@PessoaBrain
Here's a bit that will break your heart:
Over the last few
years, the number of psychological journals that prefer to publish short, hard-hitting
research reports instead of long, ponderous treatises has increased considerably. And
everyone wants to publish in those new journals. The aim is no longer to publish a grand
theoretical model that takes dozens of pages to explain, but to show an intriguing effect
that takes everyone by surprise. The shorter and more amazing, the better. ... I wanted to emulate my heroes, for whom it seemed to be child’s play to sum up
humanity in clever one-liners such as “Altruism doesn’t exist,” “Human behavior is 94.6%
automatic,” ... I’d never found anything that even remotely resembled these amazing discoveries. .... Reality was fickle, and that was exhausting.
A few weeks ago I was in the newspaper—in fact, I was in all the newspapers. I had
published a study that showed that messy streets lead to greater intolerance. In a messy
environment, people are more likely to resort to stereotypes of others because trash makes
you want to clean it up, and the use of stereotypes lets you feel as though you’re cleaning
things up. .... The publication of this study in Science—the most prestigious journal of them all—
caused a sensation, and made headlines around the world. The coolest aspect of the study was the way in which it combined careful laboratory
research with field studies that people could relate to. ... It was a clever, simple, logical, and obvious idea, but the empirical
tests were completely imaginary. The lab research hadn’t been carried out. The field
studies never happened.
JamesGleick
jonny
elduvelle