Culture & Religion — May 3, 2010

Guiding Lights

Recent research suggests that people all over the world might be modeling themselves after characters on soap operas—and that their lives are improved as a result.

bigthinkeditor

Recent research suggests that, all over the world, many people might be modeling themselves after characters on soap operas—and that it’s a good thing that they are. “Soaps, it turns out, are shaping behavior in ways that are subtle, profound and, from the standpoint of global development experts, positive,” writes Drake Bennett. “A team of economists credits Brazilian TV “novelas” for helping to dramatically lower a fertility rate that in 1960 was above six births per woman. Others have found that in India—where soaps dominate the airwaves—villages where people watch more TV give more responsibilities and rights to women and girls. … And research in the United States has found that health tips tucked into soaps have greater sticking power than with just about any other mode of transmission.”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Surprising Science

Group Think

Group theory “bridges the arts and sciences,” writes Steven Strogatz. “It addresses something the two cultures share—an abiding fascination with symmetry.”