The RSA Blog

Civic chat up lines: How to talk to strangers

Blog

24 Oct 2011

The Social Brain team has been brainstorming ideas for new projects recently. One idea that came up was to do some work developing ‘civic chat up lines’. Making connections with people around us is a key ingredient in our wellbeing, so being able to start conversations with strangers is surely a useful skill. Avoiding doing so in a way which makes the recipient of your chat up line think you’re weird or feel their space is being invaded is obviously of some importance. The writer and director Miranda July addressed this subject in the Guardian this weekend, but I’m not going to recommend testing what she suggests as I think grabbing hold of the nearest stranger by the arm might not lead to the kind of meaningful and rewarding social encounter we’d like to promote. So, how do you start a conversation with a stranger?

Transforming Behaviour Change

Blog

17 Oct 2011

Jonathan Rowson

An Astrologer once told me that I have an exalted sun in my house of enemies. This positive feature of my chart meant that bad feelings towards me are 'burnt up' by the heat of the sun, for which I am grateful. I have never really understood the basis on which astrology might conceivably make sense on even the most charitable interpretation, so I had to take his word for the rationale, but I appreciated the thought, which resonated with my experience.

Sympathy for the psychiatrist

Blog

26 Sep 2011

Robert Whitaker writes in the current RSA journal that psychotropic medication is less safe and effective than is commonly believed. The use of antidepressant and antipsychotic medication is widespread, and Whitaker presents troubling evidence that taking these drugs can increase the frequency of relapse and reduce the chances of getting well and staying well. He presents evidence that patients who never take medication fare much better in the long term than those who accept medication early on. Whitaker is not alone in drawing attention to the unstable foundations of psychiatric prescribing.

A third way on facts?

Blog

14 Sep 2011

Matthew Taylor

'In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!' Thomas Gradgrind, Hard Times

Mental illness: the last taboo?

Blog

13 Sep 2011

People with mental health problems are the last minority group against whom it’s socially acceptable to discriminate. Sometimes this discrimination comes about accidentally or covertly, Lisa Appignanesi's recent piece in the Guardian being a case in point. Appignanesi writes that the mental illness ‘industry’ is medicalising normality to a greater extent than ever before. She raises the question of whether the apparent increased prevalence of mental illness is genuinely down to a rising toll of suffering, or whether we have collectively learned to complain more. Appignanesi suggests that the more evidence there is about the increase in mental disorder in the public domain, the more likely we are to label our own problems of living as requiring the attention of a doctor. She goes on to suggest that attending reading groups or going running might do more for sufferers of depression than taking medication and questions the usefulness of psychiatric classification in helping people deal with the problems of their lives.

Looting sentences - you're the judge

Blog

05 Sep 2011

Matthew Taylor

There has been much comment on the sentences handed out to those involved in the August street disturbances.  An early estimate was that average sentences in magistrates’ courts were 25% higher than for similar offences, while the Guardian states today that crown court sentences are up to three times as long. Beyond the predictable split between disciplinarians (who think prison works) and bleeding heart liberals (who don’t) there is an interesting question about the nature of culpability in looting. Is it one which neuroscience might potentially help us to resolve?  

Pure, Impure and Competitive: Altruism

Blog

05 Sep 2011

Nathalie Spencer

On Tuesday Sept 6th the RSA is hosting the event: The Price of Altruism.  Oren Harman will speak about the polymath George Price, perhaps the leading contributor to the study of altruism.  In the run up to the event, I’ve been thinking more about altruism.  After some shallow digging, I uncovered three different categories of it: pure, impure and competitive. 

In defence of brains

Blog

30 Aug 2011

Matthew Taylor

The backlash against what Ray Tallis calls ‘neuromania’ is in full swing. As well as Tallis (you can download my recent debate with him from the RSA website) there is, for example, a pretty damning critique of David Brooks' book, The Social Animal in a recent New York Review. Indeed on the same topic I recently endured what must be the worst argument I have ever had as an adult with my father. I am sure there were diners sitting on the other side of the restaurant who heard him slam the table and exclaim furiously ‘my appreciation of art has got sod all to do with bloody neural pathways!’.

When more really is more

Blog

23 Aug 2011

Nathalie Spencer

Why saving money is good for you