It is common sense that people's inner beliefs may drive their external behavior. If you're attracted to a certain person, you should be more likely to socialize with that person. If you favor a brand of toothpaste, you're more likely to buy it. Of course, our internal thoughts don't always predict our public behavior, but, overall, what we do obviously reflects what we think. But beliefs and behaviors are also related in a more remarkable way. It turns out that the arrow is as likely to point in the reverse direction. As social psychologist David Myers observes, "If social psychology has taught us anything during the last 25 years, it is that we are likely not only to think ourselves into a way of acting but also to act ourselves into a way of thinking."

Shame is about who we are, and guilt is about our behaviors. We feel guilty when we hold up something we've done or failed to do against the kind of person we want to be. It's an uncomfortable feeling, but one that's helpful. When we apologize for something we've done, make amends to others, or change a behavior that we don't feel good about, guilt is most often the motivator. Guilt is just as powerful as shame, but its effect is often positive while shame often is destructive. When we see people apologize, make amends, or replace negative behaviors with more positive ones, guilt is often the motivator, not shame. In fact, in my research, I found that shame corrodes the part of us that believes we can change and do better.

Conformity in the teenage years has been studied by putting young people in situations where they are asked to make a choice or decision that appears to go against what everyone else in the group is saying. The fascinating thing about the results of these studies is that conformity is not spread equally across all age groups. Thus, the willingness to go along with others reaches a peak around the age of 14. After that, this tendency decreases, so that by 16 or 17, young people are much more able to disagree with the group and to stand up for their own opinion. This is an important finding. It demonstrates that the influence of the peer group is not the same across all ages. As young people mature, they become more resilient, and more able to defend their opinions as individuals.

Partly this was the obvious convenience of being able to exit more quickly. To monitor our surroundings is to focus on what's outside of ourselves: what we see, hear, smell, feel, and perhaps even taste. But sometimes what really marks a place is something less specific - a feeling within us. (1) An interesting example emerged from a study of subway passenger behavior. (2) Researchers trying to understand why people sit where they sit or stand where they stand in subway and metro trains examined the factors that shape the way riders used and navigated that space in different situations. (3) One of their findings involved the reasons many riders like to plant themselves close to the train's doors. (4) But it was shaped partly by a more abstract sensation - the desire to avoid the sometimes uncomfortable feeling of accidentally making eye contact with seated passengers. (5) We can't see feelings - but they're very real, and they influence our experience of the world.

A person who always tries to prevent harm but never does, is not generally thought of as morally good. A morally good person is one who does morally bad actions significantly less often than most and does morally good ones significantly more often than most. In judging a person not only her actions but also her intentions and motives are relevant. (1) A morally good person must intend to do morally good actions and intend to avoid morally bad ones. (2) A person who unintentionally prevents harm to others and does not harm them simply because things do not turn out as she intends is not morally good. (3) Although this kind of situation generally occurs only in slapstick movies, it is worth mentioning to avoid the false impression that it is the actual consequences of a person's actions that count toward her being judged morally good or bad. (4) But actual consequences are important. (5) Of such a person, it may be said that she means well; but, contrary to Kant, some results are necessary before she is regarded as morally good. [3?]

One of the things that makes uncertainty difficult for members of the public to appreciate is that ________. Take, for example, the distance between Earth and the sun: 1.49597 × 10? km, as measured at one point during the year. This seems relatively precise; after all, using six significant digits means I know the distance to an accuracy of one part in a million or so. However, if the next digit is uncertain, that means the uncertainty in knowing the precise Earth-sun distance is larger than the distance between New York and Chicago! Whether or not the quoted number is "precise" therefore depends on what I'm intending to do with it. If I care only about what minute the sun will rise tomorrow, then the number quoted here is fine. If I want to send a satellite to orbit just above the sun, however, then I would need to know distances more accurately. [3?]