We’re trying to come to grips with four or five months of unread academic blogs, so instead of fleshed out posts you get link dumps. We, in turn, get the marginal satisfaction of cleaning out dozens of haphazardly saved, unfiled bookmarks. Or as we like to call it, “the highlight of our week.”
* We went back and forth about whether advertising data about the persuasive role of imperfection justifies its own post. The upshot for rhetorical practice is the old rhetorical insight, which goes back at least as far as Vico, that being too polished makes the audience distrust the speaker. The theoretical upshot might be something about how human sensibilities are deeply anti-utopian at just about every register. But that’s pretty thin, so no full post.
* Powerpoint poisons everything, Lincoln at Gettysburg edition.
* Chimps scream for help. They also change their screams based on the amount of danger they’re in and whether a more powerful chimp is around who can help: “This shows there is more flexibility in their vocal communication than previously thought”
* Asking readers to vote on top 10 lists has to be the hackiest way of generating blog traffic known to man or angel. And yet – as Lacan tells us – knowing how a trick works does nothing to undermine its effectiveness. PsyBlog’s got a poll on the 10 most brilliant social psychology studies ever. Sigh.
* Grading with a red marker is our passive-aggressive way to get back at students.
Previously:
* The Lacanian Unconscious Vs. Pop Second-Wave Feminist Psychology That Ruins Peoples Lives
* Anger Helps You Think
* Neural Nets See Things The Way We Do, Vulnerable To Basic Optical Illusion
