Shocking people for profit

by Matt Seppings

People: not as nice as they think they are
[Via Field of Science Combined Feed]

A lot of experiments comparing religious and non-religious people go something like this: give the study subjects an imaginary scenario, ask them some questions about how they would react, and then ask them about their religious beliefs.

All well and good, except that it’s well known that we are not terribly good judges of our own behaviour. Most of us look at our own deeds through rose-tinted glasses – we tend to think that we’re kinder, more trustworthy, more intelligent and braver than we actually are.

Just how far divorced from reality we are was shown recently in an elegant study by Oriel Feldmanhall, a PhD candidate at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University, England. She’s just presented the research at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in San Francisco, California.

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Ask people hypothetically if they would shock someone for money and most say no (64%). Actually provide the money and almost all (96%) will not only say yes they will do it. Even though, as this study shows, the parts of their brains that deal with morality are very active. They will still do this. The only thing that makes a difference is if they actually see a person grimace or only see a hand jerk.

A nice demonstration of how the pursuit of money pushes against our inborn sense of morality and how we can ignore that sense, actually willing to hurt other people in order to help ourselves. It just shows how, given the right circumstances, we could all be bandits. This makes the likelihood of walking away from Omelas even harder.

Perhaps we  must construct better and more moral models for our culture if we are to walk away

This movie will make you mad

by whitelucy67

‘Inside Job’
[Via Daring Fireball]

Finally saw Inside Job, Charles Ferguson’s documentary on the 2008 global financial crisis. So good, but so angering. Clearly political, but, in a strong sense, utterly bi-partisan: both Republican and Democratic administrations have been equally in thrall to the Wall Street investment banks over the last 30 years.

In addition to serving as an excellent explanation of a complex story, photographically the movie is quite beautiful. Really well-done. Available to rent on iTunes.

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Watch politicians of all stripes allow investment banks to wreck our economy for their own gain in this Academy Award winner. Hear the bankers in their own words say as much. It may be THE story of our time. And you can watch it in HD from iTunes for less than $5.

It is everything great documentaries should be.

iPad subscriptions done right

Bloomberg Businessweek Launches iPad App
[Via Daring Fireball]

David Kaplan, for PaidContent:

A number of publishers have been griping about Apple’s unwillingness to share consumer data related to its app, as well as restrictions on iPad subscriptions preventing publishers from directing readers to a browser or some other means for completing a transaction. Additionally, publishers who accept Apple’s subscription policy require in-app purchase offers to be extended at the same price as the same offer made elsewhere.

None of these issues is a problem for BBW, Oke Okaro, Bloomberg’s global head of mobile told paidContent. “We are very pleased with Apple’s terms,” he said in a recent interview.

You know what’s different about Bloomberg than other news publishers? Bloomberg has always been looking ahead. They’ve never been rooted in print. They never let their legacy business (proprietary insanely expensive hardware terminals) get in the way of moving forward with new opportunities.

Another difference: they’re profitable and financially healthy.

Here’s their pricing deal for the Businessweek iPad app: free for print subscribers, $2.99 per month for an iPad-only subscription. That’s it. Affordable, fair, and simple.

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$3 a month is in the impulse buy range. It’ll be interesting to see how this progresses.