Suppose you are asked to sit in judgment in a manslaughter case in which one man killed another in a bar fight. The facts are not in dispute. The issue is the responsibility of the perpetrator. The defense calls an expert witness, a brain scientist, who reports that the defendant...

This post was written in collaboration with Kenneth Sharpe

Partial (adjective)
1. Biased or prejudiced in favor of a person, group, side, etc., over another
2. Not total or general; incomplete

The sound and fury about empathy and justice in the Sotomayor hearings are allowing both...

Here's a game you can play the next time you're stuck waiting for your order at a restaurant. One member of your party taps out a popular tune on the table top, and the others have to try to "name that tune." Two things are striking about this game....

"Greed is good!" Michael Douglas, playing Gordon Gecko, intones in the movie Wall Street, as he tries to get shareholders to vote him control of a company that he intends to tear to shreds and sell for parts. Though director Oliver Stone painted Gecko as evil incarnate, back in the...

After President Obama figures out how to bring the economy out of recession, stabilize financial institutions, end two wars, and get every citizen health insurance, there is something important that he should turn his attention to. The U.S. needs a Council of Psychological Advisors that parallels the Council of Economic...

A new college admissions season is upon us, culminating a lengthy period of intense anxiety for high school seniors and their parents. Teenagers who have tortured themselves building up stunning credentials approach their mailboxes each day with a sense of dread. Everything seems to hang on the contents of those...

In December, at a press conference, then President-Elect Obama observed, in commenting on the financial crisis, that people need to ask themselves not only "is it profitable," but also "is it right." But what does "right" mean, and why should we expect or demand that the lords of finance ask...

When automobile manufacturers struggle to squeeze as many miles per gallon as possible out of their car designs, any feature of the design that impedes the forward motion of the vehicle -- friction, or coefficient of drag -- is the enemy. The aim is to design a vehicle that uses...

I had a student many years ago who, after flirting with medical school, ended up in the world of finance, as an options trader. He was extremely successful, and became wealthy. He and I maintained contact after he graduated, and his name came up one night when my wife and...