Brain Buys
Page 27
35 Seligman, 1971; Mineka and Zinbarg, 2006.
36 Machiavelli, 1532/1910.
37 Gore, 2007.
38 Gore, 2004.
39 Wise, 2008.
40 LeDoux, 1996, p. 303.
41 Slovic, 1987; Glassner, 1999.
42 Enserink, 2008. See also S. Shane, “F.B.I., laying out evidence, closes anthrax letters case,” The New York Times, February 20, 2010. Bruce Ivins, the primary suspect, committed suicide shortly before the FBI officially charged him.
43 F. Zakaria, “America needs a war president,” Newsweek, July 21, 2008.
44 Preston, 1998; Gladwell, 2001.
45 The GAO reports that the total Department of Defense budget was $760 billion, and that the Department of Homeland Security had a budget of $60 billion in 2008 (http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2008/08stmt.pdf). See also T. Shanker and C. Drew, “Pentagon faces intensifying pressures to trim budget,” The New York Times, July 22, 2010, and http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1941.
46 http://report.nih.gov/rcdc/categories.
47 A valid counterargument is, of course, that the United States’ military spending functions as a deterrent and that we have had so few attacks on American soil precisely because of our military might. This argument, however, does not seem to hold, as the number of casualties as a result of international war or terrorism of both our neighbors Mexico and Canada, on their respective soil, has also been very low over the past 100 years, despite the fact that their military budgets are a small fraction of that of the United States’.
48 Glassner, 2004.
CHAPTER 6: UNREASONABLE REASONING
1 Hellman, 2001, p. 37.
2 The following references provide excellent discussions of the history of puerperal fever: Weissmann, 1997; Hellman, 2001.
3 Kingdom et al., 2007.
4 Bornstein, 1989.
5 Cognitive biases have been reviewed in a number of popular science books (Piattelli-Palmarini, 1994; Ariely, 2008; Brafman and Brafman, 2008; Thaler and Sunstein, 2008) and some more technical accounts (Johnson-Laird, 1983; Gilovich et al., 2002; Gigerenzer, 2008).
6 Tversky and Kahneman, 1981.
7 De Martino et al., 2006. Note that this example of framing is also an example of loss aversion.
8 Tversky and Kahneman, 1981.
9 Kahneman et al., 1991. Although not enough studies have been performed to determine whether people spend more when paying by credit card versus cash (Prelec and Simester, 2000; Hafalir and Loewenstein, 2010), it is possible that any trend to spend more when paying with a credit card could tap into loss aversion: when we pay with cash we materially give up something of value that was in our possession, whereas the physical credit card remains in our possession.
10 Tversky and Kahneman, 1974. Anchoring bias holds even when the anchors represent the same physical quantity. For instance, in another study one group of subjects was asked if they thought the length of an airport runway was shorter or longer than 7.3 km, while another group was asked if they thought the same runway was shorter or longer than 7300 m; both groups were next asked how much they thought an air-conditioned bus cost. The estimates of the first group were significantly lower than that of the second (Wong and Kwong, 2000).
11 At the time of the study Brad Pitt was 45 and Joseph Biden was 66. Unpaired t-test value for Joe Biden’s age: t24 = 2.71, p = .009 (a significant value also after correction for multiple comparisons). For Brad Pitt’s age: t24 = 1.06, p = .29.
12 D. Wilson, “Ex-smoker wins against Philip Morris,” The New York Times, November 20, 2009 (http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435734408).
13 Chapman and Bornstein, 1996; Kristensen and Garling, 1996.
14 Kahneman et al., 1991.
15 Knutson et al., 2008.
16 Brafman and Brafman, 2008.
17 Tom et al., 2007.
18 The perceived value of money, or its utility, is also less than linear: the difference between $10 and $20 seems to be much more than the difference between $1010 and $1020. But in terms of its actual value, the services and goods it can acquire, it is a linear resource.
19 Tversky and Kahneman, 1983.
20 Tversky and Kahneman, 1983.
21 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98016313.
