Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler take a mulligan and try to resolve their conflict about restorative justice. Do restorative processes lead to more just outcomes than other approaches? Is it more vulnerable to instances of prejudice and bias? Is revenge a form of restorative justice? Also, on this episode: can being sexist get you killed in a hurricane? Are replication attempts a form of bullying? And why is Dave hoarding gefilte fish in his pantry? Links Ed Yong on Hurricane Study [phenomena.nationalgeographic.com] Scatterplot blog on hurricane study [scatter.wordpress.com] Simine Vazire on "Repligate" [sometimesimwrong.typepad.com] Restorative Justice online [restorativejustice.org] "Restorative Justice in Texas: Past, Present, and Future." by Mark Levin [texaspolicy.com] Bridges to Life [bridgestolife.org] Michelle Anderson The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [amazon.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Tamler and David leech off of their listeners and dedicate an episode to their favorite comments, questions, and criticisms from the past few weeks (but not before Tamler goes on a rant about bicycle helmets). Included in this episode: Does doing research on hypothetical moral dilemmas actually say anything about how people would act in real life? Do people make different moral judgments in their native language than in a more recently acquired language? Do Tamler and David only appeal to intuitions when it's convenient for the view they are defending? Do they hold "barbaric" views about justice and revenge? Does doing philosophy make your life better? And, perhaps most importantly, why do we seem to mention porn on every episode? Links Bicycle helmet effectiveness [wikipedia.org] Tamler's appearance on The Partially Examined Life podcast [partiallyexaminedlife.com] Axons and Axioms podcast [axonsandaxioms.com] Spacetime Mind podcast [spacetimemind.com] A valuable site if you're interested in putting together your own podcast: Dan Benjamin's Podcasting Handbook [podcastinghandbook.co] If you like the music we use, you can listen/download here: soundcloud.com/peezismyname Pea Soup Blog [peasoup.typepad.com] Qualia [wikipedia.org] Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" [wikipedia.org] Entranced by Reality by Ian Corbin (Review of "A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning" by Robert Zaretsky). [theamericanconservative.com] Iranian killer's execution halted at last minute by victim's parents by Saeed Kamali Dehghan [theguardian.com] Academic Articles Mentioned Bartels, Daniel M. (2008), "Principled Moral Sentiment and the Flexibility of Moral Judgment and Decision Making," Cognition, 108, 381-417. [uchicago.edu] Costa, A., Foucart, A., Hayakawa, S., Aparici, M., Apesteguia, J., Heafner, J., & Keysar, B. (2014). Your Morals Depend on Language. PloS one, 9(4), e94842. [plosone.org] Gold, N., Colman, A. M., & Pulford, B. D. (2014). Cultural differences in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems. Judgment and Decision Making, 9, 65-76. [sjdm.org] Special thanks to listeners (in order of question-appearance) Jakub Maly, Mark Ellis, Derek Leben, Jennifer Cohen, Rob Sica, Larson Landes, Billie Pritchett, Dave Herman, Otakar Horak, Monique Oliveira, Paul Bello, and Dag Soras. Support Very Bad Wizards

May I have your attention please? Will the real Josh Knobe please stand up? Will the real... [you know what, screw this--we're just dating ourselves.] X-phi phenom Josh Knobe rejoins the podcast to talk about the true self, naked people, gay preachers, and the Talmud. Plus, what happens when Tamler takes a sleeping pill by mistake in the afternoon and goes on Facebook? Why do you have get so drunk on Purim? And Dave discovers a Google-assisted loophole that allows you to be an immoral shit your whole life and get away with it. Links Joshua Knobe's home page [yale.edu] XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders [amazon.com affiliate link] Gray, K., Knobe, J., Sheskin, M., Bloom, P., & Barrett, L. F. (2011). More than a body: mind perception and the nature of objectification. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101, 1207. [yale.edu] Moral Scrupulosity [wikipedia.org] Newman, G. E., Bloom, P., & Knobe, J. (2014). Value Judgments and the True Self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 203-216. [verybadwizards.com] Frankfurt on the Hierarchical Will: Frankfurt, H. G. (1988). Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person (pp. 127-144). Humana Press. [verybadwizards.com] "Tarred and Feathered" episode of "This American Life," covering a man who started a support group to keep pedophiles from victimizing children. [thisamericanlife.org] Purim [wikipedia.org] Simchat Torah [wikipedia.org] Pizarro, D.A., Uhlmann, E., & Salovey, P. (2003). Asymmetry in judgments of moral blame and praise: The role of perceived metadesires. Psychological Science, 14, 267-272. [peezer.net] Cohen, A. B., & Rozin, P. (2001). Religion and the morality of mentality. Journal of personality and social psychology, 81, 697. [upenn.edu] Newman, G. E., Lockhart, K. L., & Keil, F. C. (2010). “End-of-life†biases in moral evaluations of others. Cognition, 115, 343-349. [yale.edu] Stupid Sexy Flanders! Special Guest: Joshua Knobe. Support Very Bad Wizards

