Exploring the curious corners of society and psychology.
Deep Inside: A Study of 10,000 Porn Stars and Their Careers
For the first time, a massive data set of 10,000 porn stars has been extracted from the world’s largest database of adult films and performers. I’ve spent the last six months analyzing it…
Cupid on Trial: A 4-month Online Dating Experiment Using 10 Fictional Singletons
Is online dating a different experience for men than it is for women? To find out, I conducted a 4-month experiment in the US and UK using 10 dummy dating profiles. Here’s what happened…
Death in Texas: Analyzing the Last Words of 478 Death Row Prisoners
Roughly once every 22 days, a convicted killer is executed in America’s busiest death house: the Huntsville “Walls” Unit in Texas. He cannot choose his final meal, but he CAN choose his final words…
Your [Noun] Looks So [Adjective]! — The Anatomy of a Compliment and Art of Giving One
Compliments are ubiquitous conversation devices, but did you know that most are totally unoriginal? With insights from psycholinguistics, I shine a light on the anatomy of a compliment…
Life of a Call Girl: Fantasy vs. Reality
In this follow-up to Dirty Words, I survey dozens of escorts and analyze the adverts of over a thousand more to find out what it’s really like to be a call girl. The truth is a blend of the bizarre and the mundane and not to be missed…
Dirty Words: A Probing Analysis of 5000 Call Girl Reviews
I analyzed a million words extracted from 5000 reviews of UK escorts to find out how the mind of the average punter ticks. The results were interesting, unexpected and, at times, surprisingly hilarious.
New Hairstyle Syndrome — The Illusion of Sudden Social Conspicuousness
When you change something about your appearance, is the sudden feeling of being socially conspicuous really warranted, or is it just a trick of the mind?
Bad Advice for Girls
I sarcastically dissect a book for women called Top Tips for Girls and discover in the process that apparently common female worries include how to poop quietly and how to maintain perky breasts.
Wounded: The 8 Stages of Heartbreak and How to (Probably) Get Through Them
The 8 classic stages of heartbreak have a lot in common with a physical flesh wound. But as you’ll see, that doesn’t mean you can’t get through them…
My on-air interview about Cupid on Trial
Bill Leff invited me onto WGN Radio — the most listened to talk show station in the midwest of America — to talk about my online dating experiment ‘Cupid on Trial’.
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