Whenever I finish a talk, I can always guarantee that at least one person in the audience will raise their hand and say ‘That’s fine, but do you know how to hypnotise animals?’
Thought experiment…..
Imagine that you have an 18 year old teenage son (if you do actually have one, this won’t be especially hard) and he stole a bottle of water from a shop during the riots. You know that if you take him to the police he will be charged and convicted. There is no way that the police will find out about his behaviour unless you take him in.
Would you take him to the police? Vote now!
The Power of Puppies
According to the Metro, lots of people will be feeling down today because it is their first day back at work after the Christmas and New Year break. Always one to try and lend a helping hand, I have come up with an idea.
Car Illusion
The success of the Colour Changing Card Trick means that lots of people email me other illusion-based videos. This one came in a few days ago and I rather like it.
Milgram Lite
Psychologist Jerry Burger has just published his replication of the world famous Milgram shock experiment in the American Psychologist.
The Dancer Illusion
Quite a few people have sent the following illusion to me. Basically, as you look at the dancer, she will suddenly shift from moving in a clockwise to anti-clockwise direction. A few sites are suggesting that this is some kind of test of left and right brain thinking, which is obviously rubbish, but it is a nice effect. As yet, I have not been able to find out who actually created it, so if anyone knows, please drop me a line.
Neatorama and The Luck Factor
At the start of Jan, the nice people who run neatorama ran an article about some of my work into the psychology of luck – yahoo news picked it up and put it on their front page – causing The Luck Factor book to jump into the top 100 on Amazon.com!
Speed of walking
Just before Christmas, the media became very excited about the fact that the Post Office in the UK had asked some of their post people to walk more quickly. Both Radio 4’s Today Programme and The Times linked the story to my previous work on the speed of walking around the world.
Magic Research in New Scientist and Scientific American
Over the years I have carried out several experiments examining the psychology of magic, and co-authored a book on the topic (Magic in Theory, with Peter Lamont). Both New Scientist and Scientific American have just run articles on the topic, mentioning some of this work.
The Psychology of Romance
Interested in the psychology of love? I have just launched a new survey looking at romance around the world. Participating takes just a few minutes and involves answering a few simple questions about romantic gestures. Take part by clicking here.
Jaytee, the ‘psychic’ dog
In the early 1990s, Mathew Smith, Julie Milton, and I investigated ‘Jaytee’, a dog who could allegedly psychically predict when his owner was returning home. We believed that the results of our study did not support the dog’s alleged ability. At roughly the same time, Rupert Sheldrake conducted additional work with Jaytee, and argued that his findings suggested that Jaytee was able to signal when his owner started to return home from a distant location. RSupert also criticised the study conducted by Mathew Smith, Julie Milton and myself. We subsequently replied to the points raised in this critique, and Rupert replied to our reply.
I am frequently asked about Rupert’s experiments with Jaytee. There is a PDF of my thoughts here.
Hot dogs
There has to be an experiment here somewhere. Either way, if you are interested in getting one, the ordering details are here.
QE2 Final Voyage
In December I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak on the final voyage of the QE2. Apart from running aground, all went well and I am looking forward to being invited back on the ship’s next final voyage.
How is it going with your new resolution?
Last year I announced some initial results from a Quirkology experiment into New Year’s Resolutions. We tracked more than 5000 people as they tried to achieve their aims and ambitions, and found big sex differences for the strategies that proved successful. Here is some advice based on the work, hope that you find it helpful….
Thought experiment…..
Imagine that you have an 18 year old teenage daughter (if you do actually have one, this won’t be especially hard) and she stole a bottle of water from a shop during the riots. You know that if you take her to the police she will be charged and convicted. There is no way that the police will find out about her behaviour unless you take her in.
Would you take her to the police? Vote now!
