Is there a ‘Retail Apocalypse’ on the horizon? Or have reports of the demise of the brick-and-mortar stores been greatly exaggerated? History suggests reshaping will (continue to) happen, but it won’t be overnight: buff.ly/ZFaNoto

The game of soccer is just one domain governed by rules. Their weakness: inability to handle every possible eventuality. But our own attitude towards rules turns it into a strength. ICYMI, last call for my post, The weakness that strengthens our rules: buff.ly/8FrsvbT

Joy is an experience we share with diverse other animals. Marc Bekoff speaks with Colin Allen, who has been studying joy in non-human animals, about the insights we can gain from animals’ joy: buff.ly/A4iZqCx

There may be good reasons to oppose banning things. But one is almost invariably bad: claiming that doing so will only shift the banned product or service to the black market, as Charles Lehman argues in The Black Markets Fallacy: buff.ly/rKE3sOy

Across cultures, status is a highly prized attribute. But exactly what confers status to individuals, and are these criteria the same for both sexes? Fascinating research by Buss et al examined 14 cultures, from Brazil to Zimbabwe: buff.ly/9WJThZQ

New research suggest that location-aware ads on smart shopping trolleys’ screens can boost sales—not only of the products in promotion, but also of other items in the same category that weren’t advertised at all: buff.ly/fAdE6dK via @psypost.bsky.social

Lovely post by Polemic Paine, in which he describes rediscovering a deep inner drive, common in kids but atrophied in grown-ups, transcending cost-benefit analysis, akin to romantic love—the love of understanding and experimentation, known as curiosity: buff.ly/KtdNJa1

Research by Karadja er al suggests ~70% of Swedes believe they are poorer relative to others than they actually are, underestimating their rank by >10 percentiles; the more educated, cognitively able, and upwardly mobile hold more accurate beliefs: buff.ly/H2F7RFJ

Research suggests the way people gather evidence in order to judge policies differs according to their political leanings— conservatives tend to look for single point data and expert opinion, liberals for comprehensive statistical data: buff.ly/189rIyg Via @psypost.bsky.social

Planet nine—the speculative explanation for anomalies in the Kuiper Belt, home to Pluto and numerous other icy dwarf planets and asteroids—has, so far, never been seen. An obscure, controversial theory may be a better explanation: buff.ly/agKFyt6

What are the evolutionary reasons behind who we choose as (same-sex) friends? Not—as often claimed—present-day usefulness, research suggests; it’s based on traits that would’ve made them a good cooperation partner for our ancestors, writes @maneyakoubian: buff.ly/VzzVhMr

This “Atypically Productive Exchange on the UBI” between @bryan_caplan and an anonymous reader makes me wonder: what would it take to get such numerate anonymous people to get into politics—and make policy for us? buff.ly/iDLeibu

In most places, the non-craft beer market is an oligopoly supplying a mass produced product. Differentiation comes not only from the product, but significantly also from the packaging—eg the 8-pack of ‘ponies’: buff.ly/Dxx10f0

If what we value in creative work is not how closely it approximates perfection, but the idiosyncratic wabi-sabi patterns of imperfection that are uniquely human, AIs will not do. Lovely piece by @nachristakis. I sincerely hope it’s not wishful thinking: buff.ly/qH973ut

Meta‐analysis by Ravid et al of the effects of electronic performance monitoring on work outcomes finds no evidence that it improves worker performance, and suggests the practice is associated with increased worker stress: buff.ly/A3yuR1k

Connie and Neil, Matt Grawitch’s AI sidekicks, explore the ‘stopping problem’ (when to stop looking for that optimal answer or solution), and explain why searching for the best often backfires (stopping at just two essays as source material 😎): buff.ly/suHbDaL

If effort precedes learning, and AI use reduces effort, the intuition is clear. @lirabenjamin et al verified the existence of this intuition, then empirically tested it, and found AI use *can* improve writing skill despite reducing effort: buff.ly/9xn9Gfl HT @dggoldst

FIFA could have simply overruled or cancelled Balogun’s suspension—yet instead invoked an article in their disciplinary code that explicitly gives them the power to do what they want. And that formality is a good thing—here’s why: buff.ly/8FrsvbT

Alexithymia—the difficulty or inability of verbalizing emotions—is not a disorder, argues @john_t_maier; it is a behavioural or even conversational tendency and not "emotion blindness," a "neuropsychological phenomenon," or a "personality trait." buff.ly/SZpteGW

Meet Basileus the Eldest, the oldest living worm known to science: buff.ly/hm3sAQw

Unlike females, male animals tend to want to mate with multiple partners (captured in the ‘Coolidge’ effect), but does that extend to humans? But research suggests that, in certain circumstances, women may exhibit the Coolidge effect too: buff.ly/ZgpNht6

The justification for the lifting of Balogun’s suspension—an obscure article in the FIFA disciplinary code—was transparently a technical catch-all. We know Infantini knows it, and he knows we know he knows it. And still, it’s a good thing. Here’s why: buff.ly/8FrsvbT

Our modern society is much more tolerant of assholes than our ancestral tribes were—but that doesn’t mean we need to be one. @philosophyminis offers advice on how to be not just likeable, but the most likeable person in the room: bigthink.com/mini-philoso...

