When you put a bunch of live crabs in a bucket, you can witness quite an interesting phenomenon. Some of these crabs can easily escape – but as they attempt to climb out of the bucket, other crabs pull them back down. At first glance, this can seem like cruel and senseless behaviour: rather than…
View Post
There are possibly many ways in which we can define a religious experience. We need to ask ourselves: What features should such an experience exemplify? There is also the issue of trying to ascertain whether a certain experience is pathological in nature. For reasons which will become clear, I will be using the term religious…
View Post
Self-authoring is a writing exercise and psychological tool that helps you make sense of the past, gain a realistic perspective of your present situation, and plan for the future. It’s a way of adding narrative to your life – turning it into a coherent story. Have you ever really sat down and just written in…
View Post
Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are notable for their high levels of gender equality. Researchers from Leeds Beckett University and the University of Missouri have examined whether gender equality in these Nordic countries would change the proportion of women studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at university. The scientists – understandably so – were expecting…
View Post
We would all like to think that when we do something with good intentions and act on those intentions, we are behaving as purely morally upright people. We may believe that we can easily discern when we (or others) act altruistically and when the opposite is true. However, our conflicted and flawed nature means this…
View Post