Why do we confess when we feel bad about something we’ve done or haven’t done? What is the evolutionary benefit of confession? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke explore the psychology of confession.
Art Markman
V&B – Choice
In this special live Views & Brews edition of Two Guys On Your Head, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke in a discussion about the psychology of choice and decision making.
Choice
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the illusions that we have around the choices we make; number one being that we have actual choices to make.
Holiday Special
Join us for a holiday special as Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke take us through questions about the link between freewill and gratitude, why we feel so compelled to recreate traditions exactly as we remember them, and why yawning is contagious. Plus, we’ll take a trip to The Thinkery with Dr. Cristine Legare.
It’s the holidays so let’s celebrate with Two Guys on Your Head!
Why We Laugh At Fear
Why we respond to uncomfortable situations with humor, in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, with Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke.
The Psychology of Happiness
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about what goes into our ability to naturally be happy, and how we can influence our perspective to feel more positive.
How We Learn Language
How we learn language as infants and what that process can teach us about learning new languages later in life in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head with Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke.
Constructing Memory
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke explore the many aspects of how we construct memories in bits and pieces, as well as how memories function and help our species evolve.
Celebration
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head Dr. Art Markman and Dr.Bob Duke discuss the evolutionary reasons behind the importance of celebration, gratitude, and achievement.
Do We Need Greed?
In this episode of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke look at how we have evolved to engage in greedy behaviors but maybe for the wrong reasons, and why it’s not necessarily natural for us to be greedy as a species.
Belief
How we develop beliefs and why it’s so hard for us to give them up in this edition of Two Guys on Your Head with Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke.
How To Deal With Difficult People
We discuss some healthy, productive strategies that can help us best deal with the jerks in our life in this episode of Two Guys on Your Head with Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke.
Influence
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about the way we influence, and are influenced by, people in our lives, and why it’s so powerful.
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was born in 1896 in Switzerland, and he died in 1980. His background was in biology and he became especially fascinated with studying the psychological development of children. Piaget was a transformational researcher in the field of child developmental psychology. In fact, he is still, to this day, the most cited psychologist in the field.
What exactly did Piaget do? How did he change our understanding of human brain development from infancy to adulthood? In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about Jean Piaget and his impact on the field of cognitive psychology.
Senses and Perception
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke explore how our senses work together to perceive the world around us.
How Does Psychological Distance Effect Us?
The idea of distance conjures up many images in our minds. We might be thinking of how wonderful it will be when we are retired and have time to spend with our loved ones, do some traveling, or play 18 holes of golf on a weekday. Or perhaps when we think of distance, we think of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how far away the conflicts are from us.
For Art Markman and Robert Duke, how we process distance is particularly important, because it clues researchers in to how we think and make decisions as a result of distance.
Theory of Mind
Who knows what? Essentially, this is the basis of the complex concept of Theory of Mind, which is very misleadingly labeled. No, it’s not a theory that explains how mind works, as you might assume by the term, Theory of Mind. It’s a process within our minds that allows us to separate and distinguish between what we know ourselves and what we know that other people know, or don’t know. It’s a skill that is critical for accomplishing effective social interaction in the world. A better term might be Theory of Other’s Minds.
Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke do a wonderful job of explaining and dissecting this important skill in this week’s episode of Two Guys on Your Head. Have a listen and get smarter.
Online Dating
In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke take us through the ins-and-outs of dating.
Mental Illness From Outside
A talk about why it can be so hard to live with mental illness, as a sufferer and as a caregiver with Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke.
The Persistence of False Beliefs
Our world these days is heavily laden with a constant flow of information moving through our minds. It’s unavoidable. How do we determine what of that steady information stream we will choose to believe? Once we’ve made that choice, what if we later find out that the information was false? How do we shed false beliefs? It’s a very biologically expensive thing to demand from our brains to change our beliefs.
On this week’s show, the good doctors, Art Markman and Bob Duke, discuss with Rebecca and analyze the process of belief formation and why our false beliefs are so persistently insistent that we reconsider them. In short form, our beliefs inherently require a certain amount of faith in the validity of the evidence that we recognize as support for those beliefs. An idea creates an imprint in our minds of the thought patterns that we use to justify our commitment to accepting a belief as true or false, whatever the case may be.
If we learn information later that challenges the validity of our belief, or if we downright learn that the belief was, in fact, false, we are then required to use our biological energy to create a new thought pattern imprint over the old one. It’s energy expensive.
The easiest way to view the world and the variety of differing beliefs or opinions in it is to identify ourselves with the people who share our beliefs. We tend to divide the world into two categories – 1) the people who share our beliefs, and 2) the idiots. While this may conserve energy, which it does (and we are instinctively programmed to conserve our energy,) the more energy expensive option of considering and learning to appreciate differing beliefs or opinions is more socially appropriate. You’ll have more friends if you are open to accepting differing beliefs, essentially.
Our current and rapidly developing technology-loaded existence can be very isolating. Society, these days, doesn’t require much confrontation with differing beliefs that will challenge our own, so we have to manually inject such exposure into our lives. In the non-stop stream of constant information flowing, try examining something outside your usual path. If you identify as a Democrat, watch Fox News. If you’re a Republican, watch the Colbert Report. You might find something interesting.