...many climate change skeptics don’t contest that the climate is warming. That’s rarely the issue. More often, the argument is that the relative contribution to warming of human activity/GHG emissions hasn’t been proven to exceed 50%. Or that the pace or extent of warming is not alarming, so does not require extraordinary measures.
All sorts of things inform our choice of payoff, for instance: ease of achieving, certainty of achieving, vividness, immediacy.... A lot of things to consider but usually these choices are made in a flash, below the threshold of consciousness, thanks to our extraordinary brains.
...'trigger' is also "a device that releases a spring-loaded mechanism" and that’s how I mean it. A trigger in this sense is what psychologists call an “affordance”: something that presents the possibility of an action on an object or environment. An affordance is an opportunity to achieve an outcome. In this way a trigger suggests a pay-off. Just like a doorknob, a trigger is not a cause of behavior but an enticement to act.
Brains and agents are prediction machines. Behind every behavior is an anticipated consequence. A pay-off. Before every behavior is its trigger. The trigger hints at a pay-off and sets the whole ABC sequence in motion.
Now let’s look at Financial Shocks, focusing on sudden cut-off of an income stream. Usually we’re talking about a job lost to employer action (being laid off) or disability. If people are less worried about financial shocks, they may save a little bit less than before.
Skeptics aren’t going to be impressed with ‘stories’ and ‘personal experiences’. They want to argue the science.
Thanks to memes, we can hold ourselves apart and consider the spectacle, thereby falling into delusion and wonder.
According to various brain imaging studies, mindfulness meditation can change the brain in ways consistent with observed or self-reported improvements in concentration, memory, and mood. The same has been found with prayer, cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy.
According to one study, being around the rich makes us want to buy status-enhancing "visible goods", like fancy cars or clothes. And that might reduce household savings by about 3% a year for the non-rich folks.
...plenty of environmentalists include humans in their circle of caring. It's just that their circle includes more than humans. Such caring doesn't need a rationale. It doesn't even need to be rational.
In the olden days, substantial down payments were required to buy a home. Rule of thumb was 20% - imagine! Nowadays, the average down payment amount for first time buyers ranges between 5 and 10 percent.
Between home equity, investment savings, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and supplemental insurance, most older Americans have the assets, income streams, and protections against adversity that are the envy of the age-impaired.
The decline in savings among rich countries is global, so whatever is behind this trend is unlikely to be specific to the US.
So it’s okay for thoughts, feelings, and sensations to make an appearance – to show up at the door - but it’s actually not okay to let them in. It’s about “letting go”, not “letting in”. Acknowledge and move on.
...mental activity (“thoughts and feelings”) the object of awareness, rather than sensory or somatic information. Is there something problematic about mental activity unattended by awareness, whereas sensory/somatic information doesn’t need to be supplemented with awareness?
Might the consistent application of these Moral Principles reduce overall well-being in society at large? If so, why might this happen and should anything be done about it?
I'll be brief: no self-respecting liberal would use the following terminology or concepts without wink wink irony: purity, decency, conformity, tradition, God as source of authority, pride of country, the rightness of gender roles, something being unnatural, chastity as virtue.
...start with questions, listen, ask follow-up questions, and keep your own opinions to yourself until after you have heard them out. That’s how you show respect.
If needs are for scarce resources that cannot be distributed equally, is the answer just to prevent everyone from accessing those resources? Why? Why not?
The big picture is not only about what really matters but also about how things work. People change political beliefs in part because they've come to a different understanding of how the world works. These changes in understanding often come about gradually in response to life experience and whatever narratives are available that help make sense of these experiences.