Stranger than fiction

Bizarre claims from this article in the New York Times:

Researchers have long known that people cling to their personal biases more tightly when feeling threatened. After thinking about their own inevitable death, they become more patriotic, more religious and less tolerant of outsiders, studies find. When insulted, they profess more loyalty to friends — and when told they’ve done poorly on a trivia test, they even identify more strongly with their school’s winning teams.

The theory is exposure to bizarre and unexpected things could actually stimulate creativity. Tim Burton would be a prime example, I suppose.

Also: James P. Johnson gets his propers, finally, after 50 years in an obscure grave in Queens.