Economists Linos and Severnini measured pollution effects on cognition using more than 4 million Lumosity gameplay observations from over 100,000 users across the US over 3 years.
Where this was said
At 26:46 · chapter starts 21:40
Research by economists James Archsmith, Anthony Hayes, and Sudeh Saberian showed that MLB umpires made more wrong calls on high-pollution days — the first strong evidence that air pollution impairs professional adult cognition. But Linos saw its limits: one population, one task. She and her co-author Edson Severnini gained access to Lumosity's Human Cognition Project, pulling data from over 100,000 US users playing games measuring verbal ability, attention, flexibility, working memory, math, processing speed, and problem-solving across more than 4 million gameplay observations over 3 years. [1] — Andrea Linos "Researchers analyzing baseball umpires found they made more wrong calls on high-pollution days. It was the first strong evidence that air p…" 21:41 To handle the fact that pollution isn't measured 'attached to bodies,' the team used wind direction as an instrument: when wind carries pollution from other locations into an area, all residents receive roughly the same dose, creating a natural experiment. The stage is set for a headline result that would shake even the experts.
Researchers analyzing baseball umpires found they made more wrong calls on high-pollution days. It was the first strong evidence that air pollution impairs professional adult performance — not just students taking tests.
Lumosity claims more than 100 million users across nearly 200 countries, giving researchers an unusually large and geographically diverse dataset for studying cognition.
Because pollution monitors aren't strapped to individuals' bodies, measuring exact exposure is hard. Linos and Severnini solved this by using wind direction: when wind pushes pollution from other locations into an area, every resident gets roughly the same dose — making it a natural experiment in a population.
Even when air pollution stays below EPA and WHO guidelines, cognition is measurably impaired across seven cognitive domains — including memory, attention, flexibility, and problem-solving. The biggest effects hit adults under 50.
Dan Gilbert's research found that the psychological immune system — the brain's ability to justify and find satisfaction in choices — activates most powerfully when a decision is perceived as irreversible.
Barry Schwartz's research found that maximizers — people who try to optimize every decision — tend to achieve objectively better outcomes but report lower happiness than satisficers who choose 'good enough.'
Research consistently shows that while people may initially regret poor decisions, in the long run they regret the decisions they didn't make — inaction — far more than the ones they took.
A study showed that men in committed relationships who briefly viewed 10 attractive women's faces reported a measurable decrease in relationship satisfaction immediately afterward, illustrating evolutionary mismatch with modern media.
Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert, who previously didn't believe in marriage, immediately proposed to his long-term girlfriend after his own research showed that constraints increase satisfaction with choices.
Animals first sensed light 540 million years ago, triggering an evolutionary acceleration known as the Cambrian explosion within 10 million years.
It is estimated that half of all cortical activity in the human brain is involved in visual function, underscoring vision's central role in intelligence.
Cognitive neuroscience literature shows that by age 6, humans can recognize tens of thousands of different object categories — far more data than early AI systems were trained on.
Only about 3% of FDA-approved drugs have genuinely unclear mechanisms of action, making an unknown mechanism a meaningful early red flag for any compound.
We use essential and analytics cookies to run Vuci. To understand how the site is used: Privacy Policy.
Install Vuci on your phone
Add it to your home screen for a faster, app-like experience.
Install Vuci on your phone
Tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”.
A new version is available
Reload to get the latest Vuci.