So chess is having a moment thanks to the Queen’s Gambit (see the chart from @DataIsBeautiful). It is also a subject of a lot of social science research. So, a thread of findings on ♟that tell us things about intelligence, luck, and how we learn 1/n Image
First, chess is often viewed as a game that makes players smarter at other tasks, but the research shows that isn’t true. You don’t need to learn chess unless you want to learn chess! 2/
Chess is really a game of skill, much more so than any other commonly played game, the best player usually wins. 3/
That makes chess useful for understanding how intelligence and skill change with age & practice. 4/

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More from @emollick

18 Nov
A paper I think about all the time: In an experiment where people are asked to sit quietly for 15 minutes & enjoy their thoughts or else self-administer 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀, 2/3 of men and 1/4 of women choose to shock themselves. erinwestgate.com/uploads/7/6/4/…
Also if you haven’t read the fine print over the graph...
Everyone in the experiment had already had a chance to be shocked, so it wasn’t new to them & they knew it hurt. The experiment is covered more in this neat summary of the research on thinking for pleasure - why it’s good, and why we hate it. nickbuttrick.com/files/Advances…
Read 4 tweets
24 Oct
Scientists have always had a thing for Middle Earth. It has been the subject of many published academic journal articles, as well as some great analyses by scientists from their disciplines. Here are some good ones, the more elaborate the better... 1/n theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Let’s start with geology, and geologist & science fiction author @katsudonburi’s issues with Tolkien’s mountain ranges (written before plate tectonics was a known thing) 2/n tor.com/2017/08/01/tol…
And then there is this terrific map of the rocks of Middle Earth by a cosmogeologist 3/n
Read 8 tweets
17 Oct
People spend 15% of work in meetings (managers spend 50%!) & post-COVID meetings are up 14%. But we spend little time trying to make meetings better, despite the fact that there is a whole subfield of research on the topic! Here is a review of findings. researchgate.net/publication/32… ImageImageImage
Here’s the highlights as emoji:

Before the meeting...
✅only meet if needed
🐁keep meeting sizes as small as possible
🎯set clear goals & outcomes
📄have an agenda that all review in advance
⏰make it short & relevant to all invited 2/4
During the meeting...
⏱arrive on time
📋follow the agenda
🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️everyone participates
💻📱never multitask
⚔️intervene if mood turns negative
🤪humor helps performance
🙅‍♀️leave time for objections
🗳Let everyone help decision-making. If a decision is made, tell everyone
3/4
Read 4 tweets
15 Oct
A great example of borrowing innovation from one field for another. Doctors at a struggling children's hospital sent videos of their post-surgical hand-offs to Ferrari's F1 pit crew (see the GIF!) to improve. They reworked the process & reduced associated errors rates by 66%. 1/2
The diagrams show how the F1 crews used their techniques to help the surgery teams reorganize the surgery to ICU handoff. The paper is here: 2/2 asq.org/healthcare-use… ImageImage
The Youtube video for the original GIF of the Ferrari F1 pit crew is here, and it is worth watching it (or the GIF) multiple times, each time focusing on a different person doing their job with incredible speed and precision.
Read 4 tweets
11 Oct
Does it make the Mafia seem more or less cool when you know that it was created to control the market for lemons? After the discovery of citrus as a cure for scurvy there demand for Sicilian 🍋 went crazy. The Mafia was formed in response to a commodity boom to keep prices high.
The paper is here: cambridge.org/core/services/…

And, in the great tradition of economics papers, the title is a bit of an inside joke, referring to a very famous economics paper about the market for (metaphorical) lemons.
Read 4 tweets
24 Sep
Psychology experiments need to be able to get people to react emotionally very quickly. How do they do it? Movie clips! These are the scientifically vetted clips historically used to elicit emotion.

For fear 😱 the choice is pretty obvious. 1/4
For anger 😡, either the police abuse scene from Cry Freedom (the clip isn’t online) or else this scene from The Bodyguard 2/4
For sadness 😭 this scene from The Champ even beats the death of Bambi’s mother. 3/4
Read 4 tweets

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