Episode 214: You Shouldn't Feel Bad (Except You Should)

Tamler welcomes social psychologist David Pizarro of Cornell University to the podcast to talk about his recent article (along with Raj Anderson, Shaun Nichols, and Rachana Kamtekar) on “false-positive emotions.” When agents commit accidental harms, we typically tell them they shouldn’t feel too guilty, it’s not their fault, it was out of their control, and so forth. At the same time, we don’t want them to let themselves off the hook right away either. They shouldn’t feel guilty, but also they…should. What’s behind these mixed messages and attitudes? Are we looking for information about their character? What kind? Plus, a new algorithm can predict someone’s political orientation with 72% accuracy based on one profile photo (either from Facebook or a dating app). Is Big Brother around the corner? Sponsored By: Wine.com: Wine.com is an American wine online retailer that offers the largest selection of wines in the world. Wine.com sells over 2 million bottles per year, with a stock of more than 17,000 different bottles of wine, shipping throughout the United States. Sign up now, and as a listener of very bad wizards, get $50 off your first order! Promo Code: badwizards GiveWell: We love this sponsor, and are proud of the support our listeners have shown! If you are a listener and want to make your charitable contributions as effective as possible, please check out Givewell.org. New donors will have their donation matched up to $1,000 before the end of June (or as long as matching funds last). Just go to givewell.org/verybadwizards and pick PODCAST and Very Bad Wizards at checkout. Make sure they know that you heard about GiveWell from Very Bad Wizards to get your donation matched! Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Facial recognition technology can expose political orientation from naturalistic facial images | Scientific Reports 'I was shocked it was so easy': ​meet the professor who says facial recognition ​​can tell if you're gay | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian One of the most famous campus outrage incidents was badly misreported - Vox “False positive” emotions, responsibility, and moral character - ScienceDirect