Weekly Top Five Articles

Reading and the brain, Hannah Arendt, how humility reduces anger, and more...

Photo by Jilbert Ebrahimi on Unsplash

Here’s what stood out this week:

(1) ”For the Love of the Word,” by Daegan Miller, Poetry Foundation (January 13, 2025)

Hannah Arendt was the rare philosopher who saw how limited her discipline could be. Poetry offered her another outlet for thinking.

Hannah Arendt, renowned philosopher and author of The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition, is best known for her incisive political and philosophical work. Yet, as Daegan Miller reveals in his essay, Arendt’s private world of poetry offers a profound complement to her public intellectual legacy.

Arendt began writing poetry in her youth, carrying her verses with her as she fled Nazi persecution across Europe. These poems, written in German, remained unpublished during her lifetime but are now collected in What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt (2024), translated by Samantha Rose Hill and Genese Grill. The collection unveils a deeply personal side of Arendt—a thinker who cherished poetry as a space for reflection, commemoration, and the “free play of thinking.”

Miller highlights how Arendt’s poetry, though less celebrated than her philosophical work, reveals her existential concerns and love for the world. Her verses grapple with loss, love, and the human condition, often echoing themes from her essays. For instance, Arendt’s critique of world-alienating ideologies—rooted in her interpretation of St. Augustine’s theology—finds a lyrical counterpart in her poems, which emphasize the beauty and plurality of life.

While Arendt’s poetry may lack the technical mastery of great poets, Miller argues that her verses are vital extensions of her philosophical ideas. Her friendships with poets like W.H. Auden influenced her writing, infusing her prose with a poetic sensibility. Arendt saw poetry as a durable form of thinking, capable of preserving meaning and resisting the “thoughtlessness” she identified as the root of evil.

In the end, Arendt’s poetry enriches her legacy, offering a lens through which to explore her philosophy’s emotional and imaginative depths. For Arendt, poetry and philosophy were inseparable, both driven by a shared quest to understand and love the world. As Miller concludes, her work—whether in prose or verse—continues to make the world thoughtful and beautiful for future generations.

(2) “My Babies Are Richer Than Yours: On the Lie of the Online Tradwife,” by Lauren Carroll Harris, Literary Hub, (January 10, 2025)

Harris critiques the rise of the “tradwife” influencer, whose nostalgic depiction of idealized motherhood is less about tradition and more about wealth and class performance. These influencers, epitomized by figures like Hannah Neeleman, present a curated fantasy of homemaking that is accessible only to the leisure class. Beneath their aestheticized posts of baking from scratch and idyllic family scenes lies a stark economic truth: their ability to perform this “tradition” is propped up by intergenerational wealth, privileged access to resources, and the labor of others.

Drawing on Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class, Harris situates these influencers within a lineage of conspicuous consumption and leisure. Just as 19th-century industrialists used ostentatious displays of wealth to signal superiority, today’s tradwives flaunt their time and resources through impractical tasks like homemade Nutella or sourdough bread—symbolic rather than productive labor. Their curated feeds are less about practicality and more about performance, reinforcing class divides and perpetuating unattainable ideals.

Harris also highlights the ideological underpinnings of this trend, rooted in conservative nostalgia for the 1950s nuclear family and a rejection of feminism and modernity. Yet this vision is ahistorical, ignoring that true communal caregiving—like shared parenting duties and intergenerational living—was the norm for much of human history. Instead, tradwives promote a neoliberal ideal of self-sufficiency, isolating care work within the family while erasing structural inequalities that make this lifestyle impossible for most.

The tradwife influencer, Harris argues, is not reviving tradition but commodifying motherhood. By branding themselves as digital assets, these women turn their domestic lives into profitable content, reinforcing patriarchal values while marketing an unattainable dream to their followers. Beneath the gingham aprons and staged photos, their message is clear: “My babies are richer than yours.”

