Comments on: Depression Is Not A Proxy For Social Dysfunction

By: Geirr

Geirr — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 05:50:40 +0000

Since this is still annoying me; leprosy is a progressive disease. One does not go instantly from looking fine to resembling a pretty fresh zombie, it takes years. Leprosy having the same effect on preference for good looks as parasite load is completely plausible. If you want to argue that parasite load has no effect on mate preference or on the good looks of different ethnic groups you can definitely get a publication in Nature or Science if you can back it up.

On the idea of evolution being capable of proceeding quickly please reflect on the fact that modern breeds of cattle, horses, cats and dogs are all less than three hundred years old. All that magnificent variety is very, very new on an evolutionary scale. Different landraces like terrier, mastiff or hound have a long history but Chihuahas, Great Danes, German Shepherds etc. are all very new.

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By: Geirr

Geirr — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:38:39 +0000

You really seem to like this “blip” thing, thinking that it didn’t last long enough is a knock down argument against any given evolutionary change having happened. Agnostic noted that this period, where leprosy was common in Norden but very rare outside it lasted 500 years. I think 20 or 25 generations is in fact a reasonable estimation of how many generations that is, don’t you?

A one generation event is quite enough to have a substantial impact on their descendant’s evolution. This is almost what the idea of punctuated equilibrium as popularised by Stephen J. Gould means. Most of evolutionary time is a slow grinding out of small, small gains in evolutionary fitness that follows short periods of massive gains after a new ecological niche is discovered. Twenty five generations is a looooong time.

Agnostics mechanism for the selection that lead to Scandinavians being anomalously good looking for their latitude may be wrong but you’ve given no reason to think it’s stupid.

He knows population genetics and proves it by using it in the linked post. Do you have any expertise in evolution, biology or genetics?

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By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 04:02:21 +0000

Regarding the last point, Scott makes a giant leap from self reported happiness to material inequality. More unequal societies have lkower suicide rates, so what? Daly, Oswald, and Wu (2011) are talking about happiness.

Just to speculate, if I’m depressed in a place where everybody is happy then i) my feelings of unhappiness contrast with the happiness around me, it becomes easier to see my problem as unsolvable (regardless of my equal material circumstances) and ii) I migth get a lot less understanding, empathy and compassion from the basically happy people all around me.

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By: Randall

Randall — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 07:34:29 +0000

Suicide correlates with depression, the mind’s resistance to interacting with the world. It also correlates with education, something that could plant seeds of fatalism.
Also, and possibly more important, the average person has a different view of their potential future at different levels of income inequality. With high income inequality, more rich can see many avenues of failure and thus strive to prevent it, and more poor can see many avenues of advancement and thus strive to achieve it. If there’s a large middle class, there will be a greater percentage of people who see a tangled web of paths up and down. They’ll see no great path in any particular direction. They’ll see the future as about the same as the past and will feel powerless, hopeless, or bored.
Suicide may be more common with people who feel they have less control over their own happiness. Maybe happiness is the wrong word.

Suicide may be more common with people who don’t expect the future to be fun, to be novel and challenging, to not be boring.

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By: Randall

Randall — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 07:19:20 +0000

You’ve noticed you’re confused. Maybe one of your assumptions is wrong. Why do you think people commit suicide?

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By: Lightning Round – 2015/01/21 | Free Northerner

Lightning Round – 2015/01/21 | Free Northerner — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 07:13:53 +0000

[…] Depression, suicide, and social dysfunction. […]

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By: Lars Kariniemi

Lars Kariniemi — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 07:27:29 +0000

You may have learned in Social Psychology that depression is just another word for sadness. That is not strictly true. There are many other factors that come into play here and isolation of depression & suicide as the only two factors to measure is a mistake. Best to recognize that a general sense of life satisfaction (good work/play/sleep) leads to happiness, and the lack thereof leads to depression, which may or may not lead to suicide. If I try & get 260 downloads of an app I make, you’re impressed & that’s satisfying. If suicide is considered culturally acceptable, there are more suicides in that particular state/country.

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By: blacktrance

blacktrance — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 04:35:01 +0000

When you don’t have freedom, others can impose their view of the good upon you, or disregard what’s good for you altogether. Different people have different lifestyles that would make them happy, and to push some into doing what others think is good would make them less happy. That’s why there’s an inherent connection between happiness and freedom to choose.

For example, suppose that you’re gay and want to engage in a same-sex relationship, but the general moral view in society is that homosexuality is immoral and should be discouraged, and thus you are pushed away from it (maybe even by force). It’s easy to see why this would make you less happy.

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By: blacktrance

blacktrance — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 04:29:38 +0000

Social contracts aren’t freely consented to by every individual: that is why they are social. Like, taxes.

If they’re not freely consented to, in what sense are they contracts? A contract binds me because I agreed to it – otherwise, how is it different from some other external imposition?

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By: Nornagest

Nornagest — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:57:38 +0000

I’ll accept “vampire”, “ghost”, and “opera”, but are we just slapping the “dubstep” label on anything we don’t like now?

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