Hacker News with Generative AI: Human Behavior

Physical attractiveness outweighs intelligence in partner selection (psypost.org)
Women and their parents report that intelligence is more important than physical attractiveness in a long-term partner, yet when forced to choose, they both favor a more attractive mate—even when the less attractive option is described as more intelligent.

Psychology, Relationships, Human Behavior, Gender Studies

54 points by handfuloflight 2 days ago | 40 comments

The human mind is in a recession (ft.com)
The human mind is in a recession.

Economics, Psychology, Human Behavior

45 points by anjel 5 days ago | 52 comments

Incised artefacts from the Middle Palaeolithic and human behavioural complexity (springer.com)
In recent years, archaeological research has demonstrated the presence of abstract non-utilitarian behaviour amongst palaeolithic hominins, fuelling discussions concerning the origin and implications of such complex behaviours.

Archaeology, Palaeolithic, Human Behavior, Science

3 points by benbreen 5 days ago | 0 comments

Emergence of collective oscillations in human crowds (nature.com)
Dense crowds form some of the most dangerous environments in modern society1. Dangers arise from uncontrolled collective motions, leading to compression against walls, suffocation and fatalities2,3,4.

Crowd Dynamics, Safety, Physics, Social Science, Human Behavior

95 points by shalg 13 days ago | 40 comments

We're performing for an audience of machines (christopherireland.substack.com)
We are kept angry, reactive, and sure we’re right. Because that reaction is profitable and mutes our power.

Social Media, Psychology, Human Behavior

22 points by berkburb 14 days ago | 5 comments

Knowing less about AI makes people more open to using it (theconversation.com)
The rapid spread of artificial intelligence has people wondering: who’s most likely to embrace AI in their daily lives? Many assume it’s the tech-savvy – those who understand how AI works – who are most eager to adopt it.

Artificial Intelligence, Human Behavior, Technology

103 points by botanicals6 26 days ago | 82 comments

Total Isolation: What Happens to Your Brain After 30 Days Spent Alone (2019) (inverse.com)
Imagine being confined to a small, dark room, with no social interaction whatsoever for 30 days. Not many people would jump at this opportunity. But, in November 2018, a professional US poker player, Rich Alati, bet $100,000 that he could survive 30 days alone and in total darkness.

Social Experiment, Psychology, Human Behavior, Isolation

11 points by squircle 27 days ago | 1 comments

Scientist discover that AI has developed an uncanny human-like ability (psypost.org)
Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that large language models, such as ChatGPT-4, demonstrate an unexpected capacity to solve tasks typically used to evaluate the human ability known as “theory of mind.”

Artificial Intelligence, Science, Human Behavior

9 points by geox 38 days ago | 6 comments

Testosterone eliminates strategic prosocial behavior in healthy males (2023) (nature.com)
Humans are strategically more prosocial when their actions are being watched by others than when they act alone.

Science, Human Behavior, Biology, Psychology

13 points by Jimmc414 42 days ago | 4 comments

Why Do Some People Look Like Their Dogs? (nautil.us)
The resemblance isn’t just a comical coincidence.

Human Behavior, Animals, Psychology

14 points by dnetesn 49 days ago | 2 comments

How Did the "Smile" Become a Friendly Gesture in Humans? (scientificamerican.com)

Human Behavior, Evolution, Communication, Psychology

6 points by thunderbong 59 days ago | 1 comments

The Paradoxical Slowness of Human Behavior (caltech.edu)
Caltech researchers have quantified the speed of human thought: a rate of 10 bits per second. However, our bodies' sensory systems gather data about our environments at a rate of a billion bits per second, which is 100 million times faster than our thought processes.

Science, Psychology, Human Behavior, Neuroscience

11 points by belter 65 days ago | 10 comments

The Red Beads Experiment (2019) (medium.com)
“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”

Social Experiments, Psychology, Human Behavior

52 points by kiyanwang 68 days ago | 25 comments

Human Interaction Is Now a Luxury Good (nytimes.com)
In part of her new book, “The Last Human Job,” the sociologist Allison Pugh shadowed an apprentice hospital chaplain, Erin Nash, as she went through her day.

