Latest thinking

The Cyborgs, the 'Hottie', and the World Chess Championship

Blog

10 Nov 2013

Jonathan Rowson

Did you hear about the cyborg 'hottie'?

Taking Spirituality Seriously: "Too tweetable to tweet"

Blog

17 Oct 2013

Jonathan Rowson

I will update this post soon with some thoughts and reactions, but for those who missed it, I wanted to share the unedited replay of last night's packed event about rethinking spirituality, with myself, Madeleine Bunting, Elizabeth Oldfield, Robert Rowland Smith and very informed audience, which can be found here.

Popcorn provides immunity to adverts

Blog

14 Oct 2013

Jonathan Rowson

Hard to believe, I know, but a study at Cologne university suggests that cinema advertising has no impact on people eating popcorn.

What’s truer than facts? The social value of great fiction

Blog

07 Oct 2013

I work in an organisation that revolves around social research and policy. I went to grad school to study the social sciences. And there is not currently a single novel in my to-read stack, except for the half-metre tower of Game of Thrones novels, courtesy of a colleague here at the RSA.

Taking Spirituality Seriously

Blog

02 Oct 2013

Jonathan Rowson

Later this month I will be giving a short talk at the beginning of an RSA public event introducing the project outlined in The Brains Behind Spirituality. I am arguing that we need a reappraisal of the cultural and social value of spirituality as essential foundational work for deepening our understanding of a range of practical and policy issues.

Smartphones make us dumb

Blog

26 Sep 2013

Jonathan Schifferes

Did you see the one about Apple Maps mistakenly directing people to drive across the runway at an Alaskan Airport? The coverage provides an indication of how much we’ve outsourced our intelligence to our smartphones, and how we are likely to erode our own intelligence as a result.

Applying behavioural insights to policy making

Blog

23 Sep 2013

Nathalie Spencer

The European Commission will be holding a conference at the end of the month on the theme applying behavioural insights to policy-making.

In memory of Dr Emma Lindley

Blog

20 Sep 2013

Nathalie Spencer

Readers of this blog may already be aware of the tragic news that Social Brain colleague Emma Lindley recently passed away.  Below, I offer to you a poem I selected and read in Emma's memory earlier this week at a staff gathering in her honour.  Tributes by colleagues Jonathan Rowson, Gaia Marcus, and Matthew Taylor are also available.

Emma.

Blog

19 Sep 2013

Jonathan Rowson

Following our Chief Executive's post earlier today, it is with deep sadness that we report that Emma Lindley, a regular contributor to these pages over the last two years, died at the weekend. The following was prepared for an RSA staff meeting yesterday to commemorate her time with us.