June, 2009

Compassion and Aggression

by Jonathan Sheehan
The Conversation
June 24th, 2009

Adam Smith once commented that people, “though naturally sympathetic, feel little for another, with whom they have no particular connection, in comparison of what they feel for themselves.” He was onto something there.  No doubt, as Wright suggests, it is much more difficult to think sympathetically about scholar A, whose theories and ambitions recklessly threaten [...]

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Judging Others Is Partly a Social Process

by Timur Kuran
The Conversation
June 23rd, 2009

Robert Wright asks us to reflect on whether we notice a professional rival’s flaws more readily than we notice those of an ally. In presenting the scenario he characterizes the relationship with the rival as zero-sum and that with the ally as non-zero-sum. Various psychological mechanisms make us particularly receptive to evidence of blemishes in [...]

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