Steven Pinker

Cognitive scientist at Harvard.

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Why Our Longing to Matter Drives and Divides Us | Amanpour and Company https://t.co/bcB6cF3k3O via @YouTube

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

A Mattering Guide to Love and Sex by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein @platobooktour https://t.co/C1dqt1WBzx

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Matt Ridley: We’re using the wrong pronouns for AI https://t.co/M2eORvlRSz

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

The AI future nobody is showing you | A more plausible vision, in my view, than either Utopia or doom. https://t.co/lCSkK1FRCL via @YouTube

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

"When I was a graduate student in Harvard University’s psychology department, between 20 and 50 percent of students in any given discussion section I taught in 2024 and 2025 had disability accommodations. They were granted extra time on exams. Private testing rooms. Deadline extensions." @AdamOmaryPhD is talking about one of my courses here, and he rightly criticizes the upward ratchet in exploiting disability accommodation at elite universities. https://t.co/DjLaklR84e via @BostonGlobe

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Steven Pinker on Common Knowle… ‑ Scaling Theory ‑ Apple Podcasts https://t.co/ZIiMX98fc2

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge, From Eye Contact to the Super Bowl - Scaling Theory | Podcast on Spotify https://t.co/ty7Tf1dGPL

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Steven Pinker on The Scaling Theory Podcast: Common Knowledge, From Eye Contact to the Super Bowl https://t.co/zYv1ipuCfL via @YouTube

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Languages express far more meanings than they have words (or parts of words, like prefixes, suffixes, and roots). All languages have ambiguity, polysemy, homophony, syncretism -- many-to-one mappings between meanings or functions and forms (opening the door to puns and verbal wit, as in Ben Franklin's "We must all hang together, lest we hang separately," and Mae West's "Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet.") The explanation is that there's a tradeoff between ease of coining and adoption (resulting in word forms being stretched, adapted, and recycled) and communication (hearers being clear on what the speaker is talking about). A new paper explores this tradeoff: The interaction of meaning similarity and confusability explains regularity in form–meaning mappings at and below the word level | Nature Human Behaviour https://t.co/nPZcVFJuQ2

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Anyone who insists that the Bible is the source of morality either has not read it or is not intellectually serious about the question.

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

How long is a decapitated head conscious? How many senses do we really have? These and more in the link roundup by Steve Stuart Williams @SteveStuWill The Ideological Turing Test, Moral Double Standards, and Homosexuality in Rats https://t.co/Nbt3JIjwYM

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Journalism at its dumbest: Someone hacks into the guest list of a "secret exclusive right-wing Thiel-associated cabal which plots 'navigating WWIII' with 'their sex lives on the agenda.'" Turns out the meeting is not secretive, not right-wing, has nothing to do with Thiel, has had hundreds of journalists, bloggers, academics, artists, musicians politicians, scientists, etc., from all over the political spectrum, discussing thousands of topics. But no matter - someone said there was a furor, therefore there must have been a furor, therefore let's make it a furor!

https://t.co/yggS5erVzF

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Valuing Free Speech is correlated with being more tolerant. https://t.co/Jqd5pWqNIy

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Valuing Free Speech is correlated with being more tolerant. https://t.co/Jqd5pWqNIy

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Journalism at its dumbest: Someone hacks into the guest list of a "secret exclusive right-wing Thiel-associated cabal which plots 'navigating WWIII' with 'their sex lives on the agenda.'" Turns out the meeting is not secretive, not right-wing, has nothing to do with Thiel, has had hundreds of journalists, bloggers, academics, artists, musicians politicians, scientists, etc., from all over the political spectrum, discussing thousands of topics. But no matter - someone said there was a furor, therefore there must have been a furor, therefore let's make it a furor!

https://t.co/yggS5erVzF

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

How long is a decapitated head conscious? How many senses do we really have? These and more in the link roundup by Steve Stuart Williams @SteveStuWill The Ideological Turing Test, Moral Double Standards, and Homosexuality in Rats https://t.co/Nbt3JIjwYM

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

And a slick new magazine (including a beautiful paper edition): Works in Progress Magazine https://t.co/qW7ULkQytM

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

An annual conference on progress, October in Berkeley – Roots of Progress Institute https://t.co/EbXssI17VQ

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

The Edgy Optimist: Zachary Karabell | Substack https://t.co/nBMDYV9AaK

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Rational Optimist Society | community of thinkers https://t.co/SXfk1RNzEF

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Mathias Sundin - The Angry Optimist https://t.co/2CsKNGbX5C