A British tabloid article about kids, brains, and spatial skills somehow provokes the biggest argument ever on the podcast. Dave and Tamler get into it about gender, toys, properly rounded brains, and balanced "play diets." Is Dave a sanctimonious toe-the-line academic liberal? Is Tamler a Fox-News watching, mysoginist genetic determinist? Do they actually disagree about anything? Plus Dave takes Tamler back after his fling with Partially Examined Life, and we discuss whether the new documentary The Unbelievers the atheist version of God is Not Dead? Links The Partially Examined Life podcast, and Tamler's Precognition of Ep. 93. [partiallyexaminedlife.com] Girls and boys DO have different brains – should they have different toys? by Rachel Carlyle [express.co.uk] The Unbelievers [unbelieversmovie.com] My Growing Disappointment with the New Atheist Movement: A Review of the The UnBelievers. Ami Palmer. [missiontotransition.blogspot.com] Nosek, B. A., Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (2002). Math= male, me= female, therefore math≠ me. Journal of personality and social psychology, 83, 44. [briannosek.com] Cvencek, D., Meltzoff, A. N., & Greenwald, A. G. (2011). Math–gender stereotypes in elementary school children. Child development, 82, 766-779. [washington.edu] Support Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler argue about the use of autonomous robots and drones in warfare. Could it lead to less suffering during wars and afterwards? Would nations be motivated to design robots that behave ethically on the battlefield? Can David get through an episode without mentioning Star Trek? Plus, Tamler distances himself from the villainous philosophy professor in the new movie God is Not Dead and David complains about the growing number of porn journals. Links Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) [kipp.org] God's Not Dead [imdb.org] Arkin, R. C. (2010). The case for ethical autonomy in unmanned systems. Journal of Military Ethics, 9(4), 332-341. Kahn, P. W. (2002). The Paradox of Riskless Warfare. Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, 22(3), 2-7. [yale.edu] Singer, P. W. (2009). Wired for war: The robotics revolution and conflict in the twenty-first century. Penguin. [amazon.com affiliate link] "A Taste of Armageddon" Episode 23, Star Trek (The Original Series) [wikipedia.org] Moral Machines in the Military Sphere by Dr. Paul Bello. http://robotsandyou.eucognition.org Bio: Paul Bello joined the Office of Naval Research as a Program Officer in the Warfighter Performance and Protections Department in May of 2007. Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler talk about a recent study that seems to support the view that "justice is what the judge had for breakfast" (or at least how long ago the parole board had breakfast), and that makes Tamler question his position on widening judicial discretion in criminal justice. In the second segment David tries to work out his guilt about manipulating consumers into buying stuff for whatever shadowy organization employs him (BEWorks!), and we discuss the ethics of nudges in government and consumer marketing. Should the government frame issues like organ donation in ways that will benefit society? How much of a threat are nudges to our autonomy? Should Apple take steps to ensure that people can control themselves when making in-app purchases? Tamler even comes up with a "theory," which means that there must have been something wrong with him. Please note that portions of the audio during the second segment are little spotty, likely due to a hex or poltergeist in one of the microphones. We'll have that worked out for the next episode. Enjoy! (For the handful who have asked--if you like the music David makes for the podcast, you can listen/download to your heart's content at www.soundcloud.com/peezismyname). Links Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889-6892. [pnas.org] "Prisoners of our own resources" by Jonathan Levav, TEDx Rio de la Plata [youtube.com] Capestany, B. H., & Harris, L. T. (2014). Disgust and biological descriptions bias logical reasoning during legal decision-making. Social neuroscience, 1-13. [tandfonline.com] Asymmetric Dominance (Decoy Effect) [wikipedia.org] Opting-in vs Opting-out of organ donations [nytimes.com] The evil stuff people do with in app purchases and games [ibtimes.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Can a fully determined creature deliberate? How big a role does conscious reasoning play in moral judgment and everyday life? Are we responsible for our thoughts and actions? Paul Bloom rejoins us against his better judgment to discuss his book "Just Babies" and his recent article in The Atlantic that set the internet on the fire and riled up the likes of Sam Harris and Jerry Coyne. Plus, what's the difference (if any) between getting into a Star Trek transporter and getting an axe to the head, and why does David know so much about boy bands? Links Just Babies by Paul Bloom [amazon.com-vbw affiliate link] The War on Reason by Paul Bloom [theatlantic.com] Jerry Coyne replies to Paul Bloom's Article [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com] Bloom replies to Coyne [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com] Tamler is the only one who realized he has a face for radio. Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave keeps trying to explain to Tamler that we're not a movie podcast, but somehow they're doing another podcast about movies. This time they each list their top 5 movies featuring moral dilemmas. Also, Tamler tries to rationalize the Woody Allen controversy, Ozymandias from Watchmen says "screw you Paul Bloom," Dave confuses Maggie Gyllenhaal with Droopy, and for the second time ever we have to censor something one of us (Tamler) says. Put on your astronaut adult diapers, folks, it's a long one. Links Dylan Farrow's Story [nytimes.com] Woody Allen Speaks Out [nytimes.com] The Woody Allen Allegations: Not So Fast [thedailybeast.com] "It's shockingly easy to create false memories" by Cara Laney [thedailybeast.com] Elizabeth Loftus [wikipedia.org] Watchmen Graphic Novel [wikipedia.org] The Vengeance Trilogy [wikipedia.org] Droopy Dog [wikipedia.org] Maggie Gyllenhal looks like Droopy Dog [cheezeburger.com] "Hard Determinism, Punishment, and Funishment" by Saul Smilansky [philosophycommons.typepad.com] Tamler's Top 5 (links all go to IMDB.com) The Third Man Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance In Bruges La Femme du Boulanger (The Baker's Wife) Gone Baby Gone David's Top 5 The Dark Knight Watchmen Minority Report 3:10 to Yuma Executive Decision Tamler's Honorable Mentions Movies that couldn't be talked about without spoilers: Oldboy (Park Chanwook's not fucking Spike Lee's). Mother The Maltese Falcon Seven Movies too close to personal identity Solaris Shutter Island So close... Beast of the Southern Wild. 3:10 to Yuma The Dark Knight Casablanca The Insider Donnie Brasco Maltese Falcon Shane Do the Right Thing Princess Mononoke Support Very Bad Wizards

