Very Bad Wizards

Latest Episodes:

Episode 18: "Boy If Life Were Only Like This" (With Joe Henrich) Mar 22, 2013

Show notes

Joe Henrich joins the podcast to tell us that we know nothing about his work and that how we got to teach a class in anything is absolutely amazing. We continue our discussion from Episode 17 about his critique of the social and behavioral sciences in "The Weirdest People in the World" and his work in small scale societies on fairness norms. We also talk about the weird American obsession with happiness, monkeys throwing cucumbers, and why some people reject "hyper-fair" offers of more than the half the pot in the ultimatum games.

Links

"I happen to have Marshall Mcluhan right here." (From Woody Allen's Annie Hall.) Longer HD version here
Joe Henrich UBC.ca | Wikipedia
The Machiguenga [wikipedia.org]
Henrich on Brosnan and DeWaal's capuchin inequity aversion study.
Chicha [wikipedia.org]
How much money would it take for you to kill a puppy? [liveleak.com]
Relevant papers are listed in the notes for Episode 17: Learning About Bushmen from Studying Freshmen?

Special Guest: Joe Henrich.

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Episode 17: Learning about Bushmen by Studying Freshmen? Mar 16, 2013

Show notes

Thousands of studies in psychology rely on data from North American undergraduates. Can we really conclude anything about the "human" mind from such a limited sample-- especially since Westerners are probably more different from the rest of the world's population than any other group? We talk about Joseph Henrich and colleagues' critique of the behavioral sciences in their paper "The WEIRDEST People in the World." David offers a defense of psychology, arguing that it's usually not the goal of lab studies to generalize findings to all humans in the first place. Also, Tamler gives a brief, heartfelt, completely non-awkward rant about monkey torturer Harry Harlow and David defends the practice of electrocuting baby monkeys for no reason.

Links

The Gods Must Be Crazy [IMDB.com]
Bushmen [wikipedia.org]
Homo Economicus [wikipedia.org]
The Ultimatum Game [wikipedia.org]
Müller-Lyer illusion [wikipedia.org]
We aren't the world [psmag.com]
Harlow studies [wikipedia.org]
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010).The weirdest people in the world. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61-83.
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., & McElreath, R. (2001). In search of homo economicus: behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. American Economic Review, 73-78.
Mook, D.G. (1983). In Defense of External Invalidity. American Psychologist, 38,379-387.

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Episode 16: Race, Reparations, and American (In)Justice (with Damani McDole) Mar 02, 2013

Show notes

For those who thought our most uncomfortable topics were behind us, on this episode we are joined by David's childhood friend Damani McDole [facebook.com] to discuss several potentially offensive topics surrounding race and justice in America, such as slavery, reparations, affirmative action, and the use of the N-word. When Damani mounts an economic and moral defense for reparations for the descendants of slaves, David prefers to point to the difficulties in deciding who gets paid ( someone who's 1/16th descended from slaves? Jamaican-Americans? African immigrants?) and who should be responsible for paying (only people whose descendants benefitted from slavery? all non-slave descended taxpayers?). Tamler proposes (taking a note from Lenny Bruce) that if we use the N-word often enough it will lose its sting, and decides to practice what he preaches. And Damani reveals a surprising theory about race and geography (surprising for a Black man, at least) that leaves Tamler awkwardly speechless.

For those who are visually inclined: here's a one-minute set of behind-the-scenes clips from our Google+ Hangout:

Links

Nigger [wikipedia.org]
Leonardo DiCaprio bleeds for his role in Django Unchained [cinemablend.com]
Lenny Bruce- Are there any niggers here tonight? [youtube.com]
60-year old white man slaps Black baby [thesmokinggun.com]
The truth about 40 Acres and a Mule [theroot.com]
The "great migration" of American Blacks out of the South [inmotionaame.org]
1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion [theroot.com]
Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle on Iconoclasts [sundancechannel.com]
Bonus: Dave Chappelle imagines reparations [youtube.com]

Special Guest: Joseph Damani McDole.

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Episode 15: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 1) Feb 16, 2013

Show notes

You don't need to be a psychologist or a philosopher to enjoy a good, old-fashioned bitch-fest. In the first of a two-part episode (no single compact disc, 8-track, or LP could hold all our complaints), Tamler and David list two of the things that bug them about their respective fields. We take issue with bad writing, brain worship, meaningless questions, and psychologists' obsession with the number two. Enjoy and try not to hold it against us.

Links

Simpsons clip on philosophy majors [youtube.com]
Peter Hacker on philosophy [leiterreports.typepad.com]
Business-speak buzzwords [wikipedia.org]
Dual process theory [wikipedia.org]
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman [amazon.com]
Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology [amazon.com]
Gettier Problem [wikipedia.org]
Seduced by the flickering lights of the brain by Paul Bloom [seedmagazine.com]

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Episode 14: Bonus Episode on Snitches, Tattletales, and Whistleblowers Feb 08, 2013

Show notes

In a break from tradition, we recorded a 25-minute episode on the morality of tattletaling, snitching, ratting, and whistleblowing. We discuss why these people seem especially despicable (except for maybe "Bubbles" from "The Wire" and the guy from "The Insider"), and David gets Tamler to agree that he'd never turn him into the police. We also puzzle over the existence of porn theaters, and the origins of the expression "flip a bitch."