The first single seater racing car also had another unintentional first (even though it was not remotely functional, nor intended to be). Just the kind of anecdote for Dave Trott to recommend leaving room for happy accidents: buff.ly/wF4rCJY

Death elasticity Research finds the timing of deaths is sensitive to changes in inheritance tax regimes. (Reported timing of death, that is): buff.ly/TcbmzQl

Once upon a time, there was only craftsmanship. Then, division of labour happened, and its efficiency gains led to vast improvement in overall standards of living. Will craftsmanship survive? John Paul Rollert weighs up Adam Smith and William Morris: buff.ly/SNEJu1B

Customer loyalty is a widely used indicator in business, but why do some loyal customers bring much more revenue than others? New research suggests it’s ‘salespersonality’— • quirkiness → + 37.5% • creativity → + 61.4% • bluntness → -40% buff.ly/eBi74xc

“Gamete size constitutes the ultimate criterion for biological sex […] across sexual systems, from separate-sexed species to hermaphrodites, irrespective of variation in karyotype, hormonal profile, somatic phenotype, or behaviour.” buff.ly/I4Meawg

The correlation between different cognitive abilities has given rise to a statistical ‘general intelligence’ factor (g). But new research suggests cognitive abilities fluctuate very differently across human lifespan, challenging the usefulness of g: buff.ly/vs1cW8w

How animals use physics That evolution shaped life according to the laws of physics is unsurprising, but the illustrative power of the outcomes is awesome: buff.ly/sFepShR

“sounds like a melody penned by an angry caveman, […] punishing, chaotic, brutal, aggressive, cacophonous.” Yes, it’s metal music, and it’s good for us: buff.ly/kzvJo0G

Research claiming to have identified four key turning points over a human lifespan where the wiring of the brain us altered is not quite what it seems. Excellent post by @drjenndowd.bsky.social: buff.ly/PgLXD8v

The true story why Michel Foucault has such a downer on psychiatry: buff.ly/A8RdEuT

Research suggests personal values are more stongly predicted by intelligence than by personality, and that higher intelligence is associated with endorsing self-directedness, benevolence, and universalism rather than security, tradition, and conformity: buff.ly/iIiRdJi

Research by @mariusmercier.bsky.social et al suggests people can predict, with broad accuracy, from the (rarity of) conspiracy theories someone endorses/rejects what other conspiracy theories they would endorse/reject, and infer related personality traits: buff.ly/kAkhRl2

The lifting of the suspension of a US player in the US-Belgium game was controversial—but it was within the rules. There’s a good reason why we try so hard to adhere to to rules—even if it’s not always inspired by fair play. More in my latest post: buff.ly/8FrsvbT

It’s hard enough to empathize with our future selves—let alone future *others* we’ll never meet, who only exist in our imagination. We must believe the future exists—like artists whose creations are meant for future people, writes @neuroscienceof.bsky.social: buff.ly/CRTdVXH

Inequality makes us unhappy—but only if we see it as unfair, from our own situation, research by Bohmann & Kalleiter suggests. We tend to find our own income fair, and thinking the rich have too much feels worse than thinking the poor have too little: buff.ly/nC9tUrF

“🎶You’re gonna have to face it you’re addicted to love”, the late Robert Palmer sang. But is that more than poetic licence—can love really be an addiction? Not really—a better lens to view any issues is that of attachment, writes @silvaneves3: buff.ly/Nu7u7OP

How do homing pigeons navigate their way home? The navigational abilities of certain birds have long been clear, unlike the underlying mechanism. New research suggests macrophages—immune cells—in the liver are sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field: buff.ly/D1edJNO

The closing track of Philip Glass’s soundtrack for ‘Mishima: a life in four chapters’, Paul Schrader’s biopic about Yukio Mishima, performed by the Catalyst quartet. Suitable for winding down the week (in my view—your mileage may vary 😎): youtu.be/_4XMeY1RkWQ

CEOs’ pay depends on their personality, new research suggests—based on 200k tweets by 287 S&P500 CEOs’, analysed by IBM’s Watson Personality Insights. Traits Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were most strongly associated with higher pay: buff.ly/kW2zrJR via @psypost.bsky.social

When your ears deceive you, blame your brain. Our auditory sensory perception, like our vision, is constructive—we hear what we expect to hear, especially when a sound is ambiguous, and the brain picks the most plausible option: buff.ly/ADeqZu5

He might have been looking a lot more uncomfortable *without* the cover of Article 27 in the FIFA disciplinary code, which effectively allows them to do what they want. We really dislike being seen to violate rules, and do what we can to avoid doing so: buff.ly/8FrsvbT

Well-connected individuals within social networks are good targets to initiate behavioural interventions—except when they’re not. Research by Hsiao and @nachristakis.bsky.social suggests in networks with few well-connected people, random targets work better: buff.ly/iIdxkeF

“Pastiche” in architecture, meaning ‘being built in a traditional style’—even if it is very accomplished—is pejorative, implying that the buildings in question are somehow fake or inauthentic. @scp-hughes.bsky.social used to accept this, but has changed his mind: buff.ly/hdIhMLk

Research by Stavrova & Ehlebracht suggests that the idea that cynical individuals are more competent, intelligent and experienced than less cynical ones is widespread, but largely illusory:

Recent research suggests people high in psychopathic traits experience the physiological markers normally associated with fear (eg elevated heart rate) as emotionally positive rather than negative arousal: buff.ly/DRFneTa

What is it like to die? The dead cannot report back, but scientists are uncovering more and more about what happens in our brains just before death takes place: buff.ly/hERvFdT

Can you imagine taking a trip through the cosmos in a spaceship accelerating ever closer to the speed of light? Visual artist Alessandro Troussel did, in a cool 15-min video of the mind-bending ride, explaining the weird effects we’d encounter: buff.ly/42okI6L