Aporia Research Round-Up

The most popular articles being shared in our network.

Welcome to the Aporia Research Roundup. Every Monday, we compile the most interesting studies and articles being shared in our network.

The first three links are always free, but we put our favourites (including the less politically correct ones) behind a paywall and the email only goes out to paid supporters.

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Parental investment and sexual selection. In a classic article from 1972, Robert Trivers outlines the theory of parental investment. Since females invest more in each offspring than males, the reproductive success of males is limited by their access to females. This explains why males engage in intra-sexual competition and why females are more choosy than males.

Why multiple intelligences theory is a neuromyth. Lynn Waterhouse argues that Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences qualifies as a ‘neuromyth’. There is no evidence that different facets of intelligence are independent, nor that they reside in different regions of the brain. Despite this, a large percentage of educators continue to believe in Gardner’s theory.

The danger of building strong narratives on weak data. Noting that Britain’s GDP growth figures were recently revised upwards, John Burn-Murdoch cautions against the practice of drawing strong conclusions from preliminary data. He points out that GDP growth figures are often subject to revision, with Britain’s being revised upwards more than any other country’s. 

Britain’s GDP growth figures are among the most accurate in the developed world, and are the most pessimistic.