What are /r/socialscience's favorite Products & Services?

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Just 4 questions, appreciate it. New to reddit, maybe I could have set this up better, but THANKS for your participation! ;)

Also, we will share and update the results here!

Hey, thanks! You can order it from the publisher's website (which also links to other sellers) or of course Amazon.

I'm not sure what your point is in posting this, but in terms of the significance of having a purpose, or "something left to do", as I believe Frankl puts it, "Man's Search for Meaning" talks about this in quite a bit of detail.

Interesting, but it's my understanding of the historical record that few people in Nazi Germany knew a great deal about what their government was doing. The Nazi leadership didn't have to convince the public that it was okay to run concentration camps, but simply that they deserved extensive powers in order to conduct a war against an asymmetric enemy.

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same in any country"

-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

This guy William E. Shughart really does methodically approach the topics he talks about. It was a pleasure to listen to him talk about a variety of social topics. I wish he would have expanded more on the nuance and current thinking on social choice theory.

That's what I like to hear! You can order it from the publisher's website or Amazon, but I would also welcome you to suggest your local (or academic, if you're a student or researcher) library order a copy.

In January 2014 the german Bundestag published a list of islamic-rooted terrorist attacks in Europe since 2004 recently. It's in german, but you might still understand it. If you don't, just google the dates and you will find more information:

http://www.bundestag.de/blob/352976/566a1d7c2d6f86ac895b34dc0dc70f9e/islamistische-terroranschlaege-data.pdf

The list includes 21 successful and foiled attacks. And yes, the only attack listed in 2006 is the unsuccessful bombing of the Bonner Hauptbahnhof.

American social sciences themselves were founded as a way for the Rockefellers to launder money; they needed a way to get the public to be more tolerable of his obsence fortune, and started the University of Chicago and various social science associations as his contribution to philanthropy. But they came with rigid strings attached, that being that their pursuits stuck to whatever validated American exceptionalism and free-market capitalism rather than a neutral and empirical science.

Again, here y'all are omitting rich people are the problem, just as they wanted.

Source- <em>The Origins of American Social Sciences</em> by Dorothy Ross

The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons is about cognitive limitations. It's a good book because it's easy to read and funny and, more importantly, the authors don't stick to their own research, but provide a broad overview relevant to the topic. In other words, they are more concerned about educating their readers, instead of selling the importance of their research.

Stumbling upon Happiness by Daniel Gilbert is also a good book about human imagination and why we have a hard time finding happiness. Again, it's funny and easy to read, and Gilbert also seems more concerned about educating his readers.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg is also good. Duhigg is a journalist, but he elegantly combines science and human stories into a readable and informative book.

Yeah I feel like there's two ways to go with this. One is the Kurzweil view that we will meld with the machines. The other is that the machines will just take over. I think the guy who best articulates the arguments for the later theory/massive concern is Nick Bostrom. Here's his book if you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/Superintelligence-Dangers-Strategies-Nick-Bostrom/dp/0199678111/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1448491508&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=nick+bostrom

It's a bit dated, but you try Marvin Harris' Cows Pigs, Wars and Witches. He doesn't really delve into psychology, but looks at some seemingly irrational cultural practices and takes an anthropological approach at examining why they actually make sense. http://www.amazon.com/Cows-Pigs-Wars-Witches-Riddles/dp/0679724680