Why We Do What We Do

Whereas part 1 was more about the history of gambling, casinos, and the psychology of designing gambling and gambling environments to foster addiction as much as possible, this episode actually talks about addiction and treatment. That was a long sentence. If you were here for the discussion about addiction and treatment, this is the part you've been waiting for.  Recommendations Abraham: Dice Tow...

We did an episode on idioms a while back. During that discussion, we ended up having to cut a lot of the content we had prepared. In particular, there was a surprisingly large number of idioms just around  skin ! So, we decided we'd do a mini just about that! Reference https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/81624/origins-19-skin-expressions Covering just five today Become a supporter of this podcast:...

One behavioral addiction of the "inessential" variety is gambling. This is an issue that has ruined many lives and pumped a lot of money into the city of Las Vegas. Do our brains make us gamble? Does gambling simply expoit a loophole in human psychology? We'll talk about how gambling got started, how it keeps you playing, and treatments that have been used to support people recovering from gamblin...

Book burning has been used both to destroy cultures or just symbolically send a message. Either way, it is a pretty juvenile temper tantrum thing to do. Don't silence your opponents, be better than them. Here is the history and motives behind some large book burning efforts.  Links:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/brief-history-book-burning-printing-press-internet-archives-180964697/ https...

You've seen the title of this episode, so now that we have your attention: sex addiction! What are the psychometric criteria by which sex becomes an addiction? Further, who does this impact? The answers to this are both not what you might think. Turns out, there is a lot of history of "puritan"-like stigmatization around the "appropriate" amount of sex and with whom.  Links and References:  https:...

Humans haven't had shampoo for very long in our relative history. What about our ancestors, what did they do without shampoo? Animals don't seem to require shampoo. What is this weird practice and what would happen if we gave it up? This mini investigates Big Shampoo! Links and References https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Uncommon_History_of_Common_Things.html?id=bcaXzXPP8ooC https://www.med...

Humans have been engineering strategies to reduce the risks of life for as long as humans have been engineering everything. As it relates to addiction, harm reduction is a stragegy that emerged to help prevent the spread of disease and has been successfully applied to supporting people with chemical dependency. We explore the criticisms, concerns, and science behind harm reduction.  Recommendation...

Welcome to our new episode format, the mini! Although this is our second one, we are still excited to be exploring this new way of doing episodes. This discusion explores how lotteries came to be and why we pursue them with such vigor. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support . Support our podcast: www.patreon.com/wwdwwdpodcast

The saga continues as we explore the historical policy blunder that was the "War on Drugs." What lead to the development of this idea? We review the distinction between what was stated and what actually happened, and, of course, who won the war? spoiler it was drugs.  Recommendations Abraham: Speechify App ( https://speechify.com/?source=fb-for-mobile&via=nguyen-linh-nam&gad_source=1&g...

Welcome to our first ever new episode format that we are trying out. These miniature episodes will be supplemental, additional episodes that we release every week alongside our normal full-length episodes. This first installment is exploring the weird tradition of people slapping peices of our flesh together to show appreciation. We started recording these quite a while ago, so, apologies if there...

The disease model of addiction is a popular philosophical approach to dependency. The idea is to remove fault and blame from the addicted individual. Further, there are a lot of parallels between addiction and illness. However, there are some drawbacks to conceptualizing addiction as a disease. We talk through the benefits and our reservations about using the disease framework for understanding di...

Alcohol dependency is a complicated condition that has killed a staggering number of people. Fortinuately, many people have banded together to support one another through behavior changes to reinvent their life without this dependency. One such program truly dominates the known landscape of addiction interventions: Alcoholics Anonymous. Yet, the effectiveness of the AA program and the "active ingr...

Most people are only one or two nodes away from someone who has struggled with some sort of addiction, or may struggle themselves. But what is this phenomenon? The definition has been tricky to pin down because addiction can span chemicals to behaviors, can go undetected or be overt, and can have seemingly creep up out of nowhere. But what all addiction has in common is harm to the user. We are em...

