+ how to trust your eyes again 👀
| | | | As a society, we claim to value facts over opinions. This makes sense: a fact corresponds to tangible, objective reality, while even the most well-founded opinion can be hotly contested. Our brains, however, tell a different story – new research shows that we're much more likely to remember the source of an opinion than the source of a fact. Put simply, this means opinionated bluster can triumph over plain old information because we remember who said it. The solution, according to the study's author Daniel Mirny, is for experts to go beyond dispassionately delivering data and start telling us what they think. "Source memory" could be the difference between people taking information seriously or ignoring it altogether. In her seminal book On Photography, Susan Sontag said a photo was "incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened". I say "was" and not "is" because AI-generated images have now rendered Sontag's statement all but redundant. Fake images abound online, but the artistic practice of "visual thinking" can help us to spot them. It teaches us how to dissect the way we see an image, and nurtures "the capacities – curiosity, humility and critical thinking – that our world urgently needs". The Ancient Greeks can also help us to foster these democratic values at an early age, by incorporating the two principles of isegoria and parrhesia into respectful, reflective classroom debates. And if you work in an office, you may have been subject to "meeting madness" – hour upon grinding hour of poorly-planned workplace gatherings, many of them pointless, tedious, and ultimately unproductive. Meetings were historically (and surprisingly) neglected by management studies until recently, but according to researcher Willem Standaert, they should all start with one simple question: Why are we here? |  | Alex Minshall Editor, Valencia | |  Daniel Mirny, IESE Business School (Universidad de Navarra) Experts can combat misinformation by sharing their opinions, instead of just information. |  Shaun Nolan, Malmö University We are entering an era where seeing is no longer believing. | | |  Willem Standaert, Université de Liège Work meetings can be sources of stress and dissatisfaction. But there are ways to improve them. | |  Sara Kells, IE University For ancient Athenians, democratic speech was both a right and a responsibility. |  Gerlinde Bigga, University of Tübingen The recovery of ancient DNA is no longer limited to bones. | |  Francesco Grillo, Bocconi University Medicine is on the brink of an era where microscopic devices inside our bodies connect us directly to the digital world. |  Ignacio López-Goñi, Universidad de Navarra Subclade K flu might be behind the higher number of cases, but it doesn't seem to have worse symptoms. | |  Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham; Argyro Kartsonaki, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, University of Hamburg What today's diplomats can learn from the Dayton accords. | | | | | -
Friederike Döbbe, University of Bath; Emilia Cederberg, Stockholm School of Economics Sometimes it benefits businesses and governments to play up the 'duped consumer' narrative. -
Marta López Alonso, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Millions suffer from deficiencies in micronutrients like zinc, iron, iodine and selenium. -
Anthony Schrapffer, PhD, EDHEC Business School Better measuring the risks posed by rising sea levels and more intense storms requires rigorous, comparable and transparent assessment. -
Cormac Cleary, Dublin City University Our natural landscapes need wolves. And right now, wolves need all the good PR they can get. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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