculated and more "real," according to the authors of a new Berkeley study.

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  • The study involved nearly 5,000 participants across nine experiments, which found that both liberals and conservatives viewed politically incorrect speakers as more authentic.
  • The results also suggest that political incorrectness can offend liberals and conservatives — it just depends on the issue.
  • About 80 percent of Americans believe political correctness is a problem in the U.S., according to a 2018 study.
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Children with an older brother have poorer language skills than those with a big sister

Girls tend to have more advanced language skills than boys, the researchers state.

The role of birth order in shaping who we are has been a matter of some debate in psychology.

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Why Slavoj Zizek thinks political correctness is dumb

Zizek is on the left and dislikes political correctness. How does that work out?

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  • Slavoj Zizek is a well-known opponent of political correctness and has often critiqued the concept.
  • He doesn't suggest anybody should go around uttering slurs for the sake of it though.
  • His stance led him to agree with Jordan Peterson at their famed debate.
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