Tag Archives: psychology

AWWTM: Risk compensation and bicycle helmets

Some months ago I left a series on bicycle helmets hanging while I got distracted with other things. We had looked at what the best evidence for the efficacy of helmets in preventing injury in the event of a crash … Continue reading

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AWWTM: Queuing

I’ve been meaning to write a bit more about the M4 bus lane, and the interesting things it says about psychology, but haven’t had the time, so here’s a rather crude brain dump while I sit in the dark on … Continue reading

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AWWTM: Engineering, psychology, and a bus on stilts

Last week I posted about tracked hovercraft and straddling buses — a tongue-in-cheek look at how through the ages engineers have proposed ever more overcomplicated engineering solutions in an attempt to manage our out-of-control transport problems.  I assumed that my … Continue reading

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AWWTM: Unskilled and unaware of it

Most road “accidents” may be accidental in the sense that they are unintended.  But few, if any, can be considered accidental in the sense that nobody was to blame.  In road accidents, somebody did something wrong, and it’s almost always … Continue reading

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AWWTM: A momentary attraction

Vaughan of the ever fascinating Mind Hacks discusses a recent study that looks at the effects of having an attractive passenger in the car on driver errors.  The researchers put forty people in driving simulators and made them drive through … Continue reading

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The lazy gene: in which I review a nature versus nurture debate six years late

This is another archive repost from the old blog, written in aug 2008. The psychologist Oliver James was on The Late Edition a couple of weeks ago.[1] His argument was unconvincing and his behaviour unimpressive. So I took a quick … Continue reading

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