The other kind of sage

The latest psychology book I just plowed through is Mindwise (2014) by Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The main theme is that we (human beings) all have a sixth sense: the amazing ability to read other people's minds. The problem is that there are lots of reasons we get it all wrong when we're trying to understand what other people think, believe, feel, and want.

For example, one of the problems is that we suffer from naive realism, which Prof. Epley defines as "the intuitive sense that we see the world out there as it actually is, rather than as it appears from our own perspective" compared to how others are seeing things from their perspectives. In other words, "I'm O.K., [but] You're Biased," as the Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert put it in a 2006 opinion piece in the New York Times. The notion that I'm always right, and you're not (unless you agree with me), obviously leads to plenty of differences of opinion.

Since we can't really know exactly what someone else is thinking, much as we'd like to think we do, we use various strategies to fill in the gaps, including stereotypes. One stereotype you'll all be intimately familiar with is that cognitive functions, including reasoning, perceptual speed, short-term memory, and vocabulary (particularly the names of people and things—"nouns," as Brad puts it), all decline precipitously with age, starting around age 50 or so. Now, there is actually evidence to support this (like me watching Jeopardy! nowadays), but Prof. Epley's point is to ask whether observing age-related decreases in cognitive functioning is teaching us something about inevitable biological decline, or rather about how stereotypes could be self-fulfilling? In other words, maybe it's the case that people's mental functioning goes down as they age because they expect it to. There is some evidence that this may be the case in that "[c]ultures that revere the elderly as wise, sage, and learned—such as in parts of China—do not show the same degree of decline observed in cultures with more negative views of the elderly—such as in most of the United States," including, apparently, Charlottesville, Virginia. The clear lesson here (you knew it was coming, right?) is to treat your elders (esp. your parents) as the wise, sage, and learned people they are, rather than deriding us as "old" every chance you get. Besides, it's in your own self-interest for us to defy the stereotype so you don't have to start caring for us a lot sooner than you might like.

It's kind of fascinating that Prof. Epley spends the first 170 of the book's 188 pages (not including the copious endnotes) detailing the limits of trying to divine what other people are thinking and feeling before offering his prescription, which boils down to not using your sixth sense but instead getting others just to tell you what's on their minds. An example of this is gift giving, which the science shows is better for everyone involved if the giver either asks what the recipient wants or at least listens carefully while the recipient drops hints. Prof. Epley recognizes that his solution may not always be easy to implement, but the bottom line is that "[k]nowing the shortcomings of your own social sense should push you to be more open in sharing what's in your own mind with others, but also more open to listening to others."

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Kudos to Uncle Bob!

I am happy and proud to pass along that Uncle Bob was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine as part of the class of 2018. The announcement by the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, where Uncle Bob is the Dr. John M. Smith Jr. Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, has a great picture of Uncle Bob in his white lab coat and a few comments about his community-health research that was recognized by the NAM. In particular, Uncle Bob was cited by the NAM for his "innovative application of a groundbreaking capability framework that provides a practical and positive method for addressing the social and environmental determinants of health in participatory interventions that integrate primary care and community health." Here are links to some of Uncle Bob's studies using the capability framework if you want to read more:

• Practical Opportunities for Healthy Diet and Physical Activity: Relationship to Intentions, Behaviors, and Body Mass Index (Annals of Family Medicine [Mar. 2016])
• Measuring Capability for Healthy Diet and Physical Activity (Annals of Family Medicine [Jan. 2014])
• Capability and Clinical Success (Annals of Family Medicine [Sept. 2010])

But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as PubMed currently lists nearly 60 articles on which Uncle Bob has been a lead or contributing author.

I am, however, more than a little concerned that Mom is going to find out about one of those studies concerning "The Effects of Yoga on Physical Functioning and Health Related Quality of Life in Older Adults" (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine [Oct. 2012]), which concluded that "yoga may be superior to conventional physical-activity interventions in elderly people." Thanks, Uncle Bob. That's just what I needed—more encouragement for Mom to push yoga on me. I mean, community health is great and all, but what about little brother's needs? Seriously though, this is awesome news and well deserved!

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Last spring break, part I

Dylan is home for the week. I can't let his last spring break from UVA go by without some good food, so I made his favorite dessert to start the week. It's a little odd that Dylan loves this Blueberry Tart even more than Katherine Redford's Chocolate Chip Cookies given that he doesn't like blueberries, but life is full of little mysteries.

I've always made the dough in a food processor, but you can it make it by hand as well. I've included some new directions in the recipe below. You will need a tart tin with a removable bottom to make the tart look like this, but they're not very expensive. Most tart doughs, like this one, use a lot of butter so they don't stick to the bottom and there's no need for a nonstick pan. In fact, a nonstick pan will probably just brown the crust too quickly. Just be careful when you take the tart off the pan; a long icing spatula is helpful if you have one.

Blueberry Tart

Adapted from Christopher Kimball (from a recipe I found online that seems to have disappeared from the Internet)

Time: ~1:30

Filling
350 grams (~3 cups) fresh blueberries, rinsed and picked over, or frozen 
100 grams (½ cup) granulated sugar 
juice from ½ of a regular lemon or 1 Meyer lemon 

Dough
1 large egg 
½ teaspoon vanilla extract 
215 grams (~1¾ cups) all-purpose flour; or 120 grams (1 cup) spelt flour + 96 grams (1 cup) blanched almond flour
30 grams (¼ cup) yellow cornmeal 
67 grams (⅓ cup) granulated sugar 
½ teaspoon salt 
¼ teaspoon baking powder 
140 grams (10 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter

    1. For the filling: Place the filling ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the blueberries have released their juices, then reduce the heat to maintain a lively simmer (~ medium-low). Cook until the juices are thickened some and a little bit syrupy, about 15–20 minutes. The mixture will thicken some as it cools, so don't reduce the juices too much or you won't have enough filling. Set aside to cool for about 20 minutes (while the dough is resting in the fridge).
    2. For the crust: While the blueberries are cooking, gently beat the egg with the vanilla in a small bowl; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
    3a. Using a food processor: Place the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder into the bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse a few times to mix the ingredients. Cut the cold butter into ½-inch cubes, then scatter the cubes over the dry ingredients. Process until the butter is broken up into pieces no larger than a small pea, about 6 one-second pulses. Add the egg/vanilla mixture and process until the mixture looks like crumbled wet sand, about 8 to 10 one-second pulses. If the dough looks too dry, add water, just 1 teaspoon at a time, and pulse until it holds together when you press it between your fingers.
    3b. Without a food processor: Whisk the the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Scatter the butter chunks over the dry ingredients and squeeze them between your fingertips to flatten them out (or work them in with a pastry blender if you have one). When the mixture is a little bit coarse and no large pieces of butter remain, add the egg/vanilla mixture and mix gently with a fork (or a pastry fork) until the mixture looks like crumbled wet sand. Add water, just 1 teaspoon at a time, if the dough looks too dry. The dough should hold together when you press it between your fingers.
    4. Dump the dough into a 9½-inch tart tin with a removable bottom and press into an even layer over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes while the blueberries are cooling.
    5. Near the end of the 20-minute resting time, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet. Scrape the cooled blueberry mixture into the chilled pastry shell. Try to spread the blueberry pieces out evenly to cover as much of the shell as possible. Place in the center of the oven and bake until the blueberries are bubbling and the crust is golden brown, about 40–45 minutes. Move to a cooling rack. When ready to serve, remove the sides of the pan, then transfer the tart carefully to a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature as is, or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.