Jesse Graham joins us for part 2 of our discussion on the nature of morality, and his recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. He highlights the key components of MFT, defends himself against our accusations of weaseling out of the normative implications of MFT, champions "Synechdoche, New York" as one of the greatest films ever made, and comes out of the closet as a rationalist. Also in this episode, Tamler begins to defend Sam Harris (you read that right) from Dan Dennett's criticisms of Harris' Free Will--and then we pull back and realize that we need to devote a whole episode to Dennett's review. Links Dan Dennett's review of "Free Will" by Sam Harris [naturalism.org] Free Will by Sam Harris [amazon.com affiliate link] Jesse Graham's lab website [usc.edu] Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism by Jesse Graham et al. Synechdoche, New York (RIP Phllip Seymour Hoffman!) Special Guest: Jesse Graham. Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler bounce back this week after having to trash the last episode. Does morality ultimately boil down to a single principle (such as harm or justice), or is there more to ethical life than is dreamt of in the minds of philosophers? We settle this question once and for all in the first of a 2-part episode in which we discuss Jesse Graham et al's recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. (Jesse Graham himself will join us for part 2). Plus: how liberal is this podcast? We'll give you the precise percentage after taking a Time.com quiz that purports to measure political leanings, (and which includes that perennial litmus test of political preferences: is it OK to come home and find your partner watching porn?) Links Can TIME predict your politics? [science.time.com] Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism Foundations Theory (in press, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology) by Graham, J. et al [usc.edu] Old School [imdb.com] "Boy, I've Put You in a Really Tough Spot, Haven't I?" by Woody Allen [onion.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Who is the real you? What happens to your identity when your body gets cloned or reconstituted with all the same memories and character traits? Does society construct our true selves or repress them? Can we ever escape our pasts and become different people? Dave thinks conceptual analysis and arousal measuring devices can solve all these problems but allows Tamler his dream of temporarily becoming the host of a movie podcast. They list their top 5 favorite movies about personal identity. Plus, do they have to eat still more crow--this time from Sam Harris? Links Personal Identity [plato.stanford.edu] Google Glass [youtube.com] Tamler's Top 5 5. Fight Club 4. A Clockwork Orange 3. Infernal Affairs 2. Moon 1. A History of Violence David's Top 5 5. Blade Runner 4. Vertigo 3. Looper 2. Groundhog Day 1. Back to the Future Honorable Mentions Solaris (Russian version) Being John Malkovich Memento My Fair Lady All of Me Zelig One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Spirited Away The Prestige Shutter Island Unforgiven Side Effects Any Star Trek Movie Support Very Bad Wizards

The guest we've been waiting for--Nina Strohminger--joins us to talk about the connection between disgust and humor, cheap laughs, moral character and personal identity, and the British opt-in plan for porn. Plus: how psychologists measure erections and Dave goes Platonist about the form of hilarity. Tamler's daughter should have issued an extra strong disclaimer for this one. Links Nina Strohminger [ninastrohminger.com] David Cameron Proposes Porn Filter [thedailybeast.com] Strohminger, N. and Nichols, S. (in press). The Essential Moral Self. Cognition. Special Guest: Nina Strohminger. Support Very Bad Wizards

Our most irresponsible episode ever! Dave and Tamler talk about two reviews of a book they haven't read--Joshua Greene's Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them--and feel only a little shame. (Since the recording, at least one of us has finished the book). Can Greene successfully debunk all non-utilitarian intuitions? Does Greene have a dark enough view of human nature? What would an ideal moral world look like? Will Dave ever stop making fun of Tamler's haunted boy haircut? We answer all of these questions and more. Plus we respond to a listener's email and read a couple of our favorite iTunes reviews. Links Moral tribes: Emotion, reason, and the gap between us and them by Joshua Greene [amazon.com] Joshua Greene's website [harvard.edu] Why can't we all just get along? The uncertain biological basis of morality. Robert Wright reviews "Moral Tribes" for The Atlantic. You Can't Learn About Morality from Brain Scans: The problem with moral psychology. Thomas Nagel Reviews "Moral Tribes" for the New Republic If you don't already have it, Tamler's interview with Joshua Greene and Liane Young in his book A Very Bad Wizard is worth the read [amazon.com] On Debunking (Tamler's five part series of posts at Eric Schwitzgebel's blog The Splintered Mind) *book links are amazon affiliate links. They are the same price for you but sends a few pennies our way. Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler talk about the influence of character judgments on attributions of blame. What is the function of the blame--to assign responsibility or to judge a person's character? Is it fair that we blame douchebags more than good people who commit exactly the same act, or is it yet another cognitive bias that should be avoided? Plus we delve into the Richie Incognito hazing story (maybe a little early since the story has developed) and Tamler tries to figure out how to teach the Gospels to students who know roughly 100 times as much about them than he does. Links "The Miami Dolphins and Everything that Will Never Make Sense." by Andrew Sharp. (grantland.com) Interview with Richie Incognito (youtube.com) Gospel of Matthew [wikipedia.org] Synoptic Gospels [wikipedia.org] Pizarro, D.A. & Tannenbaum, D. (2011). Bringing character back: How the motivation to evaluate character influences judgments of moral blame. In M. Mikulincer & Shaver, P. (Eds) The Social psychology of morality: Exploring the causes of good and evil. APA Press. A recent chapter on character and moral psychology that David wrote (with Roy Baumeister) just to be able to talk about comics and porn : Superhero Comics as Moral Pornography. In R. Rosenberg (Ed.) Our Superheroes, Ourselves. Oxford University Press. Tannenbaum, D., Uhlmann, E. L., & Diermeier, D. (2011). Moral signals, public outrage, and immaterial harms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(6), 1249-1254. Support Very Bad Wizards

Special guest Will Wilkinson joins the podcast to talk about whether fiction makes us better people, and to discuss his recent Daily Beast article that trashed Dave's profession and livelihood. Also, Dave and Tamler try to make sense of Ancient Greek justice in a myth about incest, adultery, daughter-killing, husband-killing, matricide, cannibalism, and trash talking to disembodied heads. Links Agamemnon [wikipedia.org] Will Wilkinson [wikipedia.org] The Will Wilkinson article that hurt David's feelings [thedailybeast.com] Hurt Feelings by Flight of the Concords [youtube.com] Does great literature make us better? by Gregory Currie [nytimes.com] Reading literature makes us smarter and nicer by Annie Murphy Paul [time.com] Want to learn how to think? Read fiction by Tom Jacobs [psmag.com] In Pursuit of Happiness Research [pdf] by Will Wilkinson Special Guest: Will Wilkinson. Support Very Bad Wizards

