Fragility. Who would expect such an innocent concept to dominate much of 20th century philosophy? Yet that’s what it did. Fragility is a disposition, and…
Denny BorsboomApril 10, 2024
When we assess psychological attributes, like depression, intelligence, or attitudes, we commonly use sets of items that “measure” the construct in question. A sizable literature…
Denny BorsboomNovember 3, 2022
One of the most controversial aspects of the scientific enterprise concerns the way scientific work is published. Basically, this works as follows. Scientists do research,…
Denny BorsboomJune 24, 2022
Of all the behaviors that people engage in, speech is the biggest mystery. Even the physical act of speaking is bizarre, if you think about…
Denny BorsboomFebruary 4, 2022
This summer, I learned I am getting a 2% raise as a result of the new CAO. The 2% raise holds for everyone – professors…
Denny BorsboomNovember 10, 2021
Humans can’t be trusted with data. Especially when the stakes are high, human beings have difficulty keeping their heads cool and their thinking straight. The…
Denny BorsboomOctober 5, 2021
My favorite character in The Lord of the Rings is Tom Bombadil, a jolly fellow who lives in the woods. Despite his youthful appearance, Bombadil…
Denny BorsboomMarch 12, 2021
Although humankind has a long history of dealing with epidemics, the Covid-19 pandemic has many novel features. Much of that has to do with the…
Denny BorsboomJanuary 18, 2021
In the past few months, I have been involved in research programs aimed to measure and promote social distancing. For example, in the Smart Distance…
Denny BorsboomNovember 23, 2020
We, humans, are social animals, and in accordance, our behavior is steered to a large extent by structures in our social environment. You do whatever…
Denny BorsboomOctober 12, 2020
There are certain complaints about psychological science that arise with clockwork regularity. Although they are never quite gone, the choirs of critics that lament these…
Denny BorsboomMay 25, 2020
Some time ago, when I was visiting the University of Oslo, I was introduced to a Norwegian psychometrician whom I will designate as professor X.…
Denny BorsboomApril 6, 2020
In his allegory of the cave, the philosopher Plato imagines a group of people seated in a cave, looking at a wall in front of…
Denny BorsboomMarch 23, 2020
In the past centuries, science has made amazing progress. The quintessential philosophical questions ‘What is stuff made of?’, ‘How did the universe come into being?’…
Denny BorsboomFebruary 13, 2020
I often hang out with scientists from different disciplines. Over the years, I have found that there exist profound differences in how people evaluate their…
Denny BorsboomJanuary 22, 2020
After the introduction of computers into scientific research in the late 1960s, a sizeable group of researchers thought intelligent robots were just around the corner.…
Denny BorsboomDecember 18, 2019
While the study of money is typically left to economists, it is actually a quintessential psychological phenomenon. If anyone should be able to explain how…
Denny BorsboomSeptember 11, 2019
One of the most amazing things that living creatures can do is find their way. If you think about it, this is far from trivial.…
Denny BorsboomJune 19, 2019
There are two types of questions: Easy Questions and Hard Questions. Easy Questions arise when you encounter a problem that you don’t know how to…
Denny BorsboomMay 14, 2019
Recently, the head of the Palistinian health services claimed that the high prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that have been reported in Palestine…
Denny BorsboomApril 8, 2019
In his book The Essential Tension, historian of science Thomas Kuhn recalls how he arrived at his famous idea that science progresses by abrupt revolutions…
Denny BorsboomJanuary 18, 2019