All about Mardi Gras!

Lundi svelte, mardi gras, mercredi mince, jeudi bouffi, vendredi maigre, samedi arrondi et dimanche dodu.

When you hear someone talk about “Mardi Gras” what are the first things that come to mind? Most people would probably imagine scenes of Mardi Gras celebrations with plastic beads, parades, loud music, and crowded parties. However, Mardi Gras is much more than a simple street party. It stems from a tradition that signaled the start forty-day fast. So where maybe, at first, you thought of beads, parties and lots of food when thinking of Mardi Gras, it is actually all about fasting. The roots of this event and the forty-day fast go back to Europe during the Middle Ages, and the tradition we know as ‘Carnival’.

Image from: http://fox43.com/2013/02/12/sneak-peek-into-the-mardi-gras-celebration-in-new-orleans/

Is it possible to feel on behalf of groups?

We are usually happy and proud of ourselves when we have positive feedback from our boss. Still, we tend to feel ashamed when we fall on the street and people are looking or we usually feel guilty when we misbehave towards a friend.

These are all common emotions that we can feel whenever we succeed or fail important goals or standards we have.

But why would we feel sad when our football team loses a match or feel ashamed and/or guilty for something we did not do? Why would we simply feel “emotions by association”, or in different words, why would we feel certain emotions when confronted with the actions of social groups that we may or may not belong to?

Source: http://www.freefantasyfootballpicks.com/2012/01/40-photos-of-saddest-fans-in-sports.html

Conflict resolution 2.0: Can Internet-based intergroup contact reduce prejudices?

More than 60 years ago, Gordon W. Allport published his renowned book “The Nature of Prejudice“ (1954)  in which he discussed why individuals hold negative opinions about, for instance, African Americans or Catholics and how contact between social groups (i.e., intergroup contact) may reduce such prejudices.  The latter proposition—also known as the contact hypothesis—inspired an ever-growing literature on intergroup relations.

Source: http://psychologie.fernuni-hagen.de/Lernportal/Lernumgebung/Html/GruppeInter.html

"Greed is good" ("La cupidité est une bonne chose")

Gordon Gekko (Wall Street, O.Stone, 1987)

Le Loup de Wall Street, Martin Scorsese, 2013

A la fin du 19^ème siècle, les sciences humaines se sont focalisées sur l’analyse des problèmes sociaux avec pour finalité de les réduire. Or, les recherches sur la délinquance se sont majoritairement focalisées sur l’idée que la criminalité était le fait des classes laborieuses réputées « dangereuses ». La délinquance des élites ou encore, le « White Collar Crime », sont donc largement restés en dehors du radar des sciences humaines.  Cependant, l’actualité, ponctuée par quelques « affaires » et « scandales », ou encore le cinéma avec par exemple, « Le loup de Wall Street » sorti en décembre 2013, semblent nous prouver le contraire en laissant croire que ces élites ne sont au final pas à l’abri de la justice.

Because the world is round and not flat

Because the world is round ...

The Beatles      

                                              ... and not flat          

                                                                    

TV has a large impact on us. The statement may look like a truism to many of you. Nevertheless, we often seem to underestimate or neglect this impact. We generally have a tendency to believe that others are more influenced by the mass media and persuasive messages than ourselves, a phenomenon that in social psychology is known as the third-person-effect (Davison, 1983). Although, as I see it, this is a totally normal assumption one can make about oneself –I myself admit that I believe I am more resistant to this kind of persuasion than others!– it could be claimed that this assumption is partly responsible for our susceptibility to TV, at least as far as our personal share of the responsibility is concerned.

Avoir un bon prof, ça change la vie: une démonstration (quasi) mathématique

Image extraite des Dingodossiers de Marcel Gotlib et René Goscinny, Ed. Dargaud.

Tasting with your eyes: Black burgers and Fried Bugs.

Crispy caterpillars, fried crickets and butter tossed larvae. Doesn’t that sound appetizing? Okay, so maybe something more ‘common’? What about a black hamburger, made with black buns and black cheese?

Source: http://www.boredpanda.com/black-burger-king-japan/