Sociology, Human Behavior, Luxury Goods, Books

8 points by mooreds 79 days ago | 2 comments

Sitters and Standers (pudding.cool)
Start →

Human Behavior, Social Commentary, Design, User Experience

426 points by feross 82 days ago | 246 comments

Why do we kiss? 'I am not sure we have anything close to an explanation' (theguardian.com)
We do it sitting in a tree, under the mistletoe, at midnight to ring in the new year. In fairytales, the act transforms frogs into princes and awakens heroines from enchanted slumber. We make up with it, seal with it, and – in Romeo Montague’s case at least – die with it.

Human Behavior, Social Norms, Cultural Practices, Anthropology

7 points by n1b0m 83 days ago | 1 comments

A unified account of why optimism declines in childhood (nature.com)

Psychology, Childhood Development, Human Behavior

10 points by therabbithole 87 days ago | 4 comments

Personality Basins (near.blog)
Personality basins are the mental model that I use to reason about humans within their environment. They are an elucidating way to think about many concepts: from modelling why people are they way they are, how they change over time, how mental illnesses and addiction function along with how we should look for their cures, and how the attention economy optimizes itself to consume all of your free time.

Psychology, Human Behavior, Mental Models, Addiction, Attention Economy

166 points by qouteall 92 days ago | 111 comments

Time alone heightens 'threat alert' in teenagers – even when on social media (cam.ac.uk)
People in their late teens experience an increased sensitivity to threats after just a few hours left in a room on their own – an effect that endures even if they are interacting online with friends and family.

Psychology, Social Media, Teenagers, Human Behavior

5 points by gnabgib 100 days ago | 1 comments

Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds (newyorker.com)
The vaunted human capacity for reason may have more to do with winning arguments than with thinking straight.

Cognitive Psychology, Persuasion, Human Behavior, Argumentation

95 points by rbanffy 110 days ago | 86 comments

People think they already know everything they need to make decisions (arstechnica.com)
The world is full of people who have excessive confidence in their own abilities. This is famously described as the Dunning-Kruger effect, which describes how people who lack expertise in something will necessarily lack the knowledge needed to recognize their own limits.

Psychology, Cognitive Bias, Human Behavior

24 points by thunderbong 130 days ago | 3 comments

Task-Switching Experiment (2015) (psytoolkit.org)
The reality is that you can argue that people always multi-task in some way. After all, we always monitor our environment to some degree, no matter what. For example, no matter how deeply you concentrate on doing a task, if you hear someone shout "fire", you will process that information and act on it.

Psychology, Experiments, Human Behavior

54 points by dang 139 days ago | 15 comments

How We Sort the World (mitpress.mit.edu)
Despite the vast diversity and individuality in every life, we seek patterns, organization, and control. Or, as cognitive psychologist Gregory Murphy puts it: “We put an awful lot of effort into trying to figure out and convince others of just what kind of person someone is, what kind of action something was, and even what kind of object something is.”

Psychology, Cognitive Science, Categorization, Social Psychology, Human Behavior

43 points by r721 152 days ago | 19 comments

Avoidance Mapping: What It Is and Where It Fits in the Cartography Cube (geoawesome.com)
“… we all try to steer clear of certain places and people, whether we’re aware of it or not.” (Source)

Cartography, Data Visualization, Mapping, Spatial Analysis, Human Behavior

25 points by bryanrasmussen 152 days ago | 9 comments

Social Initiation (socialcommunication.truman.edu)
We teach our children that making friends is easy: you just walk up to any kid on the playground and say, “My name is [whatever], do you want to play?” And if you’re four or five years old, this works pretty well. But it’s a lot more complicated when you’re a grown-up.

Social Skills, Psychology, Human Behavior, Socialization

112 points by yamrzou 153 days ago | 32 comments

The layers of strategic thinking behind our everyday conversations (optimallyirrational.com)
One of the points I made in Optimally Irrational is how incredibly good we are at solving the complex problems we face in our lives. We are often oblivious to the feats we are achieving. There is hardly a better example than something we do every day: talking to each other.

Cognitive Science, Communication, Human Behavior, Decision Making

15 points by yamrzou 165 days ago | 0 comments

Why do people believe true things? (conspicuouscognition.com)

Cognitive Science, Psychology, Human Behavior

50 points by Michelangelo11 188 days ago | 56 comments

"Does astrology work? We tested the ability of 152 astrologers" (threadreaderapp.com)

Astrology, Science, Research, Human Behavior

141 points by agluszak 193 days ago | 4 comments

To Avoid Thinking Hard, We Will Endure Anything–Even Pain (psychologytoday.com)