The story is invented. The research isn't.
Every factual claim I make about the world — in the novel, in the notebook, in anything I post — has a source, and this is where they live. Free, no email, no account.
If you find one I've got wrong, email me and I'll correct it here and say who caught it.
Last updated: August 30, 2026
On thinking about death
- Schimmack, U. — R.I.P Terror Management: A Z-Curve Analysis, Replicability-Index, April 2025replicationindex.com/2025/04/27/r-i-p-terror-management-a-z-curve-analysis/
- Managing the terror of publication bias: A systematic review of the mortality salience hypothesis, 2025pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40193452/
- Cozzolino, Staples, Meyers & Samboceti — Greed, Death, and Values, PSPB, 2004journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167203260716
On regret
- Gilovich & Medvec, 1994pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7965599/
- Replication, Collabra: Psychology, 2022online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/8/1/37122/190272/
On reading people
- Bond & DePaulo — Accuracy of Deception Judgments, 2006journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1207/s15327957pspr1003_2
- Vrij — Deception and truth detection, 2019onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.3457
On attention and screens
- Allcott, Braghieri, Eichmeyer & Gentzkow — The Welfare Effects of Social Media, AER, 2020aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20190658
On connection
- U.S. Surgeon General — Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf
On effort that defeats itself
- Espie — attention–intention–effort pathwaymed.upenn.edu/cbti/assets/user-content/documents/Espie_ParadoxicalIntentionTherapy-BTSD.pdf
- Jansson-Fröjmark et al. — meta-analysis, J. Sleep Research, 2022onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsr.13464
On shame
- Shame-attacking exercises, Albert Ellis Institutealbertellis.org/2016/02/shame-attacks/
Not research — and I'll say so
Bronnie Ware's Regrets of the Dying is quoted everywhere as if it were a study. It isn't. It's one palliative nurse's observation of her own patients. That's worth something — but it's testimony, not evidence, and anyone selling it to you as science is either careless or hoping you won't check. — bronnieware.com/blog/regrets-of-the-dying/