This time we follow on from episode 6, looking at the psychology of Christmas. We find out just how robust our beliefs in Santa Claus really are with the Candy Witch experiments, whether there is a neural basis for Christmas spirit, and what all these decorations are doing to our collective identities. We put our Scroogeconomist hats on and find out just how much value is destroyed by gift giving (and the psychologists in us ask if ‘value’ is even the point). Most importantly of all, we find out who the jolliest Europeans are at Christmas time! Armed with a glass of Kopparberg’s Strawberry and Lime gin, we get festively merry in episode 7 of Abstracts.

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'Coffee' by Cambohttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Cambo

http://abstractspodcast.com

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eObVoC0dOp0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NM3xkUuOzo