Special guest Laurie Santos (Psychology, Yale) joins us to talk about what animal cognition can tell us about human nature. Why are other primates better at resisting the misleading influence of others than humans? Is conformity a byproduct of our sophisticated cultural learning capacities? Are we more like Chimpanzees or Bonobos? Why does Dave spend so much time writing Smurf fan fiction? [Smurf you, Tamler. -dap]. Also, Dave and Tamler talk about a scathing review of Malcolm Gladwell's new book, and Eliza Sommers poses the question of the day. This was a fun one. Links Comparative Cognition Laboratory [yale.edu] Laurie Santos and Jesse Bering on The Mind Report [bloggingheads.tv] Buy Jesse Bering's latest book "Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us" [amazon.com affiliate link] Philospher's Pipe (a directory of podcasts related to philosophy) [philosopherspipe.com] Smurfette [wikipedia.org] Horner, V., & Whiten, A. (2005). Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens). Animal cognition, 8(3), 164-181. Kovács, Ã. M., Téglás, E., & Endress, A. D. (2010). The social sense: Susceptibility to others’ beliefs in human infants and adults. Science, 330(6012), 1830-1834. True Bonobo Love [youtube.com] Bonobos vs. Chimps [youtube.com] What does the fox say? [youtube.com] "The Trouble With Malcolm Gladwell." by Christopher Chabris [Slate.com]. "Christopher Chabris Should Calm Down" by Malcolm Gladwell [Slate.com] Special Guest: Laurie Santos. Support Very Bad Wizards

Part II of our discussion on Rai and Fiske (sort of): We answer a listener's email and in the process get into an episode long argument about moral intuitions, psychological facts, the implications of moral disagreement. Before that, we talk about the recent study about testicles and parenting. We don't play small ball on this one. Links Testicular volume is inversely correlated with nurturing-related brain activity in human fathers [pnas.org] "Study: You May be a Terrible Dad Because You Have Enormous Testicles" "Aw Nuts! Nurturing Dads Have Smaller Testicles, Study Shows" "Want to Know if Your Partner Will Be a Good Dad? Measure His Testicles." Frances Kamm [wikipedia.org] Reflective Equilibrium [plato.stanford.edu] Doris, J. M., and Plakias, A. (2008). "How to Argue about Disagreement: Evaluative Diversity and Moral Realism." In Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.), Moral Psychology, Volume 2: The Cognitive Science of Morality. Cambridge: MIT Press Support Very Bad Wizards

In the first of a two-part episode, we discuss one of our favorite recent papers--Tage Rai and Alan Page Fiske's 2011 paper on how social relationships shape and motivate our moral emotions and judgments. We also talk about Sam Harris' $20,000 Moral Landscape Challenge, and whether there's any real chance of convincing him that the arguments he made in The Moral Landscape (first published in English in 2011) are wrong. Links Sam Harris' Moral Landscape Challenge [samharris.org] Alan Fiske's overview of Relational Models Theory [sscnet.ucla.edu] Tage Rai's research [kellogg.northwestern.edu] Rai, T. S., & Fiske, A. P. (2011). Moral psychology is relationship regulation: moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological review, 118, 57-75. [irsp.ucla.edu] Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler celebrate their one year anniversary and 30th episode with one of their least cynical episodes yet. They talk about 5 philosophy/psychology(-ish) books that influenced and inspired them throughout the years. They also respond to a listener email that accuses them (mostly Tamler) of being "reckless and irresponsible" in their discussion of responding to insults. Episode Links (Please note that the Top 5 links below are to purchase books through amazon.com via the Very Bad Wizards amazon affiliate account) Tamler's Top 5 5. The Razor's Edge 4. Culture Of Honor: The Psychology Of Violence In The South (New Directions in Social Psychology)/Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence 3. The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science) 2. Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions 1. Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (Penguin Classics) David's Top 5 5. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman 4. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid 3. The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology 2. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies 1. Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions Honorable Mentions Revenge: A Story of Hope. Laura Blumenfeld Mortal Questions by Thomas Nagel The Fragility of Goodness by Martha Nussbaum Not by Genes Alone: by Peter Richerson and Richard Boyd The Principles of Psychology by William James Descartes Error by Antonio Damasio Beyond Good and Evil Thus Spoke Zarathustra The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong by J.L. Mackie Finally... David shows Richard Dawkins "Lemon Party" Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler try to artificially bulk up their expertise on the ethics of performance enhancing drugs and end up raising a lot more questions than they answer. Why do we condemn certain methods for boosting performance on the playing field and praise others? Why is it OK to train at high altitudes but not in hyperbaric chambers that simulate high altitudes? Why is Lance Armstrong a villain and Graham Greene (who wrote many of his most famous novels on benzedrine) a hero? Is there genetic therapy to cure haunted child haircuts, and if there is, how can Tamler get access to it? Of course, no discussion on PEDs would be complete without clips from South Park and Sanford and Son. Also, David misremembers Lyle Alzado as a regular on an 80's sitcom because of a single appearance on "Small Wonder." We probably should have taken some podcast enhancing drugs for this one. Links Performance-enhancing drugs [wikipedia.org] Benzedrine [wikipedia.org] What do Auden, Sartre, and Ayn Rand have in common? Amphetamines [slate.com] Lyle Alzado [wikipedia.org] "Turin Sample: The nonsense of Olympic doping rules" by William Saletan [slate.com] "Brain Gain: The underground world of 'neuroenhancing' drugs" by Margaret Talbot [newyorker.com] Adderall [wikipedia.org] Modafinil (Provigil) [wikipedia.org] "A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems" -Paul Erdos [amphetamines.org] Up the down steroid [southparkstudios.com] Sanford and Son: "Gorilla Cookies" [youtube.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler try their best to do a show without guests--we talk about moral persuasion, motivated reasoning, and whether it's legitimate to use emotionally charged rhetoric in a philosophical argument. Plus, we describe how students proceed through the "Stages-of-Singer," and Tamler finally defends himself against Dave's slanderous accusation of hypocrisy about animal welfare. Links Thomson, J. J. (1971). A defense of abortion. Philosophy & Public Affairs,1, 47-66. Marquis, D. (1989). Why abortion is immoral. The Journal of Philosophy, 86(4), 183-202. Ditto, P. H., & Lopez, D. F. (1992). Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63 (4), 568. Ditto, P.H., Pizarro, D.A., & Tannenbaum, D. (2009). Motivated Moral Reasoning. In B. H. Ross (Series Ed.) & D. M. Bartels, C. W. Bauman, L. J. Skitka, & D. L. Medin (Eds.), Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 50: Moral Judgment and Decision Making. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Dawson, E., Gilovich, T., & Regan, D. T. (2002). Motivated Reasoning and Performance on the Wason Selection Task. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1379-1387. Sam's House, an orphanage in Nepal [sams-house.org] The identifiable victim effect [wikipedia.org] Tamler's mediocre TEDx talk on Moral Persuasion [youtube.com] 10 Classic South Park Impressions (including Sally Struthers) [youtube.com] *musical breaks in this episode stolen from DJ Premier and Jay Electronica. Please don't sue. Support Very Bad Wizards

