This morning, my wife was running errands and stopped at the local gas station to fill up. The corner gas station was hopping, and she waited her turn at the pump. A space opened, she pulled in, and began to pump her gas. Across the parking lot, about half-a-dozen young, African-American men were hanging out…
Continue ReadingWe See What isn’t There
I have long quipped that, “humans are so good at seeing patterns that we find them where none exist.” But it wasn’t until sometime in graduate school that I learned the technical term for it: “apophenia.” (A visual apophenia is a pareidolia.) I still share this one with my students at some appropriate juncture almost…
Continue ReadingWhat Our Shoes Say
I wear only four different pairs of shoes: muffy house slippers for around the house (except when, being an absent-minded professor, I forget to change before going out), New Balance running shoes that I try to put a few miles on each day, Birkenstocks for the summer, and for everything else, my cowboy boots. Now…
Continue Reading“Yeah, But is it Science?”
Maybe the most difficult issue faced by social scientists is the perception that, somehow, what we do is not “science.” Although, in fairness, it doesn’t seem as widespread or blatant now as when I first got into the game; it is almost unthinkable now that a business, agency, or organization would implement a new policy…
Continue ReadingHappy New Year!
As an academic type, I’ve always considered the end of summer the beginning of a new year: preschool, primary school, secondary school, college, graduate school, and now, entering my 13th year as a teacher of college students. My whole life has been lived according to the rhythms of the academic calendar. Now, by the precedent…
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