22 J. Tierney, “Behind Monty Hall’s doors: Puzzle, debate, and answer?” The New York Times, July 21, 1991.
23 Cosmides and Tooby, 1996; Pinker, 1997; Gigerenzer, 2000.
24 Pinker, 1997.
25 The responses of physicians to this type of problem was examined in Casscells et al. (1978), and the effects of how the problem is posed (in terms of probability or frequencies) is examined in Cosmides and Tooby (1996). The example I present is from Gigerenzer (2008).
26 Gilbert et al., 2001.
27 Kahneman, 2002; Sloman, 2002; Morewedge and Kahneman, 2010.
28 Gladwell, 2005.
29 Kahneman, 2002.
30 Gigerenzer, 2008.
31 De Martino et al., 2006; Tom et al., 2007; Knutson et al., 2008.
32 Sloman, 2002.
33 Wilkowski et al., 2009.
34 Gibbons, 2009. For an example in which the unconscious presentation of happy or sad faces alters the judgment of pictures see Winkielman et al., 1997.
35 Discussions of whether the anchoring effect is a result of number priming can be found in Wong and Kwong (2000); Chapman and Johnson (2002); Carroll et al. (2009).
36 Nieder et al., 2002; Nieder and Merten, 2007.
37 Gilbert and Wiesel, 1990; Lewicki and Arthur, 1996; Gilbert et al., 2001; Sadagopan and Wang, 2009.
38 Slovic et al., 2002.
CHAPTER 7: THE ADVERTISING BUG
1 E. J. Epstein, “Have you ever tried to sell a diamond?” The Atlantic Monthly, February 1982.
2 Ibid.
3 Bernays, 1928.
4 BBC made an excellent documentary on Edward Bernays: The Century of the Self (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/
century_of_the_self.shtml.
5 Gleick, 2010. For a video of taste tests of bottle versus tap water see the informal study conducted by Penn and Teller (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc.
6 Proctor, 2001.
7 Gilbert, 2007.
8 Lindstrom, 2008.
9 In reality these experiments are generally performed by giving rats a preference between the same rat chow but differentially flavored, often with chocolate or cinnamon (Galef and Wigmore, 1983). This form of learning is mediated by the smell of food on the breath of other individuals.
10 For reports of the Japanese monkeys and sweet potatoes see Kawamura (1959) and Matsuzawa and McGrew (2008). For other descriptions of imitative learning in primates see Tomasello et al. (1993); Whiten et al. (1996); Ferrari et al. (2006); Whiten et al. (2007). For discussion of some of the controversies regarding the Koshima monkeys see Boesch and Tomasello (1998) and De Waal (2001).
11 Coussi-Korbel and Fragaszy, 1995; Kavaliers et al., 2005; Clipperton et al., 2008.
12 De Waal, 2005.
13 Deaner et al., 2005; Klein et al., 2008.
14 Rizzolatti and Craighero, 2004; Iacoboni, 2008.
15 Henrich and McElreath, 2003; Losin et al., 2009.
16 Provine, 1986; Chartrand and Bargh, 1999.
17 Stuart et al., 1987; Till and Priluck, 2000; Till et al., 2008.
18 The extent to which marketing exploits classical conditioning (part of the nondeclarative memory system), or the associations formed in semantic memory (the declarative memory system), or some combination of these systems is arguable. Thus, I will focus on the importance of associations in general.
19 The New York Times, April 1, 1929, p. 1.
20 The pen color preference as a function of music exposure was performed by Gorn, 1982. For another study showing how music shapes brand preference see Redker and Gibson, 2009.
21 O’Doherty et al., 2006.
22 Smeets and Barnes-Holmes, 200
3. After tasting the lemonade they chose to try first, they tried the “other” lemonade. After trying both lemonades, 90 percent of the children reported liking the first one more. The teddy bear and crying baby pictures were meant to represent a positive and negative stimulus, but the children where also asked which picture they liked more. Nine of the 32 liked the crying baby picture more and, of those 9, all picked the lemonade indirectly associated with the crying baby picture. See Colwill and Rescorla (1988) for examples of other transfer experiments that have been performed in rats and Bray et al. (2008) for those in humans.