(3) “Scientists just demonstrated that people who are good at reading have different brains,” by Mikael Roll, PsyPost (January 16, 2025)

A new study published in Neuroimage reveals that skilled readers have distinct brain structures, emphasizing the transformative power of reading. Analyzing over 1,000 participants, Mikael Roll found key differences in two regions of the brain's left hemisphere: the anterior temporal lobe and Heschl’s gyrus. These areas, crucial for language processing and phonological awareness, play a significant role in reading ability.

The anterior temporal lobe helps integrate sensory and motor information to understand word meaning, while Heschl’s gyrus, part of the auditory cortex, is essential for associating letters with speech sounds. Interestingly, Roll found that a thicker Heschl’s gyrus correlates with better reading skills, while variations in cortical structure — thinner in some areas, thicker in others — support the complex interplay of phonology and meaning.

The study also highlights the brain’s adaptability. Practicing reading or learning a new language can increase cortical thickness in key areas, demonstrating how mental exercises reshape the brain. However, with fewer people reading for leisure, the societal implications are significant. Reduced emphasis on reading may erode critical skills like interpreting information and understanding others.

Roll concludes with a call to action: picking up a book is not just a personal indulgence but a way to enrich your brain and contribute to humanity’s intellectual evolution. So, the next time you cozy up with a good book, remember — you’re strengthening both your brain and the world.

(4) “Male victimhood ideology driven by perceived status loss, not economic hardship, among Korean men,” by Mane Kara-Yakoubian, PsyPost (January 15, 2025)

Research published in Sex Roles reveals that male victimhood ideology among South Korean men is primarily driven by perceived status loss rather than actual economic hardship. This ideology, which asserts that men are unfairly targeted by gender discrimination and feminist policies, is gaining traction globally but finds a unique context in South Korea's shifting socioeconomic and gender dynamics.

Joeun Kim analyzed data from over 15,000 South Korean men across four large-scale surveys conducted between 2015 and 2023. The studies assessed factors such as income, employment, education, and perceptions of socioeconomic status. Contrary to expectations, objective economic hardship—like unemployment or precarious jobs—did not predict male victimhood beliefs. In fact, higher-income men were sometimes more likely to hold such views.

The consistent predictor was perceived status decline. Men who felt their current social standing was lower than it had been in the past—whether compared to their youth or their parents’ status—were far more likely to adopt victimhood ideology. This pattern was especially pronounced among middle- and upper-class men, for whom the loss of privilege was most stark. In contrast, women in similar socioeconomic situations displayed much lower levels of victimhood beliefs.

Kim’s findings suggest that male victimhood ideology is less about material disadvantage and more about a psychological response to shifting social hierarchies.

(5) Humility reduces anger and promotes more benign interpretations of conflict by Mane Kara-Yakoubian, PsyPost (January 14, 2025)

New research published in Personality and Individual Differences suggests that humility—both as a personal trait and as an induced state—can significantly reduce anger and hostile interpretations in ambiguous social situations. The study, led by Eddie Harmon-Jones and colleagues, highlights humility’s role as a protective factor in anger regulation and conflict resolution.

The researchers conducted three studies to explore the relationship between humility and anger. In the first two, they found that individuals with higher levels of trait humility, as measured by psychological scales, reported less anger, aggression, and hostility. These individuals were more likely to interpret potentially antagonistic situations with benign attributions rather than hostile ones. Importantly, the link between humility and lower anger persisted even after controlling for narcissism, indicating humility’s unique influence.

The third study employed a five-day intervention to induce humility through gratitude exercises, reflection on external contributions to personal success, and altruistic writing tasks. Compared to a control group focused on pride-inducing tasks, participants in the humility condition reported significantly lower emotional reactivity to anger by the end of the program. However, the intervention had less impact on participants’ hostile attributions or aggression-related behaviors, suggesting that humility primarily affects the emotional dimension of anger rather than its cognitive or behavioral aspects.

This research underscores humility’s potential to foster emotional balance, reduce reactivity, and promote healthier social interactions.