Have you thought about what you'll do if a significant disaster destroys most of humankind? Perhaps you've prepared for the zombie apocalypse or a nuclear winter. What will humans do if we are faced with end times? We look through the history of extinction-level natural disasters that nearly killed off all humans and how we somehow pulled through... and what this tells us about what to expect if w...

This re-run updates a previous episode on our musings about what aphantasia is, and the purpose of diagnoses. This condition describes people who can't see with their mind's eye. But, what does that mean? How would you know? Do we have aphantasia? Do you? We'll never know. Recommendations Abraham? Project Ironside ( https://ironsidegametable.com/ ) Shane: Electric Shark Tattoo ( https://electricsh...

Psychologists and philosophers speculated for centuries trying to understand how the conscious experience of the mind relates to the physical substrate of the body. Is the mind just the process of our gooey brains, or something more? It's our brains. But we'll unpack it all. Recommendations Abraham: The Fox Experiment ( https://pandasaurusgames.com/products/the-fox-experiment ) Shane: Black House...

Technical and professional jargon can be furstratingly opaque and many professionals lament the frequent use of technical speak. However, there is a benefit to technical jargon and neologisms and times that are appropriate for employing this type of communication. We also translate some common behavior analyst terms (behaviorese) into more readily understandable language. Where do you fall on this...

Kids these days...but what does that mean? Have kids changed over time? Many people believe that there is something to say about the different "generations." Indeed, each generation experiences similar world events during the impressionable years of youth. What then can we expect from Baby Boomers, Millenials, or Gen Z? We take a skeptical and scientific look at the characteristic features of the...

Down Syndrome is a genetic condition with some characteristic features and complications. We explain how this condition occurs, the history, features of the diagnosis, and treatment. Do you know someone with Down Syndrome? Join us in our celebration of a diverse group of people united by their genetic variation. Recommendations Abraham: Self Reliance ( https://www.hulu.com/movie/self-reliance-b530...

Unions are grouops of employees who band together to form an allied unit that works to support its members in a work environment. This usually results in bargaining for higher wages for union members. Companies have long despised unions for this reason. Right to work laws state that their intended purpose is to give employees the option to opt out of unions if they don't want to participate. We ex...

What do we do what we do? Because we do! That's the thesis of the life and death drive. We explain and dismantal this little known hypothesis of behavior championed by the psychoanalysts of the early 20th century. What drives you? Recommendations Abraham: The Flash ( https://www.dc.com/theflash ) Shane: Bear vs. Shark - Right Now, You’re in the Best of Hands. And If Something Isn’t Quite Right, Yo...

Science and quantitiative model nerds, this is for you! Or maybe not... We explain the mathematical model that purports to explain choice-making. We enumerate the benefits this model has had on behavior science in general, as well as take a hard critical look. Recommendations Abraham: Arborea ( https://www.alleycatgames.com/arborea ) Shane: The Silence of the Lambs ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0...

Engineering student and behaviorist Joseph Dailey joins us to talk about artificial intelligence: where it came from, where it is going, and what it can tell us about human psychology. We reflect on the current state of AI and consider some skeptical and practice considerations for how AI may impact us moving forward. Links and References : https://nicholas.carlini.com/writing/llm-forecast/ https:...

Humans have long been interested with shortcuts for peering into the enigma of the mind. Further, we search desperately for any clues that can help us identify persons of interest, particularly in crimes. What can we learn about people by analyzing their handwriting? What does your handwriting say about you? If we consider how penmanship develops, and what personality is, it becomes fairly obvious...

Three meals per day has been so ingrained in western (and other cultures) for so long that it seems like it might be a biological requirement for humans. But we also know that food was not so easy to come by for our ancestors. We unpack the history of the three meals per day tradition. Recommendations Abraham: Fargo (season 5; https://www.hulu.com/fx-on-hulu?&cmp=7958&utm_source=google&amp...