Learn about why “everyday sadism” might help explain trolling and bullying; why our quality of sleep is worse during lockdown (and how to fix it); and a breakthrough random number generation algorithm that could help researchers analyze complex systems. Plus: Cody nerds out about Games Done Quick and video game speed runs!

Blame "everyday sadism" for trolling, bullying, and violent crime by Kelsey Donk
Foulkes, L. (2020) Ever taken pleasure in another’s pain? That’s ‘everyday sadism’ | Psyche Ideas. https://psyche.co/ideas/ever-taken-pleasure-in-anothers-pain-thats-everyday-sadism
Tran, U. S., Bertl, B., Kossmeier, M., Pietschnig, J., Stieger, S., & Voracek, M. (2018). “I’ll teach you differences”: Taxometric analysis of the Dark Triad, trait sadism, and the Dark Core of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 126, 19–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.01.015
Buckels, E. E., Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). Behavioral Confirmation of Everyday Sadism. Psychological Science, 24(11), 2201–2209. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613490749
van Geel, M., Goemans, A., Toprak, F., & Vedder, P. (2017). Which personality traits are related to traditional bullying and cyberbullying? A study with the Big Five, Dark Triad and sadism. Personality and Individual Differences, 106, 231–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.10.063

Our sleep during lockdown is more regular, but lower quality (and there's a fix) by Kelsey Donk
Our sleep during lockdown: Longer and more regular, but worse. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/uob-osd061220.php
Blume C, Schmidt MH, Cajochen C. (2020). Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on human sleep and rest-activity rhythms. Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.021

New MIT algorithm can simulate a roll of loaded dice — and that could help analyze complex systems by Grant Currin
Nadis, S. (2020, May 28). Algorithm quickly simulates a roll of loaded dice. MIT News. http://news.mit.edu/2020/algorithm-simulates-roll-loaded-dice-0528
Saad, Feras A, Freer, C. E., Rinard, M. C., & Mansinghka, Vikash K. (2020). The Fast Loaded Dice Roller: A Near-Optimal Exact Sampler for Discrete Probability Distributions. ArXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.03830

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Originally posted to https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/blame-trolling-on-everyday-sadism-how-to-sleep-better-during-lockdown-a-breakthrough-in-random-number-generation on July 14, 2020.