Why Minds Think Alike
You’re in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others?
Decades of research show people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is objectively incorrect. Now, scientists are supporting those theories with brain images.
A new study in the journal Neuron shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal. A zone of the brain popularly called the “oops area” becomes extra active, while the “reward area” slows down, making us think we are too different.
Participants, all female, had to rate 222 faces based on physical beauty on a scale from 1 to 8. Afterwards, researchers told each participant either that the average score was higher or that it was lower than her rating. Some participants were told the average rating was equal to her rating. The researchers then chatted with the participant before suddenly asking the participant to do the rating again. Most subjects changed their opinion toward the average.
Victorian Freak Shows
Everyone’s a freak. No two bodies are the same; we all have unpleasant, wonderful, shocking and extraordinary features; we are all unique. But for centuries the word ‘freak’ has been used cruelly to describe people born with ‘abnormal’ features, or those able perform extraordinary physical acts by contorting or misshaping their bodies.
Exhibitions of live human curiosities had appeared in travelling fairs, circuses and taverns in England since the 1600s. These included so-called giants, dwarves, fat people, the very thin, conjoined twins and even people from exotic climes. Freak shows were a particularly popular form of entertainment during the Victorian period, when people from all classes flocked to gawp at these unusual examples of human life.
Welcome to this weeks news blast
Welcome to this weeks NEWS BLAST. All the links you send to us that we want to post but just don’t have room to:
This week we learned that physically taking a step back improves your thinking skills.
Researchers are attempting to predict the progress of dementia via spinal cord compounds, and are experimenting with new anti-Alzheimers drugs.
Birds brains have demonstrated signs of self-awareness thought to be restricted to certain mammalian species like ours and an “ingenious” 137-pound orangutan short-circuited an electric fence, built a platform, hopped over the wall surrounding her enclosure all clapped on by a bunch of gorillas.
Derren Brown Twitter fans are up despite 60% of Twitter users quitting within a month and yet the Queen of Jordan and various diplomats are giving it a shot.
Facebook has the thumbs-up from researchers giving a robot its own profile, and Derren Brown facebook fans leaped to over 15,000 in just 3 weeks – thanks to you all for the support – sorry it’s taken us so long to get it on.
We’d like to remind you that whilst recovering from a mild form of parrot flu – Derren personally launched a competition to win some goodies featuring random acts of kindness – despite Coops smashing Derrens laptop in a skateboarding accident.
Good news for art fans as the new DBArt store draws very close, and celebrations will be in place for Derrens manager Michael Vine who has just been made president of the Agents Association. Congratulations Michael from all of us.
Thanks to all of you who submit – send your submissions to us here.
Vintage Magic Posters
Vlad Grigorescu emailed me yesterday (Hi Vlad) and I saw over at his blog (in Romanian) he has set up a great set of vintage magic posters. There are some real classics from the likes of Houdini, Blackstone and Thurston – my favourite is this one (if I can get Coops drunk enough we re-enact it of a Sunday evening.)
Portrait Book here! omgomgomg!!!
Those of you coming to the Grimsby Auditorium tonight will be the first to see the new portrait book, which will be for sale in the foyer. I’m extremely, visibly excited: having painted as a hobby for many years, the idea of having my own published collection is beyond normal elation and makes me feel all warm and wet both inside and out. Whoever gets the first copy tonight, and I do hope it’s one of you bloggers who realises the profundity of his or her action or actions, will be buying the very very first copy ever, and I’m hard pushed to think of anything more feverishly intoxicating than that. Should you do so, be sure to let me know and I shall sign it accordingly and you shall be my special favourite. (I may or may not be at stage door tonight, fingers crossed I will. Best to leave it at stage door with a note before the show to be absolutely safe)
Lucky you lot.
Meanwhile, to cheer up the rest of you not lucky enough to be in Grimsby tonight, here is a brilliant new parody by the excellent team of Peter Serafinowicz and brother James, starring the lully Sarah Alexander. Now I happen to know these people a bit and they really are sensationally wonderful individuals. Have a roam around Pete’s sketches on the site – he is quite incredible.
US Military pours money in to mind reading technology
Forget the battlefield radios, the combat PDAs or even infantry hand signals. When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they’ll read each other’s minds.
At least, that’s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa. The agency’s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.
P.S. Please don’t ask us about ANY mind reading technology or other activities Derren Brown is doing with the MOD as we will not reply.
Past Experience Is Invaluable For Complex Decision Making, Brain Research Shows
Researchers have shown that past experience really does help when we have to make complex decisions based on uncertain or confusing information. They show that learning from experience actually changes the circuitry in our brains so that we can quickly categorise what we are seeing and make a decision or carry out appropriate actions.
Lead researcher, Dr Zoe Kourtzi from the University of Birmingham, said: “What we have found is that learning from past experience actually rewires our brains so that we can categorise the things we are looking at, and respond appropriately to them in any context.
In selecting a course of action that is most likely to be successful, the brain has to interpret and assign meaning to inherently uncertain sensory information – being able to do this is vital for our survival! This ability is especially critical when we are responding and acting in relation to visual stimuli that are highly similar to each other. For example, this is what is happening when you are trying to recognise friends in a crowd or discern a tumour from healthy tissue on a medical scan.
THE ODD SPIRITUALISM OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Sherlock Holmes is renowned for being super-rational. Yet his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, claimed to speak with the spirits of the dead. Andrew Lycett considers this paradox on the eve of the author’s 150th birthday …
Atheists ‘not fully human’ says Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor
Well I’m glad that’s cleared that up – I did always wonder what that downy back hair they all seem to have was!
The Black Death Starring the Lovely Mr Nyman
The movie is called Black death and is the new movie from Chris Smith (Severance). It tells the story of 7 medieval mercenaries who travel to the one village in Britain that is not ravaged by the plague. This thriller stars Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Carice Van Houten, Andy Nyman & John Lynch and will be released next year.
Just look at him (on far left) Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh! So sweet!
Can’t wait to see Andy in another movie, any of you who missed “Dead Set” on Channel 4 should be ashamed and will also get condemnation from the Coops at any stage door fag smoking meet.
Much love
Mr. Coops
