Right-Ear Advantage

Marzoli & Tommasi (2009) had a female confederate visit a disco and approach 176 random people asking for a smoke. Clubbers were about twice as likely to hand one over if the request was directed at the right ear, whether or not the clubber was male or female.

These findings confirm previous studies which have found a right-ear preference for attending to and processing verbal stimuli. It is thought that this is because language is preferentially processed by the left side of the brain, which receives its input from the right ear.

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Skills & the internet

The Internet, like all intellectual technologies has a trade off. As we train our brains to use it, as we adapt to the environment of the internet, which is an environment of kind of constant immersion and information and constant distractions, interruptions, juggling lots of messages, lots of bits of information. As we adapt to that information environment, so to speak, we gain certain skills, but we lose other ones. And if you look at the scientific evidence, it’s pretty clear particularly from studies of like video games, that use of online media enhances our – some of our visual cognitive ability. So our ability to spot patterns in arrays of visual information to keep track of lots of things going on at once on a screen but along with that, what we lose is the ability to pay deep attention to one thing for a sustained period of time, to filter out distractions. - Nicholas Carr

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Envy may hurt, but is good for you

“By hurting, the emotion of envy forces us to focus our thoughts on the source of our agitation. That’s a reasonable interpretation from the data, but the fact is that envy does change our cognitive function - it boosts mental persistence and memory.”

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Deliciousness is simply an index of usefulness.

— Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain.

Our brains need interaction with other people. The human brain has evolved specifically to navigate complicated social groups just like dogs evolved to chase rabbits. Have you ever seen the nervous frustration of a dog that doesn’t get to run outside? That’s your brain when it’s not doing what it was made to do. If you don’t talk to other people a very old and deep trigger is pulled. As far as your brain knows, you’ve either gotten away from the tribe and are likely to starve or you’re of such low status that the tribe has exiled you. In either case, survival depends on getting back into the tribe and your brain will prod you with anxiety, fear and anger until you do something about it.

Source: Depression, burn out and writing code