Peter Gray

Jill Lepore’s at book launch and signing event

As the US approaches 250 years, Jill Lepore’s These Truths offers a one-volume overview of those years. Focuses on key themes and figures in a long but enjoyable read. She just launched a new book on the US Constitution in case you need even more history.

Dragon Boat racing today: how it started (rains this morning) and how it ended (finals races cancelled due to winds and waves). We did have two races in between, racing in synch and enjoying a full day. Some 44 boats, and even retirees coming back just to help out. I am sapped.

I recently spent a week in Munich with my oldest daughter, who finished her 3rd year in university. I feel grateful to have such opportunities, and while we enjoyed some amazing sites and experiences. A few highlights, including the all-important pretzel.

Next year the US will celebrate 250 years since independence. Last night I attended a panel on the “Meck Dec”: the claim is that a few folks declared independence in May 1775 in what’s now Charlotte. There’s no smoking gun to support or refute the claim. But an interesting case of public history.

Alt ac career panel April 22, 2025, 10:30-12EDT Register here: https://rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/register/ynUT7VlXSEaP6kLhGbGRxA

w/ @kristinemaassen.bsky.social, #RutgersAnthropology is hosting a fabulous line-up of panelists for an #alt-ac #career panel tomorrow. Please register and attend. Info attached!
@dianamonkey.bsky.social @peterbgray.bsky.social and others not on BS!

I regret to announce that the meme Turing Test has been passed

LLMs produce funnier memes than the average human, as judged by humans. Humans working with AI get no boost (a finding that is coming up often in AI-creativity work) The best human memers still beat AI, however. arxiv.org/abs/2501.11433

Men Are More Prepared for Fatherhood Than We Think — Scientific American In many cultures, men are not involved with hands-on childcare. But biology tells us we are perfectly capable of doing so Biology I like to tell my undergraduates that hormones predispose organisms, i...

Time for fatherhood, courtesy of James Rilling and his new book. #fatherhood #testosterone #oxytocin #dad apple.news/ALmCPtGhtTb2...

Morning run near and before work. Feels like anti-spring. Lots of leaves, dried, fallen and all-around.

An update with latest data available for graph of life expectancy vs health care expenditures per capita for 20 countries and one outlier.

What does your future look like? What regrets might your future self have about your current self? Here’s an AI tool intended to enable mental time travel and make the future more salient. It’s Future You. #future #aging test.futureyou.life

Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):

Read @sbkaufman.bsky.social’s Transcend. Learned lots: Maslow’s pyramid was likely created by a management consultant in the 1960s, and Harlow advised Maslow’s PhD captive monkey dominance behavior. Nice overview of Maslow’s arc and current, related research. New image instead of pyramid:

What makes for an interesting Thursday eve? Having the chance to attend a local financial advisor’s presentation—free dinner too—on retirement planning. It’s a research opportunity to consider how they frame planning and how they offer services. Diversification, taxes & more. #retirement

Life expectancy in the US
—by educational attainment, by county
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... @ihmeuw.bsky.social
—the growing inequalities
abcnews.go.com/Health/growi... @amymaxmen.bsky.social @kffhealthnews.bsky.social

This is the story behind a viral retirement ad: The agency: “It was easy to do the math. We took the average rate of inflation and extrapolated out thirty years. Then we wrote the ad. It was attention-getting. It was informative. It spurred people to act.” #retirement #inflation

22% of Americans aged 65+ are still working, with the highest % in NJ (33.8%) and the lowest in WV (15.7%). Retirement doesn’t look the same everywhere—see where your state stands! #Retirement #WorkforceData

Japan firms face serious labour crunch from aging population, survey shows Two-thirds of Japanese companies are experiencing a serious business impact from a shortage of workers, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday, as the country's population continues to shrink and age rapidly.

Japan is just a few years ahead of us. An aging workforce causes labor shortages.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Why do we eat popcorn at the movies? A tough Kansas City widow helped open the door Popcorn and movie theaters are inseparable today. But a century ago, cinemas actually banned the beloved treat for being cheap and messy. A Kansas City saleswoman named Julia Braden became one of the ...

Popcorn and movie theaters are inseparable today. But did you know that a century ago, cinemas actually banned popcorn?

A Kansas City saleswoman named Julia Braden became one of the first vendors to talk her way inside the lobby — and built a concession empire in the middle of the Depression.

The wealthiest cities in the U.S. are now almost seven times richer than the poorest regions, a disparity that has almost doubled since 1960.

We've heard this before with oil and coal, but soon, we will find new deposits of kids in Alaska or the deep ocean, and things will be fine.

The Forbidden Push-Up Pop

Coupling and Fertility are Falling.

In Finland, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and the US, both are going down.

Superb column by @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social

A must-read for anyone interested in why fertility is falling, and how to respond.

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What do veterinarian care providers think about direct-to-consumer pet genetic testing? Find out in this new paper from @nikki-bennett.bsky.social #dogs #cats #pets #genetics avmajournals.avma.org/view/journal...

Exploring past episodes of technological disruption in the US labor market, with the goal of learning lessons about the likely future impact of AI, from David J. Deming, Christopher Ong, and Lawrence H. Summers https://www.nber.org/papers/w33323

Changing our behaviour isn't easy–and changing the behaviour of others is even harder.

Here is a great analysis of 19 behavioural principles we proposed that are rooted in decades of research.

What works and what doesn't when it comes to changing behavior: www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

Some recent reading. Benz’s book on retirement is one of the best I’ve read for a US audience, and Li’s shows how fast AI is moving, from recognizing images to generative AI. I seek range, which helps frame day-to-day applied research. #retirement #books

• Al Overview As of January 2025, the average salary for an adjunct professor in Ohio is $133,597 per year, or $11,133 per month. The top earners in Ohio make $153,537 per year, while the 25th percentile make $132,100 per year. Factors that can affect an adjunct professor's salary include:

I’m somewhat frightened to think that people might believe this was the kind of money I made as an adjunct. It would explain some of their disbelief about why I left it behind.

(I was making 5k a course at OSU, which is actually ahead of the national average).

Excited to share that our BBS target article — "Children as agents of cultural adaptation" — is online & open for commentary! In it, @sheinalew.bsky.social & I argue that children's peer cultures might play an important & understudied role in cultural adaptation.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Some years ago when I was a professor at UNLV, we switched to Workday, and that was a major headache for office staff because the system wasn’t optimized for higher ed. Now they I’m in industry, we use Workday and it seems pretty seamless. Probably are parallels with Salesforce.

I continue to be deeply moved by this statement to the heavens by President Carter.