Does Organic Eating Make People Act Like Jerks?
A new study shows organic foodies’ humane regard for the well-being of animals makes some rather snobbish. The report, published last week in the Journal of Social Psychological & Personality Science, notes that exposure to organic foods can “harshen moral judgments.” (Nick Carbone, TIME)

Emotional Intelligence and Detecting Deceit
People who rate themselves as having high emotional intelligence tend to overestimate their ability to detect deception in others. They were overconfident in assessing the sincerity of others. Although emotional intelligence, in general, was not associated with being better or worse at discriminating between truths and lies, people with a higher ability to perceive and express emotion (a component of emotional intelligence) were not so good at spotting when people were telling lies. (LiveScience)

The Science Behind the Seven Deadly Sins
Researchers gathered at the MIT Museum last month to describe work they’ve conducted relevant to the deadly seven, as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. (Karen Weintraub, The Boston Globe)

BOOKS
The Storytelling Animal
There’s no escaping stories, or the pressures to tell them. And so the pathetic story-pitcher turns to pop science—to Jonathan Gottschall’s new book, The Storytelling Animal, for instance—for some scientific, or at least speculative, ideas about what makes stories work and why we like them. (Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker)

VIDEO
Is Magical Thinking Good for You?
Matthew Hutson’s book The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking is about the ways most people, even atheists, are prone to illusions—ranging from out-and-out superstitions to subtler departures from rationalism. Are these illusions, on balance, a good thing? (Robert Wright, The Wright Show, Slate)

Why We Fight
A collection of articles explores the evolutionary roots of violent conflict and analyzes our innate ability to foster peace. (Science)

Religion, Cooperation, and Conflict
Scott Atran: Across history and cultures, religion increases trust within groups but also may increase mistrust and conflict with other groups, according to studies by our research team and others analyzed in a special issue of Science magazine on human conflict. (The Huffington Post)

What Is the Relationship Between New Atheism and Evolutionary Religious Studies?
David Sloan Wilson: This question is surprisingly complex and needs to be answered in at least three steps. (The Huffington Post)

Acquired Savants
Now that scientists understand how savant syndrome occurs, new research is turning to the underlying origins of the special abilities themselves. Most of it remains a mystery—a loose collection of questions more than anything resembling answers. For example, how is it that somebody like Derek Amato, who’d never demonstrated any musical talent before hitting his head at the bottom of a pool, could suddenly handle jazz and classical pieces of astounding complexity without training? (Brian Fung, The Atlantic)

The Joy of Parenting
A forthcoming paper from psychologists at The University of British Columbia, Stanford University, and the University of California shows parents experience greater levels of happiness and meaning than nonparents and parents derive more joy from child care than other daily tasks. (Zoe McKnight, The Vancouver Sun)

Online Civility
In the real world, social pressure usually keeps us from acting like jerks in large groups of people. The same holds in the online world, according to a new study. Researchers combing through 2.5 million posts from 20,000 users in 20 Internet discussion groups have found that, despite the anonymous monikers employed by most participants, the tone of online discussions was positive or neutral 85 percent of the time. (Chris Palmer, ScienceNOW)

Truth in Texting
Texting may be a better way to get at the truth than voice-based surveys. People were more likely to disclose sensitive information via texting and give more precise responses when texting as opposed to voice communication, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the New School of Social Research in New York City. (Detroit Free Press)

Genetic Influence
Genes play a greater role in traits such as self-control, decision making, or sociability than previously thought. These traits and characteristics play an important role in how life progresses, if you are successful in career and have healthy relationships, or not, the researchers said. (LiveScience)

Intelligence and Family Size
Children from larger families, regardless of their birth orders, tend to be less intelligent than kids in smaller households. Birth order is not associated with intelligence once the number of siblings is statistically controlled. (Hans Villarica, The Atlantic)

Defending Evolution
Russell Garwood: We should not let creationist pressure alter the way we do science—the day that researchers become reticent about highlighting inconsistencies and uncertainty would be a dark one. But equally, we are not helpless when it comes to countering creationist disinformation based on our results. I believe that science would benefit greatly if we did more outreach when we publish and publicize our research. (Nature)

Using Thoughts to Control a Robotic Arm
By thinking about moving her own paralyzed arm, one woman in the experiment used an artificial limb to serve herself coffee for the first time in 15 years. It’s the most complex task yet achieved with a brain-computer interface. (Sarah Jane Keller, Wired Science, Wired)

Q&A
Marilynne Robinson
We discussed the entrenched tensions between scientific and religious thinkers, the reasons people turn to books, and her thoughts on the state of American democracy. (Joe Fassler, The Atlantic)

Von Economo Neurons in Macaque Monkeys
A mysterious kind of nerve cell that has been linked to empathy, self-awareness, and even consciousness resides in Old World monkeys. The finding, published in Neuron, extends the domain of the neurons beyond humans, great apes, and other large-brained creatures and will now allow scientists to study the habits of a neuron that may be key to human self-awareness. (Laura Sanders, Science News)

Ethics of Eating Meat
Beatrice Marovich: Is there an ethical argument in favor of flesh consumption? That is, can a meat-eating human find solid moral ground for her more carnivorous appetites? Is there a soul-cure for the stomachache that comes from eating the body of another sentient creature? Are these questions that the vast storehouses of religious traditions can help us navigate? (Religion Dispatches)

The Oldest Known Cave Art
Since their discovery in 1994, the spectacular paintings of lions, rhinos, and other animals in southern France’s Chauvet Cave have stood out as the oldest known cave art, clocking in at about 37,000 years old. But there have been occasional sightings of other cave art that is equally ancient, although its dating has been more uncertain. Now a team working at another site in the south of France claims to have discovered what appear to be engravings of female genitalia that are as old as or older than Chauvet, possibly making them the world’s most ancient cave art. (Michael Balter, ScienceNOW)

Meet Daryl Bem
The 73-year-old Daryl Bem has defied the norm throughout his intellectual life, burning every dogma he’s encountered in the pyre of his logic. Now, in the twilight of his career, he has committed what may be his most daring act of sacrilege: claiming the existence of precognition, the ability to sense future events. Maybe this time, his colleagues say, Daryl Bem has gone too far. (Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Discover)

Embracing Uncertainty
Adam Frank: From birth to the unknown moment of our passing, we ride a river of change. And yet, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, we exhaust ourselves in an endless search for solidity. We hunger for something that lasts, some idea or principle that rises above time and change. We hunger for certainty. That is a big problem. It might even be THE problem. (13.7: Cosmos and Culture, NPR)