23 Richardson et al., 1994.
24 The statements regarding the influence of packages on the perceived quality of products come from three books: Hine, 1995; Gladwell, 2005; Lindstrom, 2008. It should be pointed out, however, that in most cases these stories seem to have been transmitted by word of mouth from marketers to different authors. I have not found the published reports with the raw data and statistical analyses of these studies. I suspect some may be exaggerated and apocryphal, nevertheless, I am convinced that the spirit of these stories is entirely accurate. Regarding the Coke and Pepsi taste tests, raw data are also hard to come by. The studies that are often discussed come from blind taste tests performed by Pepsi in the 1980s, but two recent papers that have used blind taste tests of Coke and Pepsi include McClure et al. (2004) and Koenigs and Tranel (2008). These studies revealed a very slight preference for Pepsi in blind taste tests, and a very slight preference for Coke in nonblind tests. These experiments, however, included fewer than 20 subjects, which is a very small sample size for human studies examining subjective taste preferences.
25 The study I describe was performed by Plassmann et al. (2008). For an additional study on the influence of the putative price and country of origin on wine ratings see Veale and Quester (2009).
26 Ariely, 2008.
27 Simonson, 1989. See also Hedgcock et al. (2009).
28 This anecdote, attributed to Amos Tversky, is conveyed in Ariely (2008) and Poundstone (2010).
29 There are many different models that relate the “behavior” of neurons to behavioral decisions. But most of them, to one degree or another, rely on contrasting the firing rate of different neurons, or determining which population reaches a predetermined threshold first (Gold and Shadlen, 2007; Ratcliff and McKoon, 2008).
30 The combined “value” or “fitness” of the option is a function of the distance of the option from the origin of the coordinate system, which corresponds to the vector length.
31 S. Keshaw, “How your menu is trying to read you,” Las Vegas Sun, December 26, 2009.
32 Fugh-Berman and Ahari, 2007. See also S. Saul, “Gimme an Rx! Cheerleaders Pep Up Drug Sales,” The New York Times, November 28, 2005. I did not discuss why person-to-person marketing is effective. But in contrast to standard marketing techniques it is likely to tap into our innate tendency to express reciprocity, that is, to essentially “return the favor.”
33 In his book Mein Kampf Hitler details many of the propaganda methods he later used to obtain and remain in power (Hitler, 1927/1999). The Web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has samples of posters and newspaper articles of Nazi propaganda (http://www.ushmm.org).
CHAPTER 8: THE SUPERNATURAL BUG
1 For information about Robyn Twitchell’s case see David Margolick, “In child deaths, a test for Christian Science,” The New York Times, August 6, 1990; and Justice Lawrence Shubow’s Report on Inquest Relating to the Death of Robyn Twitchell, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, District Court, December 18, 1987:17, 26–28. In 2010 some Christian Science leaders seem to favor allowing church members to seek traditional medical treatment together with faith healing (P. Vitello, “Christian Science Church seeks truce with modern medicine,” The New York Times, March 23, 2010.
2 Asser and Swan, 1998.
3 Hood, 2008.
4 Dennett, 2006.
5 N. D. Kristof, “The Pope and AIDS,” The New York Times, May 8, 2005; L. Rohter, “As Pope heads to Brazil, abortion debate heats up,” The New York Times, May 9, 2007. In Rohter’s article, in regard to condom use—which saves lives by preventing sexually transmitted diseases—one Brazilian Cardinal stated: “This is inducing everyone into promiscuity. This is not respect for life or for real love. It’s like turning man into an animal.”
6 Dawkins, 2003; Harris, 2004; Dawkins, 2006; Harris, 2006; Hitchens, 2007.
7 Asser and Swan, 1998. See also Sinal et al. (2008) and http://www.childrenshealthcare.org (last accessed November 18, 2010).
8 Boyer, 2001; Dawkins, 2006; Dennett, 2006.
9 Boyer, 2008.
10 Darwin, 1871, p. 98. No doubt, a hyperactive agency detection system is why my dog appears convinced the dryer is out to get him, and insists on defending his territory by peeing in front of it.
