C.V.

Month: November 2011

Why do people pig out on Thanksgiving and then go crazy on Black Friday?

With  Joel Warner (Cross posted on The Humor Code’s Psychology Today blog) With the holidays upon us, we’re taking a break from deconstructing what makes things funny and instead pondering the tradition that is Thanksgiving. We’re not talking about gathering with friends and family to express gratitude for what we have been provided. We’re referring […]

You need lab experiments, not jokes, to explain humor.

With Joel Warner (Cross posted on The Humor Code’s Psychology Today blog) Some of civilization’s great thinkers pondered the meaning of humor long and hard. Thomas Hobbes put forth the idea that humor emerges from superiority or “sudden glory” over an enemy. Immanuel Kant believed humor arose from a process of incongruity in which a […]

Guest Post by Jennifer Jordan: Do you make decisions like a monkey?

Power (or a lack thereof) has pervasive effects on human behavior and thought. We know, for example, that in contrast to the powerless, the powerful are more likely to take action, less likely to empathize with others, and more likely to be goal-directed in their behavior. But power is often not an either-or state. From […]