Mankind Quarterly 

About: Mankind Quarterly is an academic journal published by Institute for the Study of Man. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Raven's Progressive Matrices. It has an ISSN identifier of 0025-2344. Over the lifetime, 699 publications have been published receiving 7113 citations. The journal is also known as: The Mankind Quarterly.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria

Abstract: Race and Racism w “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” featuring Dr. Beverly Tatum’s book. w “Recovering from Racism: Redefining What it Means to be White.” w “50th Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education.” w “The Mis-Education of the Negro” featuring Dr. Carter Woodson’s book. w “Moving Past the Margins: Creating successful strategies for Black males on campus,” presenting the Black Male Development Initiative (BMDI). w “He had a Dream... What is Yours?” Addressing Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and its current relevance in our society. w “Demystifying Malcolm X.” w “Racial Stereotyping and Responses to Terrorism.” w “Racial Stereotyping – Responding to Fear.” w “Free, White and (over) 21: Being White in a Multicultural World.” w “Constructing Race and Ethnicity in the 21st Century.” w “How did I Learn about Culture and Race?” Sharing your personal experiences and memories of moments where you become aware of similarities and differences among people. w “ABC: American-Born... and Confused?” w “The Invisible Asian: Where are the Asians in Diversity?” w “100 Years of Race Talk: Is It Enough?”

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Abstract: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions Dan Ariley HarperCollins 2008 Every day, one makes decisions that, we hope, are the right ones, whether to buy the expensive brand-name or the inexpensive generic, whether or not to approach the person at the end of the bar for a date, or whether to apply the brake or floor the accelerator in order to beat the red light. "Rational" decision making could be described as the selection of the optimal or best option based on reflection of all pertinent information. However, Predictably Irrational suggests that environmental cues, shortsightedness, peerpressure and other forms of "irrationality" significantly influences the decision-making process and behavior in general. Once it is recognized that irrational "factors" impedes effective decision-making, one can limit the influence of extraneous factors and arrive at better decisions. Although one would like to believe important decisions are made based solely on reason, Ariely observes that this is often not the case. Despite our advanced cerebral cortex, the seat of reasoning, activity from the evolutionarily primitive portion of the brain, the limbic system, frequently overrides the cerebral cortex. For example, in the "cold," rational state, teenagers will pledge to their parents to follow the rules of the road while driving. However, the "hot" state, the emotionally charged state induced by a group of boisterous friends as passengers, overrides cortical control. Thus, likelihood of a teen driver with another teen as a passenger getting into an accident is double of that of a lone teen driver. Another teen passenger further increases the risk of an accident. Ariely suggests using already available automotive technology to reduce teenaged drivers from the "hot" state to the "cold". For example, via an OnStar-like device that instantly alerts parents when the car goes over a preset speed and automatically decelerates. A similar preset "breaking" system could be applied to credit cards. The key is that controls are in place during the rational "cold" state such that they are activated during the "hot" state, when we have little self-control or forgot our long-term goals. One could imaging the burden imposed on those with little inhibition and self-control to begin with. Procrastination also comes under scrutiny as an irrational "factor". When one is "too busy doing nothing" instead of completing an important task, one has wasted time that will never return. ("Multitasking" could be considered a form of procrastination, since concerted effort is not spent on the primary task and overall performance suffers.) In general, modern humans have found it easy to sacrifice long-term goals for immediate gratification. This is in contrast to primitive human life, where self-gratification and disregarding strategic planning in a temperate climate has fatal consequences. Thanks to the influence of the mass media, long-term goals, such as building a retirement nest egg or saving for an expensive purchase, can be quickly abandoned and savings squandered by those who are prone to immediate gratification. In the modern welfare state, the responsible end up covering for the irresponsible. One of Ariely's experiments demonstrated that the best (academic) performance can be expected if clear, fixed guidelines are in place, rather than allowing others to set their own guidelines or having no guidelines. The result of this experiment, performed on Ariely's MIT students, suggests the need for social control, irrespective of one's feelings on personal "freedom". If rigid guidelines were necessary to coax top performance from MIT students, then authoritarianism would be even more necessary for those who are much lower than MIT students in terms of motivation and intelligence. Naturally, there will be those who believe in social equality and will balk at this idea. Social equality, however, has not and will not obliterate biological inequality. …