Author Archives: Cedar Riener
On the Truth and Importance of “I Told You So”
As millions more become politically engaged in these dark times, there has been a fair amount of Columbusing (discovering what was already there). “This is the beginning of a movement” or “first they came for the immigrants and we said … Continue reading
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Free Speech and Fighting Fascism
Three events which presage the world to come and require us to choose which conflicting values we prioritize. Up to now there has been a building uncomfortable stalemate on some of our social tensions, the Trump/Bannon era will escalate these … Continue reading
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Colorblindness is Racism
I started with a provocative headline, but I have come to believe that this is a necessary approach if we want to design policies and systems that bend the arc of our moral universe towards justice. Let me start with … Continue reading
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Learning the Wrong Lessons from Newtown
It is four years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, and we’ve had the benefit of extensive investigation and reflection. Many of the open questions in those horrible moments and days after the shooting have been answered, but we … Continue reading
Professor, Heal thyself! On unprofessionalism and lack of empathy in (complaints about) student emails
A recent op-ed in the Guardian, entitled “I’m not LMAO at ridiculous student emails” lodges a familiar complaint: students don’t know how to communicate with professors in a professional manner, flaunting reasonable social codes and ignoring professors busy lives outside … Continue reading
Teaching #TheDress : Resources for Teachers on the Psychology behind the Dress
Here is the original post, 27 million views and counting. Here is Virginia Hughes with an explanation based in part on my contributions. Here are some general resources on perception and illusions Michael Bach has a great website with many … Continue reading
The way you saw that dress, what a mess, I confess: A cognitive psychologist sees a dress
The internet was finally broken yesterday, not by a West or a Kardashian, nor by Beliebers, but rather by disbelievers. #TheDress, in which some people see blue/black, some people see white/gold, some people see blue/gold, and some people, no … … Continue reading
Four thoughts about Student Evaluations (occasioned by sexism in RateMyProfessor.com)
This post is occasioned by Ben Schmidt’s wonderful tool for exploring gender differences on words used in student evaluations on RateMyProfessor. 1. RateMyProfessor is a huge, but awful data set. Why awful? First, I’d bet that well under 1% of … Continue reading
Conference Blogging from the American Psychological Convention
Hello loyal readers, Today and tomorrow I will be conference blogging (and livetweeting) from the American Psychological Association Annual Convention. Please tune in over there, here is the blog, and my first post on the diversity of psychology. More to … Continue reading
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5 truths about character and poverty that David Brooks has too much self-control to grasp
My David Brooks posts tend to be blockbusters (tens of hundreds of viewers!) so I am leaning in and going full listicle for this rant about his latest column, which in Brooksian fashion puts a modern social scientific sheen on old conservative … Continue reading