Links

Stop Snitchin' campaign [wikipedia.org]
Bubbles (character from "The Wire") [wikipedia.org]
Time Magazine Persons of the Year: Whistleblowers [time.com]
Ingram, G. P., & Bering, J. M. (2010). Children's tattling: The reporting of everyday norm violations in preschool settings. Child development, 81, 945-957.
Obie Trice feat. Akon "Snitch"
"Dry Snitching" [urbandictionary.com]

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Episode 13: Beanballs, Blood Feuds, and Collective Moral Responsibility (With Fiery Cushman) Jan 22, 2013

Show notes

Our classiest episode yet (OK, that's not saying much, but still...)--Psychologist Fiery Cushman joins us for a discussion about collective punishment and collective responsibility. We use Fiery's recent paper on the practice of "beaning" in baseball (punishing one player for a teammate's offense by throwing a 95 MPH fastball at the player's head) to illustrate the phenomenon. Is the "innocent" player being punished because he is somehow morally responsible for his teammate's offense? Or does deserve have nothing to do with it? Also in this episode: listener feedback (sort of, we're just psyched to have a Norwegian stand-up comic as a listener), and Fiery solves the 3,000 year-old problem of moral responsibility just so he can get out of Dave's hotel room.

Links

Fiery Cushman [brown.edu]
Beanball [wikipedia.org]
Hatfield-McCoy Blood Feud [wikipedia.org]
Major League (1989) [imdb.com]
Revenge: A story of hope, by Laura Blumenfeld
Blood Revenge, by Christopher Boehm
"The Two Faces of Revenge: Moral Responsibility and the Culture of Honor." T Sommers.
"John Kruk and Desert." [Flickers of Freedom blog post]

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Episode 12: Justice for #!$@ ? Jan 14, 2013

Show notes

Dave and Tamler square off the role of the victim in criminal punishment and find little to agree about. Tamler defends the restorative justice approach, while Dave expresses skepticism about its value and worries it might even be damaging. Arguments ensue, but be sure to stick around for the third segment as it features an unusually focused and productive discussion--for them anyway.

Also discussed: the best character on "The Wire," the startling specificity of KG's trash-talking, and a listener calls us out on not justifying the meaningfulness of life.

Links

Family Guy- Breaking Bad (and The Wire) [youtube.com]
The Wire- Omar in court [youtube.com]
Restorative Justice [wikipedia.org]
Christie, N. (1977). Conflicts as Property. British Journal of Criminology
Greg Ousley is sorry for killing his parents. Is that enough? [NY Times magazine]
"The Caging of America" by Adam Gopnik. [New Yorker]
"Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?" [NY Times magazine]

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Episode 11: It is Morally Wrong to Kill Morgan Freeman (with Yoel Inbar) Dec 28, 2012

Show notes

Social psychologist Yoel Inbar joins Tamler and David to discuss Clint Eastwood's masterpiece of the Western genre, "Unforgiven." The discussion includes the nature of revenge, the requirements of justice, the rules of nicknaming, and who or what was being referred to as "unforgiven" in the movie's title.

Links

Unforgiven (1992): IMDB, Wikipedia Page

If you haven't seen "Unforgiven," don't worry : Story Spoilers Don't Spoil Stories

Actor Saul Rubinek [wikipedia.org]

Relevant Book about moral character by a couple of great social psychologists: Out of Character: Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us

Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.

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Episode 10: Religion, Meaning, and Morality Dec 11, 2012

Show notes

Does life have meaning if there is no God? Why should I be a good person if there's no reward or punishment waiting for me in the afterlife? Why does religion seem to make people happier and healthier? Dave and Tamler heroically try to answer these questions without being stoned. Other topics include Dave's paralyzing fear of death, bad times on mopeds, and the pros and cons of naming your daughter Chlamydia. They almost get through the episode without having to censor something--but not quite.

Links

Woody Allen's "Love and Death"

Paul Bloom- Does Religion Make You Nice? [Slate.com]

Follow-up reading on religion and health (for the slightly academically inclined)- Powell, L. H., Shahabi, L., & Thoresen, C. E. (2003). Religion and spirituality: Linkages to physical health. American Psychologist, 58, 36.

Pascal's Wager [wikipedia.org]

Albert Camus [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

The Problem of Evil. [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

"Yes but subjectivity is objective."

Collateral

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Episode 9: Social Psychology, Situationism, and Moral Character Dec 03, 2012

Show notes

After discussing some listener feedback about the movie Swingers, Tamler and David talk about two classic experiments in social psychology: the Milgram Experiments and the Zimbardo Prison experiment. They discuss the power of the situation, its influence on recent philosophy, and whether there is room given the evidence to believe in moral character and virtue. Also, Tamler admits to his former struggles with hard core street drugs, and Dave ponders which prison gang would be most accepting if he had to serve hard time.

Links

"Swingers," Directed by Jon Favreau [metacritic.com]

The Milgram Experiment [Wikipedia.org]

Video clip of a replication of the Milgram Experiment [youtube.com]

The Stanford Prison Experiment [Wikipedia.org]

Short video on Stanford Prison Experiment [youtube.com]

Asch Conformity Experiment [youtube.com]

Jon Doris "Lack of Character" [amazon.com]

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