Verbal Persuasion and the Observer-Expectancy Effect
How we speak to others makes all the difference. Not only our words, but our tone, body language, attitude, demeanor, and level of formality all play a role. As we speak, we’re influencing others. “Pardon me, could you please direct me to Michigan Avenue?” (said politely to a stranger on the street) differs from “Where’s […]
Jury Selection and the Conjunction Fallacy
Once information is gathered, can it be correctly interpreted? We obtain fragments of the truth, but can we be sure we understand its significance? Our initial reaction is to rely on “common sense.” But too often our first take on things can be inaccurate. We assume facts are supportive when in fact they may be […]
Care and Belief
There’s no work-life rule book, no single text that holds all the answers. Certainty is provisional; knowledge is interim; conventional wisdom can be uprooted in a day. Perfectionists are those who use a laser, not string, to align their garden rows. They ignore the well-worn path. They seek out the ultimate as if the ordinary––the […]
Searching for Patterns
We seek out patterns since they’re shortcuts to understanding. They provide an abbreviated means of making sense of things. When they work, they can save time and effort. But we sometimes find patterns in instances where none exist. Over time, we come to learn that searching for patterns can be a more complex task than […]
The Way of Healing
That which restores health, promotes well-being, cures, alleviates––healing returns us to an earlier state free of hurt or harm. It’s almost as if healing reverses time. We turn back the clock to return to a place we once enjoyed of strength, vitality, and wellness. To promote healing, one would think traditional remedies will be cast […]
Any Fact Becomes Important When It’s Connected to Another
Most have some familiarity with the immediate consequences of a common injury. A back or shoulder strain, for instance, will produce pain in those areas. Less well known, however, is how one injury can lead to the development of a completely unrelated disease process. Take, for example, a traumatic brain injury. Most would readily associate […]
Nature Exposed to Our Method of Questioning
One would think that merely observing something would not work a change in that which is being observed. But scientists have long known of “the observer effect.” This refers to changes and alterations that the act of observation makes on that which is being observed. The observer mistakenly believes that his observations, and the information […]
Invisible Facts
Matter, we are told, has three primary states—solid, liquid, and gas. Today of course scientists recognize many more states of matter, including plasma as well as the more recently discovered states of matter such as superfluid, quantum spin liquid, string-net liquid, and many others. However, the basic framework into which the facts of a contested […]
On Nature as a Work of Divine Art
If nature is a work of divine art, it follows that one of the most elemental tasks of any legal system would be to protect that work. There’s the natural world, the physical space which we inhabit. Contained within are living things, both plant and animal. Some may also suggest that the earth itself is […]