11 Boyer, 2001; Boyer, 2008.
12 Dawkins, 2006, p. 174.
13 Bering and Bjorklund, 2004; Bering et al., 2005.
14 Bloom, 2007.
15 Wilson, 1998.
16 Wilson, 2002. See also Johnson et al. (2003).
17 For a discussion on the role of warfare on the evolution of religion see Wade (2009).
18 Sobel and Bettles, 2000.
19 Wilson, 2002, p. 134.
20 It should be stressed that it has also been argued that cooperation may have emerged through more conventional selective mechanisms. Cooperation is observed throughout the animal kingdom, whether in the form of hunting among social animals or sharing of food. It is believed that food sharing, for example, is predicated on the notion of reciprocity; that is, throughout the life of the individual, she will be both on the receiving and giving ends. Thus, “altruism” is actually a form of insurance against future hard times. The challenge is to explain cooperation under circumstances in which there appears to be little chance or no expectation of reciprocity (Johnson et al., 2003; Boyd, 2006).
21 Although group selection has in the past been regarded as unlikely to be a significant force in evolution, group selection is currently undergoing a resurgence (Wilson and Wilson, 2007).
22 Dawkins, 2006.
23 “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
24 Hitchens, 2007.
25 Borg et al., 2003.
26 For a review of some of these studies see Previc (2006).
27 Ogata and Miyakawa (1998) reported that a minority of people with temporal-lobe epilepsy undergo religious experiences during their “seizures.” See also Landtblom (2006). Persinger and colleagues performed a number of studies suggesting transcranial magnetic stimulation of the right hemisphere produces a “sensed presence” (Hill and Persinger, 2003; Pierre and Persinger, 2006). However, others dispute these conclusions (Granqvist et al., 2005).
28 This study was performed by Urgesi et al. (2010). The authors controlled for the possibility that a normal response to brain surgery was an increase in spirituality by showing that the self-transcendence scores did not change in patients who underwent operations for meningiomas, who generally do not remove neural tissue.
29 Harris et al., 2009.
30 Julian Linhares, Interview with Archbishop Dom José Cardoso Sobrinho, Veja, March 18, 2009.
31 I base this statement on the fact that the nine-year-old girl suffered not only in the hands of the rapist but as a result of the public ordeal that ensued. In contrast neuroscience tells us that a 15-week-old fetus cannot suffer because it lacks (among many other critical parts of the brain) the wiring that connects the body to the structure that will become a functional cortex (Lee et al., 2005).
32 Gould, 1999.
CHAPTER 9: DEBUGGING
1 Pais, 2000.
2 Although a few reports have suggested the presence of a few abnormal features (Diamond et al., 1985; Witelson et al., 1999), many believe they are within normal range, given the natural variability of human neuroanatomy (Kant
ha, 1992; Galaburda, 1999; Colombo et al., 2006). Brains are complex and variable. In the same fashion that every face is unique, with enough searching, one could find something unique about anyone’s brain. But that is the nature of biological variability; one cannot point to a unique neuroanatomical feature and claim that it is the cause of a unique personality trait.
3 Planck, 1968.
4 The 2004 report of the National Academy of Sciences provides a detailed review of the studies on autism and vaccines: Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism (http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10997). See also Spector (2009). Investigations into the original paper later revealed the data was faked (Deer, 2011).
5 Levy et al., 2009.
6 Wolfe and Sharp, 2002.
7 Churchill, Speech to the House of Commons, 11 November 1945, The Official Report, Commons, 5th Ser., vol. 444, cols. 206–207.
8 Kalichman, 2009.
9 I’d like to thank Chris Williams for pointing out this to me.
10 Nils et al., 2009.
11 Miles et al., 2010. For a related study see Ackerman et al. (2010).
12 In the Language of the Aymara, natives of Bolivia, language and gestures reveal that the future is represented as being behind them (Núñez and Sweetser, 2006).
13 Camerer et al., 2003; Loewenstein et al., 2007; Thaler and Sunstein, 2008.
14 Madrian and Shea, 2001; Camerer et al., 2003. Other studies have shown that plans in which the default option slowly increases the percentage rate of contribution further enhance retirement savings (Thaler and Benartzi, 2004; Benartzi and Thaler, 2007). For a classic example of the default bias in a study of automobile insurance see Johnson et al. (1993).
15 These and other suggestions are discussed in Camerer et al. (2003); Loewenstein et al. (2007); Thaler and Sunstein (2008).
16 Cialdini, 2003; Griskevicius et al., 2008.
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