Our streak of very special guests continues! Philosopher Eddy Nahmias joins the podcast to us why people mistakenly think they're not morally responsible, and how his new study casts doubt on Sam Harris's "pamphlet" on free will. Eddy also describes his new project (with Toni Adleberg and Morgan Thompson) on why women leave philosophy. Plus Dave and I discuss some reasons for having children, and eat a little Partially Examined Life crow. Links "Name five women in philosophy. Bet you can't." Tania Lombrozo, [npr.og] "Do Women Have Different Philosophical Intuitions than Men?" Eddy Nahmias (philosophyofbrains.com) "Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?' Eddy Nahmias. [nytimes.com] Eddy on Bypassing [agencyandresponsbility.typepad.com] Edd trashing Tamler's Book [agencyandresponsbility.typepad.com] Special Guest: Eddy Nahmias. Support Very Bad Wizards

Psychologist and author Jesse Bering joins us to talk about evolutionary psychology and his forthcoming book Perv. In the relatively uncontroversial part of the episode, we ask if homophobia is an adaptation and if women have evolved rape defenses. After that, sex with animals, sex with bookshelves, foot fetishes, amputee fetishes, falling down the stairs fetishes... I don't know, just listen. Or maybe don't. Jesse Bering [jessebering.com] Perv (pre-order) by Jesse Bering [amazon.com] "Darwin's Rape Whistle," by Jesse Bering [slate.com] "Natural Homophobes?" by Jesse Bering [scientificamerican.com] The Belief Instinct by Jesse Bering [amazon.com] Why is the Penis Shaped Like That? by Jesse Bering [amazon.com] "I think you're some kind of deviated prevert." [youtube.com] Special Guest: Jesse Bering. Support Very Bad Wizards

Josh Knobe, the Michael Corleone of experimental philosophy, joins us to talk about taking philosophy into the lab and the streets. We discuss how people moralize everyday concepts like intention, causation, and innateness. Dave wonders if X-phi people are just doing social psychology, and Tamler tries his best to get Josh mad with his critique of Josh's experimental work on free will. He might have succeeded but that argument had to be cut a little short this time. We'll have to have Josh back for the rematch! Links Experimental philosophy Anthem [youtube.com] Experimental Philosophy [fun 3 minute overview, youtube.com] The Experimental Philosophy webpage. Josh Knobe's webpage Person as Scientist, Person as Moralist by Joshua Knobe Philosophy meets the real world [slate.com] In Memoriam: The X-Phi Debate by Tamler Sommers [Philosophers Magazine] Experimental Philosophy and Free Will: An Intervention by Tamler Sommers Experimental Philosophy [wikipedia.org] Using the Knobe effect as an implicit measure of homophobia: Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., Knobe, J., & Bloom, P. (2009). Disgust sensitivity predicts intuitive disapproval of gays, Emotion, 9, 435-439. Special Guest: Joshua Knobe. Support Very Bad Wizards

Paul Bloom joins us in the second segment for a lively discussion about the value of empathy as a guide our moral decisions. And in our first scoop, we talk about Paul's new book (coming in November) Just Babies: The Origin of Good and Evil , racist babies, and how 80s sitcoms changed the world. In the first segment, Dave and Tamler face the music and try to respond to a listener's criticisms of their episode on slurs and offensiveness (Episode 22) . Links The Baby in the Well: The Case Against Empathy by Paul Bloom [newyorker.com] Descartes' Baby by Paul Bloom [amazon.com] Jesse Prinz "Is empathy necessary for morality" [subcortex.com] Pizarro, Bloom, and Detweiler-Bedell on the empathy, disgust, and the moral circle [peezer.net] Pre-order Just babies: The origins of good and evil by Paul Bloom [amazon.com] Louis CK: My Life is Really Evil. Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave, Tamler, and special guest Yoel Inbar break down Sam Peckinpah's brilliant (at least according to one of us) 1971 film Straw Dogs. They talk about the notorious rape scene, the meaning of the final siege, standing up to Cornish townies, and whether the urge to respond to insults is rational in in modern society. Also: Yoel and Tamler go another round in their debate about statistics and grad school. Links Straw Dogs [imdb.com] Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net] "The Power of Straw Dogs" [dailybeast.com] Edward Copeland on Straw Dogs [eddieonfilm.blogspot.com] "Home Like No Place: Peckinpah's Straw Dogs." [criterion.com] Musical interlude courtesy of Monibeatz [http://monibeatz.bandcamp.com/] Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Support Very Bad Wizards

