This is part of a series. See the index here. Hypergamy and polygamy are related terms that originally referred to marriage. Hypergamy, as traditionally defined, is marrying up into a higher caste and polygamy is having more than one wife at the same time. These days even monogamous marriage is on …

Have you ever heard of, or seen, the Hering Optical Illusion? How many of you believed that the two long lines are absolutely straight? How many other people do you think would insist, on the basis of an apparent appeal to authority alone, that this is the case? Well, it’s …

The following is what happens when you ignore the reality of genetic influences on populations: I’ve raised five children in the same nurturing environment. I’ve incessantly “talk-maxxed” them all. Nevertheless, the verbal ability of those five children on a variety of standardized tests is, as predicted, perfectly correlated with their …

I was not a fan of Bill Clinton, nor of his sexual indiscretion. But of all the things to criticize him for, this quote is not one of them. Bill Clinton is among the most intelligent presidents of all time, with common estimates of his IQ  ranging from the high …

It is no secret that I enjoy a healthy debate. I enjoy pitting arguments against one another and finding out which is better. I enjoy discovering some truth that I heretofore did not know or was otherwise mistaken about. One of the most common criticisms that I see about religion …