Why Do People Believe the Earth Is Flat?

One question for the economist José Arroyo-Barrigüete. Plus: the top science news this week—the ancient history of kissing; the dying brain’s heightened electrical activity; and more. [View in browser]( | [Become a member]( May 23, 2023   Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here](. Good Morning! Here’s the top science news—plus this week’s One Question with economist [José Arroyo-Barrigüete]( [READ NAUTILUS](   DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week   [The Ancient History of Kissing]( Making out seems to have independently evolved in human societies numerous times—why? [Science→](   [Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night: The Dying Brain and Its Paradoxically Heightened Electrical Activity]( What researchers found when they had an “unprecedented opportunity” to investigate the “twilight zone between life and death.” [PNAS→](   [Highly Reproducible Eyeblink Timing During Formula Car Driving]( Why did three top-level racing drivers all blink at surprisingly similar positions on the courses? [iScience→](   [Expect and You Shall Perceive: People Who Expect Better in Turn Perceive Better Behaviors from Their Romantic Partners]( A positive spin on a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. [Journal of Personality and Social Psychology→](   [Reproductive Inequality in Humans and Other Mammals]( Why are we more egalitarian in the different number of babies the sexes make? [PNAS→](   [James Webb’s “Too Massive” Galaxies May Be Even More Massive]( A different way of tallying up galactic brightness yields surprising results. [Niels Bohr Institute→](   [Bizarre Sea Creatures Illuminate the Dawn of the Animal Kingdom]( Animal evolution was weirder than researchers had realized. [The New York Times→](   [Using Big Words Doesn’t Make You Sound Smarter]( George Orwell got it right: “Never use a long word where a short one will do.” [Big Think→]( Experience the endless possibilities and deep human connections that science offers [SUBSCRIBE TODAY](   [ONE QUESTION]( [Why Do People Believe the Earth Is Flat?]( INTERVIEW BY BRIAN GALLAGHER One question for [José Arroyo-Barrigüete](, an economist at Comillas Pontifical University in Spain, where he is a professor of quantitative methods.   Our guess is there are certain kinds of people who have a need to feel special. These Flat Earthers have a high degree of overconfidence in their knowledge of science, which is pretty curious, because in our [new study](, we found they have the lowest actual knowledge of science in our sample. It is a very bizarre circumstance where the less you know about a certain subject, the more overconfident you are in your abilities in that subject. This is called the [Dunning-Kruger effect](. [Read the interview](   Related Nautilus Stories   [SOCIOLOGY]( [Novak Djokovic and the Healing Water Crystals]( The story of the tennis star spotlights the pseudoscience that bedevils science and society. BY KEVIN BERGER [Continue reading →]( [PSYCHOLOGY]( [Why You’re Biased About Being Biased]( The more we convince ourselves that we don’t have certain biases, the more likely we are to exhibit them. BY JIM DAVIES [Continue reading →](   More in Psychology [What Makes Us Lucid Dream?]( One question for Péter Simor, a psychologist at Eötvös Loránd University. BY BRIAN GALLAGHER [Continue reading →]( [I Didn’t Know My Mind Was So Strange Until I Started Listening to It]( I took part in an experiment to decipher my inner thoughts. BY PHIL JAEKL [Continue reading →](   P.S. The mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz was born on this day in 1917. He was a pioneer of chaos theory and, in a 1972 [lecture](, introduced the idea of “the butterfly effect.” It manifests in how sensitive dynamical systems can be to initial conditions. The complexity of the brain has some neuroscientists wondering: Could our top organ be a chaotic system, subject to the butterfly effect? Kelly Clancy wrote about [the mounting evidence of chaos in the brain.](   Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher   BECOME A MEMBER [An Artisanal Candle and a Nautilus Membership, Half-off]( For the first time, a subscription to Nautilus at any membership tier is half-off along with a purchase of [The Mother Of All Growth](, our limited-edition, organic soy candle perfumed with a custom Nautilus-inspired scent of rich, loamy earth. [Join Today]( Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, [browse our archive]( of past print issues, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2023 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from nautil.us. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? Click here to [unsubscribe](.