by david allan van nostrand | Jun 26, 2023 | Human Behavior, Psychology, Shaky Science
Personality tests are designed to reveal what’s going on in our subconscious minds, the deep-down place where our emotions and inner conflicts reside. Structured surveys have a list of anywhere from 10 to 600 questions and test takers answer each by choosing...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 19, 2023 | Human Behavior, The world around us
New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova tells us how in 1923, neurologist Sir Francis Walshe noticed some interesting things involving yawns and motor reflexes. They led him to conclude that yawning was an act outside our conscious control, deep down where our lizard brains...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 12, 2023 | Americana, Conformity, Social archaelogy, The Wayback Machine
In Reno, Nevada, just after the Civil War, a man named Jacob Davis made tents and wagon covers from heavy-duty canvas duck cloth. When the biggest silver deposit anyone had ever seen was discovered, thousands of miners came to work the Comstock Lode. These...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 5, 2023 | Case Study, Human Behavior, Items in the News, Unintended Consequences
Bud Light put two marketing executives on leave after someone thought it was a good idea to appeal to a transgender crowd that makes up less than one percent of the population. That promotional campaign backfired with unintended consequences, cutting into sales (-25%)...
