Den virala kulturen dokumenterad

My critique of The Tipping Point and Freakonomics\nisn't so much about social scientists themselves, but about the ways\nthat popular journalism uses social science. We've created this giant\nindustry of-pardon the expression-social-science porn, where readers\nare led to believe that psychologists, neuroscientists, and (worst of\nall) economists have magically unlocked the hidden mysteries of life,\nof happiness, of human behavior, etc. As if the grand issues that have\nanimated human history and literature for thousands of years can\nfinally be dispatched with a spreadsheet and a couple of brain scans.\nIn my experience, the scientists themselves tend to be a little more\nmodest about their results than that, and a little more humble before\nthe persistent mysteries of mankind.