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Link feast

Our pick of this week’s 10 best psychology and neuroscience links.

11 July 2015

By Christian Jarrett

Our pick of this week’s 10 best psychology and neuroscience links:

The Monster Mind
Enlisting the help of Godzilla and a few of its friends, Jonathan Myers (writing at The Psychologist magazine) considers why we see monsters and what form they take.

Why Can’t We Fall Asleep?
The first in a three-part series from Maria Konnikova at the New Yorker.

The Life Scientific: Dorothy Bishop (audio)
The latest guest in conversation with Jim Al-Khalili was Dorothy Bishop, Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford (and a former guest blogger for the Digest).

No, Psychology Doesn’t ‘Prove’ Your Product Works
Jesse Singal at New York Magazine takes a look at the latest example of a company using supposedly relevant behavioural science to sell their product.

Is Face-ism Spoiling Your Life?
David Robson at BBC Future looks at the assumptions we make about people based on their facial appearance.

Britain: The Psychology of War (audio)
BBC World Service broadcast a debate from the Imperial War Museum: “What drove men to volunteer for the war? What drove them to the edge of sanity when they got there?”

Your Brain Wrinkles Like a Screwed-up Ball of Paper
Aviva Rutkin reports for New Scientist.

Humans Are Nowhere Near As Special As We Like To Think
“Humans have long believed that we are somehow special,” writes Melissa Hogenboom for BBC.com, “But many traits once considered uniquely human are shared with animals.”

Build a Brain
“We could build an artificial brain that believes itself to be conscious” writes Michael Graziano at Aeon. “Does that mean we have solved the hard problem?”

At a Neurological Level, Narcissists Are Needy
Over at New York Magazine, I took a look at new study that suggests narcissists are compensating for a neural deficit.