In what might very well be the last episode before we're pulled off the air, Tamler outlines his data-free "theory" of what makes something offensive. What makes a joke about race, ethnicity, gender, disability funny sometimes, and deeply hurtful at other times? What makes Louis CK so goddamn funny and Andrew Dice Clay just...an asshole? Is Family Guy racist? Throughout the episode, David defends the victims of hatred and is a voice of empathy and reason, while Tamler drops the c-word multiple times, jumps to racist conclusions, and makes fun of David's partial Arab heritage. Links Louis CK and his friends discuss the word f@**%t Wikipedia on F**** and C*** [wikipedia.org] Bill Burr on the c-word [youtube.com] Andy Ihnatko's podcast on 5by5.tv, where he discusses why Family Guy is not funny The Troubling Viral Trend of the "Hilarious" Black Neighbor by Aisha Harris [slate.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler shrug off inside baseball concerns and argue whether to go to grad school, what to do when you get there, and share horror stories about the job market. Also, Tamler explains why the sorority sister who wrote the infamous email is a "civil rights visionary," Dave refuses to say "c*#t punt," and listener contributions from Boomer Trujillo, Yoel Inbar, Rachel Grazioplene, Dave Tucker, and Nina Strohminger. Links Michael Shannon Reads Sorority Letter [funnyordie.com] David Ortiz Pregame Speech [youtube.com] Twitter beef "Thesis Hatement" by Rebecca Schuman [slate.com] "Thesis Defense" by Katie Roiphie [slate.com] The Impossible Decision by Joshua Rothman [newyorker.com] VBW Bonus content: Dave and Yoel inbar on the "replicability crisis." Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler begin with a brief, heartfelt discussion about the Boston Bombings. Tamler talks about why Patriots' Day and the Boston Marathon mean so much to a kid growing up in Boston. They speculate a bit about the motive behind the attack and ask why the perpetrators didn't come out and claim responsibility. In the second and third segments, Molly Crockett joins us to challenge Fiery Cushman for the prize of classiest episode ever. She tells us about her research on the effects of serotonin depletion on retributive behavior, and how it was reported as "Chocolate and Cheese help you make better decisions" in the popular media. We talk about the responsibility that scientists have to make sure that their studies are reported properly, and how brain research can (despite David's previous claims) help shed light on human nature and behavior. Also: Tamler mangles the pronunciation of roughly 14 brain regions, Dave yearns for the days when restrictions of human experimentation were non-existent, and both Dave and Tamler subtly and then not so subtly try to get Molly to hook them up with...molly. Enjoy! Links Dirty Water by the Standells [youtube.com] Patriots' Day [wikipedia.org] Molly Crockett [mollycrockett.com] Crockett, M. J., Clark, L., Tabibnia, G., Lieberman, M. D., & Robbins, T. W. (2008). Serotonin modulates behavioral reactions to unfairness. Science, 320, 1739. Serotonin [wikipedia.org] Striatum [wikipedia.org] DMT [wikipedia.org] Special Guests: Fiery Cushman and Molly Crockett. Support Very Bad Wizards

Re-recording a not-so-tragically lost episode (it kinda sucked), Dave and Tamler talk about the things they hate most about philosophy and psychology. But first they discuss a blog post by a Rochester professor that wonders why it's not OK to rape someone who's passed out. Also: same-sex marriage, telling dirty jokes to your daughter, Meredith Baxter Birney, Lifetime movies, how to eat crawfish, and Dave takes a bold, even heroic, stand by criticizing a Republican senator. Links In honor of our 19th episode, some Paul Hardcastle for you.. Opening clip: Bridge on the River Kwai [youtube.com] Economist: Rapists reaping rewards of passed out girls [gawker.com] Molly Crockett's TEDx Talk on Neuro-Bunk [TED.com] Friendship and Freedom (blog post, Flickers of Freedom--Tamler and Saul Smilanksy get into it about the "dubiousness" of gratitude in the comments ) The Ikea Effect [hbr.org] Paul Bloom and David talk about social psychology's dismissal of reason [bloggingheads.tv] Donate to Oxfam. It will feel good. And then afterwards... Support Very Bad Wizards

Joe Henrich joins the podcast to tell us that we know nothing about his work and that how we got to teach a class in anything is absolutely amazing. We continue our discussion from Episode 17 about his critique of the social and behavioral sciences in "The Weirdest People in the World" and his work in small scale societies on fairness norms. We also talk about the weird American obsession with happiness, monkeys throwing cucumbers, and why some people reject "hyper-fair" offers of more than the half the pot in the ultimatum games. Links "I happen to have Marshall Mcluhan right here." (From Woody Allen's Annie Hall.) Longer HD version here Joe Henrich UBC.ca | Wikipedia The Machiguenga [wikipedia.org] Henrich on Brosnan and DeWaal's capuchin inequity aversion study. Chicha [wikipedia.org] How much money would it take for you to kill a puppy? [liveleak.com] Relevant papers are listed in the notes for Episode 17: Learning About Bushmen from Studying Freshmen? Special Guest: Joe Henrich. Support Very Bad Wizards

Thousands of studies in psychology rely on data from North American undergraduates. Can we really conclude anything about the "human" mind from such a limited sample-- especially since Westerners are probably more different from the rest of the world's population than any other group? We talk about Joseph Henrich and colleagues' critique of the behavioral sciences in their paper "The WEIRDEST People in the World." David offers a defense of psychology, arguing that it's usually not the goal of lab studies to generalize findings to all humans in the first place. Also, Tamler gives a brief, heartfelt, completely non-awkward rant about monkey torturer Harry Harlow and David defends the practice of electrocuting baby monkeys for no reason. Links The Gods Must Be Crazy [IMDB.com] Bushmen [wikipedia.org] Homo Economicus [wikipedia.org] The Ultimatum Game [wikipedia.org] Müller-Lyer illusion [wikipedia.org] We aren't the world [psmag.com] Harlow studies [wikipedia.org] Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010).The weirdest people in the world. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61-83. Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., & McElreath, R. (2001). In search of homo economicus: behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. American Economic Review, 73-78. Mook, D.G. (1983). In Defense of External Invalidity. American Psychologist, 38,379-387. Support Very Bad Wizards

For those who thought our most uncomfortable topics were behind us, on this episode we are joined by David's childhood friend Damani McDole [facebook.com] to discuss several potentially offensive topics surrounding race and justice in America, such as slavery, reparations, affirmative action, and the use of the N-word. When Damani mounts an economic and moral defense for reparations for the descendants of slaves, David prefers to point to the difficulties in deciding who gets paid ( someone who's 1/16th descended from slaves? Jamaican-Americans? African immigrants?) and who should be responsible for paying (only people whose descendants benefitted from slavery? all non-slave descended taxpayers?). Tamler proposes (taking a note from Lenny Bruce) that if we use the N-word often enough it will lose its sting, and decides to practice what he preaches. And Damani reveals a surprising theory about race and geography (surprising for a Black man, at least) that leaves Tamler awkwardly speechless. For those who are visually inclined: here's a one-minute set of behind-the-scenes clips from our Google+ Hangout: Links Nigger [wikipedia.org] Leonardo DiCaprio bleeds for his role in Django Unchained [cinemablend.com] Lenny Bruce- Are there any niggers here tonight? [youtube.com] 60-year old white man slaps Black baby [thesmokinggun.com] The truth about 40 Acres and a Mule [theroot.com] The "great migration" of American Blacks out of the South [inmotionaame.org] 1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion [theroot.com] Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle on Iconoclasts [sundancechannel.com] Bonus: Dave Chappelle imagines reparations [youtube.com] Special Guest: Joseph Damani McDole. Support Very Bad Wizards

