Does being kind to others make you happy?

The most interesting articles that came to our attention this week

Black Britons least likely to get MMR vaccine. Noah examines the background of the recent measles outbreak in England. He notes that the outbreak was concentrated in Birmingham, which happens to have the largest Black Caribbean population out of all local authorities, and that Black Caribbeans are 29 percentage points less likely to get the MMR vaccine than White British.

Natural language and natural selection. In a classic article from 1990, Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom challenge the argument that the human capacity for language could not have evolved via natural selection. They argue that the capacity for language has both key features of evolutionary adaptations: it serves an obvious function, and it could not have arisen through alternative processes.

Is Academic Freedom Under Threat? Matthew Goodwin examines the state of academic freedom in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US by surveying academics in those countries. He finds that 76% of respondents identify as left-wing, while only 11% identify as right-wing. He also finds that 75% of right-wing academics engage in self-censorship, compared to only 35% of left-wing academics.

Distribution of survey respondents from four countries on the left-right axis.