Doomers, Suffering, Masochism

Links and recommendations + event at University of Missouri

You can now catch my conversation with journalist Meghan Daum and clinical psychologist Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. on the Open Therapy podcast.

The 3 of us have decided to get together and record biweekly episodes, speaking about psychology, psychoanalysis, current events, and more.

Links for Spotify and Apple Podcast.

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Event at the University of Missouri:

This Thursday (April 9) at 6pm. Details and registration info here.

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Wall Street Journal:

I have a new piece out in the Wall Street Journal about the general public’s understanding of the replication crisis.

Excerpt:

Half of social science studies don’t replicate. That has become one of the most widely cited facts about modern research. It has also become one of the most misunderstood.

“You can’t trust studies,” people say, “because they don’t replicate.” But how do we know they don’t replicate? Because of studies.

The same people who dismiss research often rely on research to justify their doubt.

Read the whole thing here.

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The Psychology of Morality:

My new lecture series “The Psychology of Morality” is now available exclusively at Peterson Academy.

I delivered six lectures in front of a live studio audience that explore the origins of morality. The course examines the distinction between moral philosophy and moral psychology, showing how emotions and intuitions often guide our judgments more than rational principles. It also investigates frameworks such as Haidt’s moral foundations theory and Gray’s moral dyad theory. The series also covers dark personality traits and their relationship with moral behavior, and concludes by examining the relationship between morality and happiness, sex differences in moral judgment, and moral development across the lifespan.

Enroll here for immediate access.

Here’s the trailer:

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Links and recommendations:

• Selection, Not Origin, Drives Immigrant Welfare Use by Daniel Di Martino

• The Many Roots of Our Suffering: Reflections on Robert Trivers (1943–2026) by Steven Pinker

• Robert Trivers (1943–2026) Reflects on His Life and Work by Robert Trivers

• Two Decades in the Swamp by Ilya Shapiro

• Vitamin baby by Darby Saxbe

• Doomers in Love by Mana Afsari

• Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories

• You can follow me on TikTok here

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Three interesting findings:

1. Liberal teen girls are the heaviest users of social media: 31% say they spend more than five hours a day on these platforms, compared to 22% of conservative girls, 18% of liberal boys, and 13% of conservative boys. (source: Girls by Freya India).

2. Height is 90% heritable. But it is still malleable. Before Korea was divided, Northerners were taller than Southerners. Today, North Koreans are 6 centimeters shorter, on average, than South Koreans. Did their genes change? No. Their environments did. (source).

3. “Masochism” is named after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose novels explored pleasure in pain and submission. When psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing coined the term in 1890, Sacher-Masoch found it deeply humiliating, which presumably only made the whole thing more exciting for him.

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The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available.

If you have gained any value from this newsletter and want to support my work, please buy a copy today. For yourself. For a friend or a loved one. If you can’t afford it, please support your local library.

Order your copy now:

Amazon (US)

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Bookshop

Amazon (UK)

Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)

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