This is a cool article discussing memories. Apparently, even though you can’t recall them, they still exist in your gray matter. Cool.

Link:

Forgotten Memories Are Still in Your Brain

Here’s another one of those inevitable studies that surface every year. When new technologies start to gain market share, it seems the academics study the effects on human intelligence. I think someone should collect all the papers written over the years and see how many times people are complaining  that television, cell phones, radio, gaming, the web, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are making us stupid.

Link:

Facebook ‘enhances intelligence’ but Twitter ‘diminishes it’, claims psychologist

Great article on game theory and buying a car. Brilliant.

Link: How to use game theory to buy a car

My favorite quote: “…while they may understand their field, they do not understand how decisions are made.”

I agree 100%.

Who knew that a simple change in the weight of an object would have an effect on humans?

Link:

Weight as Persuasion WAC

If you are reading this blog, you probably already know many of these things. Just in case…

Body Language 101: What does it say?

The title uses persuasion, but it isn’t really about techniques. It’s about medical studies and their use of questionable methodology tactics when registering their trials. It’s fascinating, if a bit disturbing.

Link:

Why Persuading on Health and Safety Is So Difficult

An article discussing aspects of Cialdini’s book and it’s application to patient compliance in clinical care. Influence has many applications.

Link:

Patient Compliance And Behavioral Economics

There are many, many discussions and arguments written about healthcare. There should be. This will be a historical change.

In the midst of these discussions, errors of logic and reasoning creep into the fray. Sometimes, these ‘mistakes’ seem like devices meant to antagonize the talk-show guests or to boost ratings. Other times, they feel like devices meant to help convince the audience to agree with the speaker’s argument.

So I spend too much time debating the fallacies than understanding the issues. Here’s a post walking through many of the same things I’ve experienced with teaching fallacies.

Link:

When it comes to health care, which nation do we want to be?

Here are a few tools that offer a few ’softer’ aspects of Tweets – behavior, sentiment, and opinion.

It’s very cool for applying influence and persuasion concepts to your Twitter usage.

Tweeting By Numbers: 7 Ways to Become a Twitter Analyst

Here’s an article on the effect games have on your brain:

HOW GAMES CHANGE YOUR BRAIN

Good stuff.