At their extremes, both autism and schizophrenia are debilitating disorders. But what is the relationship between them? The Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who coined the terms “schizophrenia” and “autism” a century ago, viewed autism as a form of solitude and schizophrenia as an extreme form of autism representing withdrawal from reality. Ever since, there has […]
Do you focus on the forest or the trees? Whether you have more of a global (holistic) or local (detail-oriented) processing style influences how you fundamentally perceive the world, and is one of the most prominent factors influencing creative thought. Beyond your personality, however, situational factors also play a crucial role in what kind of […]
Everyone loves to bash narcissists (except narcissists). They do make easy targets. Their inflated sense of self makes others feel inferior, so putting them down a peg makes others feel better about themselves. Also, their outlandish, over-the-top displays of grandiosity can serve as good fodder for parody. Nevertheless, in recent years, psychologists have documented the […]
Fun interview with Charles Q. Choi at Scientific American on the topic: If you are one type of genius, could you have been another? Check out the full interview here: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/assignment-impossible/2011/08/09/too-hard-for-science-could-michael-jackson-have-created-twitter/ Also, check out my Huffington Post article, where I explore the topic in more detail: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-barry-kaufman/michael-jackson-twitter_b_842469.html
In 2009, Peter Jonason and his colleagues published a paper showing that college students scoring high on characteristics known as the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, subclinical narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy) tended to report having a higher number of sexual partners as well as more of an interest in short-term mating than those scoring lower on the […]
Every business wants workers who passionately love their work. And for good reason: workers who are inspired are more productive, and passion can provide the energy necessary to fuel engagement, amidst obstacles and setbacks. But while passion seems clearly desirable, recent psychological research suggests that not all forms are adaptive. In fact, some forms can […]
IQ tests have received a very large number of criticisms since their inception. One of the main arguments made against the use of IQ tests is that they don’t measure creativity. But is this true? Surely creativity involves thoughtful reasoning, divergent production, pattern detection, learning, and other skills tapped into by IQ tests. Indeed, recent […]