Us and Them: The Blog

Sports are to good character as fish are to elevator repair

There is race, religion, nation, culture, ideology -- all of these categories can serve as the basis for unreasoning hatred and violence toward the ``wrong'' people. Organized sports, on the other hand, are supposed to be good for us all, promoting good character in individuals and peaceful comity in society. It's costly nonsense. Sports passions can have the same hateful effect as those of nation, religion or faction. That was true long ago. And in living memory. And the day before yesterday.

Why solidarity is good for people (and privilege is bad)

Societies with wide income differences between the richest and the poorest have higher death rates. This has been shown in a number of studies of wealthy societies. A new paper in the British Medical Journal suggests it's true worldwide.

A landmark of sorts

An archaeological discovery: one of the Western World's first gunshot victims.

Innateness weirdness

Two new studies published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ingeniously add to the evidence that the mind has built-in proclivities about where to put its attention. The first found that people are more attentive to movements by animals than by cars and trucks. Even people who grew up around vehicles, in urban environments, were more likely to notice an animal's roadside movement than a car's. In the second, people's decisions about another person were affected by what others said -- even when the ``gossip'' added nothing to what they already knew.

The transforming power of identity

The French call it ``deformation professionelle.'' If you want to be a member in good standing of a certain group, you train yourself to be like members, not like a civilian. Here's an example of recent research on the phenomenon in doctors.