You don't need to be a psychologist or a philosopher to enjoy a good, old-fashioned bitch-fest. In the first of a two-part episode (no single compact disc, 8-track, or LP could hold all our complaints), Tamler and David list two of the things that bug them about their respective fields. We take issue with bad writing, brain worship, meaningless questions, and psychologists' obsession with the number two. Enjoy and try not to hold it against us. Links Simpsons clip on philosophy majors [youtube.com] Peter Hacker on philosophy [leiterreports.typepad.com] Business-speak buzzwords [wikipedia.org] Dual process theory [wikipedia.org] Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman [amazon.com] Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology [amazon.com] Gettier Problem [wikipedia.org] Seduced by the flickering lights of the brain by Paul Bloom [seedmagazine.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

In a break from tradition, we recorded a 25-minute episode on the morality of tattletaling, snitching, ratting, and whistleblowing. We discuss why these people seem especially despicable (except for maybe "Bubbles" from "The Wire" and the guy from "The Insider"), and David gets Tamler to agree that he'd never turn him into the police. We also puzzle over the existence of porn theaters, and the origins of the expression "flip a bitch." Links Stop Snitchin' campaign [wikipedia.org] Bubbles (character from "The Wire") [wikipedia.org] Time Magazine Persons of the Year: Whistleblowers [time.com] Ingram, G. P., & Bering, J. M. (2010). Children's tattling: The reporting of everyday norm violations in preschool settings. Child development, 81, 945-957. Obie Trice feat. Akon "Snitch" "Dry Snitching" [urbandictionary.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

Our classiest episode yet (OK, that's not saying much, but still...)--Psychologist Fiery Cushman joins us for a discussion about collective punishment and collective responsibility. We use Fiery's recent paper on the practice of "beaning" in baseball (punishing one player for a teammate's offense by throwing a 95 MPH fastball at the player's head) to illustrate the phenomenon. Is the "innocent" player being punished because he is somehow morally responsible for his teammate's offense? Or does deserve have nothing to do with it? Also in this episode: listener feedback (sort of, we're just psyched to have a Norwegian stand-up comic as a listener), and Fiery solves the 3,000 year-old problem of moral responsibility just so he can get out of Dave's hotel room. Links Fiery Cushman [brown.edu] Beanball [wikipedia.org] Hatfield-McCoy Blood Feud [wikipedia.org] Major League (1989) [imdb.com] Revenge: A story of hope, by Laura Blumenfeld Blood Revenge, by Christopher Boehm "The Two Faces of Revenge: Moral Responsibility and the Culture of Honor." T Sommers. "John Kruk and Desert." [Flickers of Freedom blog post] Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler square off the role of the victim in criminal punishment and find little to agree about. Tamler defends the restorative justice approach, while Dave expresses skepticism about its value and worries it might even be damaging. Arguments ensue, but be sure to stick around for the third segment as it features an unusually focused and productive discussion--for them anyway. Also discussed: the best character on "The Wire," the startling specificity of KG's trash-talking, and a listener calls us out on not justifying the meaningfulness of life. Links Family Guy- Breaking Bad (and The Wire) [youtube.com] The Wire- Omar in court [youtube.com] Restorative Justice [wikipedia.org] Christie, N. (1977). Conflicts as Property. British Journal of Criminology Greg Ousley is sorry for killing his parents. Is that enough? [NY Times magazine] "The Caging of America" by Adam Gopnik. [New Yorker] "Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?" [NY Times magazine] Support Very Bad Wizards

Social psychologist Yoel Inbar joins Tamler and David to discuss Clint Eastwood's masterpiece of the Western genre, "Unforgiven." The discussion includes the nature of revenge, the requirements of justice, the rules of nicknaming, and who or what was being referred to as "unforgiven" in the movie's title. Links Unforgiven (1992): IMDB, Wikipedia Page If you haven't seen "Unforgiven," don't worry : Story Spoilers Don't Spoil Stories Actor Saul Rubinek [wikipedia.org] Relevant Book about moral character by a couple of great social psychologists: Out of Character: Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Support Very Bad Wizards

Does life have meaning if there is no God? Why should I be a good person if there's no reward or punishment waiting for me in the afterlife? Why does religion seem to make people happier and healthier? Dave and Tamler heroically try to answer these questions without being stoned. Other topics include Dave's paralyzing fear of death, bad times on mopeds, and the pros and cons of naming your daughter Chlamydia. They almost get through the episode without having to censor something--but not quite. Links Woody Allen's "Love and Death" Paul Bloom- Does Religion Make You Nice? [Slate.com] Follow-up reading on religion and health (for the slightly academically inclined)- Powell, L. H., Shahabi, L., & Thoresen, C. E. (2003). Religion and spirituality: Linkages to physical health. American Psychologist, 58, 36. Pascal's Wager [wikipedia.org] Albert Camus [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] The Problem of Evil. [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] "Yes but subjectivity is objective." Collateral Support Very Bad Wizards

After discussing some listener feedback about the movie Swingers, Tamler and David talk about two classic experiments in social psychology: the Milgram Experiments and the Zimbardo Prison experiment. They discuss the power of the situation, its influence on recent philosophy, and whether there is room given the evidence to believe in moral character and virtue. Also, Tamler admits to his former struggles with hard core street drugs, and Dave ponders which prison gang would be most accepting if he had to serve hard time. Links "Swingers," Directed by Jon Favreau [metacritic.com] The Milgram Experiment [Wikipedia.org] Video clip of a replication of the Milgram Experiment [youtube.com] The Stanford Prison Experiment [Wikipedia.org] Short video on Stanford Prison Experiment [youtube.com] Asch Conformity Experiment [youtube.com] Jon Doris "Lack of Character" [amazon.com] Support Very Bad Wizards

