Why We Do What We Do
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Why We Do What We Do
We explain popular and weird, little-known ideas in psychology. Whether you are a little curious about psychology, or a student, or even a professional, we have something for everyone.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
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Mini: No Homework
There have been some advocates to reduce or eliminate homework altogether. It begs the question of what is the purpose of homework anyway? What would...
Functional Analysis pt. 4
In the fourth and final installment of our series on Functional Analyses, we finally discuss some of the controversies and disagreements among practit...
The Weirdest Thing We Believe
In a totally unscripted, candid conversation, we ask one another: what is the weirdest thing you believe? It's a conversation bound to leave you a lit...
Functional Analysis pt. 3
This is the third installment in what will turn out to be a four-part series on the functional anlaysis technology employed by behavior analysts to id...
Midlife Crisis
Are you already skeptical? Do you think you know? Are you a true believer? We take a scientific lens to the idea of the midlife crisis. Consider that...
Functional Analysis pt. 2
In our ongoing discussion about the tool used to determine why we do what we do, the functional analysis, we explore more about the various research i...
Mini: One Hit Wonders
What are one-hit wonders? Why do one-hit wonders happen? Is this a real thing? What about no-hit wonders? We'll get into some of the reasons and misco...
Functional Analysis pt. 1
Experimental Functional Analyses (FAs) are one of the most foundational practices in contemporary behavior analysis. It emerged as a more conceptual e...
Mini: Animal Chiropractic
We did a full episode on chiropractic, but we didn't get into the application for animals. Given the questionable nature of chiropractic in the first...
Birding!
Tens of millions of people in the United States and likely hundreds of millions around the world have a shared interest in our avian friends. Birding...
Mini: What is the Point of Science?
It seems like an obvious answer to a silly question. But try to answer it and you find it can kind of spiral into more difficult conundrums. This does...
Nostalgia: Altruism
An all truism about altruism. We are reflecting on this earlier episode with a more nuanced view than the first time around. When it comes to matters...
Mini: How Many Senses Do We Have?
How many senses do we have? Like so many things, it depends entirely on how you define "senses." If the question is how many distinct things can we se...
American Sign Language pt. 2
In this discussion, we get into the grammar and structure of ASL. We also talk about non-manual markers and their importance in communication for ASL...
Mini: Iran Deal pt. 2
In our strange decision to record a two-part mini, we are following up last week's mini with more information about the recent Iran "deal." Of course,...
American Sign Language pt. 1
There are an estimated 70 million deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing impaired people in world. Given that language globably developed through auditory...
Mini: Iran, Deal? pt. 1
Every once in a while, something so monumental happens, we decide to release a topical episode rather than a timeless one. The recent Memorandum of Un...
AAVE pt. 2
This follow-up discussion gets into the grammar mechanics and and cultural, structural aspects of AAVE. We add our own interpretation and philosophica...
Mini: Autistic Pets
With the increased awareness of neurodivergence in humans, we find many people turning to one of our favorite pasttimes: superimposing human emotions...
AAVE pt. 1
AAVE is a dialect of English that is often derided by racists. However, linguists have shown that this is a fully realized dialect like any dialect of...
Mini: Feedback for Grant Reform
Last week, we released an episode dsicussing the rise of authoritarian takeover of science by controlling what science can be conducted and how it can...
How to Kill Science
How to kill science is also how to kill humans. The incompetent "leadership" in the United States is racing toward dictatorship in their desire to kil...
Mini: Mosh Pits
Mosh pits are the rough-house style dancing/bopping that people do at music concerts. But where and why did this start? And why are they called mosh p...
Faith Healing
Professional magicians tell you that they are tricking you for entertainment. Charlatan, con artist magicians tell you that they are performing real m...
Mini: Three-Card Monte
This old sleight of hand card trick is designed to steal your money. Be warned, you cannot win this game. It is rigged and 100% unwinable. We explain...
Nostalgia: Speed Reading
Years ago, we looked into the research on speed reading. What we found raised difficult questions about how viable this strategy really is. As we revi...
Mini: Car-Sick
Sometimes we get nauseaus when riding around in or on vehicles. What is going on with this? We explore motion sickness and what you can do about it......
Antimetabole and Chiasmus
There is a form of rhetoric that is suprrisingly effective at persuading people to adopt beliefs regardless of their accuracy. These are called "antim...
Mini: Evidence of Bigfoot?
In several interviews, Jane Goodall explained why she believed there was evidence of Bigfoot. While she was a wonderful natural scientist, a good scie...
English Accents
Why do American and UK Accents sound so dissimilar? Could a couple hundred years of infrequent communciation result in that much drift? Did the Americ...
Mini: Designer Genes
There are pros and cons to the trajectory of genetic engineering research. Eventually, we will be confronted by a systemic drive to apply these interv...
Billboard Hot 100
This fascinating and yet entirely expected piece of Americana has shaped the music industry for better or worse (probably worse). But, why does it exi...
Mini: Suicide Hotline (988)
Recent research has evaluated the effect of changes made to the national suicide hotline in 2022 in the US. Scientists analyzed the success of this pr...
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy pt. 2
In the last discussion, we covered the history of CBT and the cognitive aspects of the intervention. In this segment, we'll review the behavioral comp...
Mini: Stroop Test
In 1935 John Ridley Stroop published an article with a new experiment showing that people struggle to name things when there is a conflicting word cor...
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy pt. 1
The most well-recognized psychotherapy in the world is also the most widely researched. You've likely heard that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is...
Mini: My, What Big Holes You Have
This ambiguously titled discussion is about the practice of stretching piercings to become large holes. We talk about the history of this practice, ho...
Dr. Kevorkian
Dr. Kevorkian was a controversial figure in the 1990s when he began providing unsanctioned assisted suicide service to terminally-ill patients. Kevork...
Mini: Repeatedly Incorrect
Have you ever noticed that you always make the same typo when writing? Or, that you repeatedly misspeak some phrase or mispronounce some word when tal...
Interbehaviorism
Nearly a century ago, a groundbreaking philosopher of psychology was way ahead of his time. J.R. Kantor developed a theory of psychology that finally...