In a Very Special Episode of Very Bad Wizards, Dan Ariely joins David to chat about cheating, character, teling your significant other about kissing someone at a conference, and the importance of moral rules. Tamler and David sandwich the chat with a discussion about the US Presidential election, the irony of moral psychologists making people do bad things, and end with a full-blown argument about what it means to say that something is morally wrong, and whether that's an interesting question. Links Buffy/Angel Crossover Viewing Guide Sir Ian McKellen on Ricky Gervais' "Extras" Eric Dondero's Democrat Boycott. Eric Dondero on who he would save: A family member who's a democrat or a republican child molester. Dan Ariely's podcast--"Arming the Donkeys" "The Honest Truth about Dishonesty" on Amazon.com Tamler's favorite kind of epistemology The debate about moral wrongness that Tamler thinks is stupid and David finds intriguing. Special Guest: Dan Ariely. Support Very Bad Wizards

After a clip from The Third Man, Dave and Tamler continue their discussion from Episode 6 on Ted Bundy, utilitarians, and trolley problems. They also talk about Tamler's TED talk envy, inappropriate acts with trees, and make a plea for more listener feedback. The second segment begins with the long-awaited return of the 'eat the poo-poo' clip, but this time in a somewhat relevant context. Dave and Tamler then discuss the role that emotions play in moral judgment and the role they should play. If we feel disgust at someone's behavior, does that mean the behavior is morally wrong? Tune in to find out… Links The Third Man Ferris Wheel Scene (maybe Dave will see this movie one day) Dave's TEDx talk, bumped up to TED (129,000 views) Tamler's TEDx talk, not as much bumping up. (676 views) "Consequentialist are Psychopaths" The Splintered Mind blog post Eat the poo poo Yuck by Dan Kelly "Grime and Punishment." Brief review of disgust and moral judgment from The Jury Expert by Yoel Inbar (the brains--and brawn--behind all the disgust work) and David P. Support Very Bad Wizards

Tamler contemplates ending it all because he can't get 'Call Me Maybe' out of his head, and Dave doesn't try to talk him out of it. This is followed by a discussion about drones, psychopaths, Canadians, Elle Fanning, horrible moral dilemmas, and the biggest rivalry in Ethics: utilitarians vs. Kantians. Links "Why I Refuse to Vote for Barack Obama." by Conor Friedersdorf "Why I Refuse to Refuse to Vote for Obama" by Robert Wright. Dave's study "The Mismeasure of Morals" The write-up of Dave's study in The Economist: "Goodness Has Nothing to Do With It" Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler continue their discussion about their favorite topic. They talk about the evolutionary origins of retributive behavior, cross-cultural differences in revenge norms, and the proportionate punishment for someone who gives your wife a foot massage. They also play a clipfrom an interview they conducted in Nosara with local attorney Andres Gonzalez about the Costa Rican treatment of the criminals they call 'pobrecitos.' Links "Would you give a man a foot massage?" Robert Frank's Passions Within Reason, one of the best books of the last 100 years. Tamler's article "The Two Faces of Revenge" Dave's post for the Harmony Blog: "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Become a Philosopher-in-Residence." Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave allows Tamler to rant about Sam Harris's strawman attacks on moral relativism before launching into discussion about revenge, justice, True Grit, and Michael Dukakis. Though they differ on many issues, Tamler and Dave agree that it's hard to satirize a guy with shiny boots. Links Sam Harris in the Huffington Post. "Brute force is better with Nazis." The answer that launched a series of Bush presidencies. "This ain't no coon hunt." ·Justice and Honor, Tamler's Psychology Today blog post. "Partial Desert" blog post at Flickers of Freedom. Support Very Bad Wizards

Tamler and Dave discuss recent work in philosophy and psychology about the differences in moral values and practices across cultures. We talk about the implications of moral diversity: does it mean that we cannot criticize that practices of other cultures? How should we regard moral disagreement? Are there objective "truths" in ethics? Somehow we need to play clips from The Big Lebowski and Pulp Fiction in order to resolve these questions. Links "No Donnie, these men are nihilists, nothing to be afraid of." Interview with Jon Haidt. "Pigs are filthy animals" Support Very Bad Wizards

Tamler and David discuss whether giving up our belief in free will makes us more likely to abandon our moral standards. Links "You Can't Handle the Truth!" Jesse Bering "Scientists say free will probably doesn't exist, but urge: "Don't stop believing!" Excellent accessible description of the Vohs and Schooler study that we discuss. Tamler's blog post in Psychology Today criticizing the pessimistic views of Smilansky and Vohs and Schooler: "No Soul? I can live with that. No free will? Aaahhhh!". "Eat the poo-poo." "Like ice cream…" Josh Knobe on free will and experimental philosophy. Tamler's dialogue on some of the problems with current experimental work on free will: "Free Will and Experimental Philosophy: An Intervention." "I want him dead! I want his family dead!" Uhlmann, Zhu, Pizarro & Bloom "Blood is Thicker: Moral Spillover Effects Based on Kinship" Support Very Bad Wizards

Dave and Tamler start out talking about the new wave of skepticism about free will and moral responsibility in the popular press from people like Sam Harris and Jerry Coyne. Neuroscience figures heavily in their arguments, but Dave and Tamler agree that neuroscientific data adds little of substance to the case other than telling us what we already know: human beings are natural biological entities. Dave also accuses Tamler of being a hipster philosopher for abandoning a view once it got popular. Next, we talk about what kind freedom we need to have in order to deserve blame and punishment. Do we need to create ourselves out of the swamps of nothingness? Dave comes out as a Star Trek nerd and asks whether we're all, in the end, like Data the android. They also wonder whether a belief in free will is all that's keeping us from having sex with our dogs. Finally, Dave grills Tamler about his new book on the differences in attitudes about free will and moral responsibility across cultures. After seeing how long they've been carrying on, they then agree to talk about all the stuff they left out in the next episode. Links Coyne, J. "Why You Don't Really Have Free Will." Sam Harris. "Free Will." Eddy Nahmias. "Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?" Galen Strawson "Luck Swallows Everything." Support Very Bad Wizards