A professor of cognitive science argues that the world is nothing like the one we experience through our senses.
As we go about our daily lives, we tend to assume that our perceptions—sights, sound...
Do you think of yourself as a conformist or a non-conformist? If you are like most people, you probably believe that you are non-conformist enough to stand up to a group when you know you are right, but conformist enough to blend in w...
A psychologist probes how altruism, Darwinism and neurobiology mean that we can succeed by not being cutthroat.
Why do people do good things? Is kindness hard-wired into the brain, or does this tendency arise via experi...
In humans’ mysterious journey to become intelligent, socializing creatures like no other in the animal world, one innovation played an essential role: religion.
That’s the theory that a preeminent evolutionary scientist is setti...
This morning, like every morning, I sat cross-legged on a
Evil, it can seem, is all around us. Hitler. The Rwandan genocide. Ted Bundy. Every time you read the news or watch television, bad behaviour that causes harm is on display.
These days, the word ‘evil’ has religious connotation...
Nope, it’s not the back aches or foot pain. If you can’t concentrate while working at a standing desk, it’s probably because your primal brain is subconsciously making eye-friends with all your coworkers.
We have evolved to do t...
A new study reports people who use profanities tend to be more honest and are less likely to be associated with deception or lying.
It’s long been associated with anger and coarseness but profanity can have another, more positiv...
Picture this. It’s a Saturday morning, and autumn sunshine is falling through the blinds. You have a cup of coffee, a book, and an easy chair. Best of all: you’re alone. Your family, housemates, spouse, or children are elsewhere, and ...
The most memorable lecture of my college career was the one in which biological anthropologist
Toxic people defy logic. Some are blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them, and others seem to derive satisfaction from creating chaos and pushing other people’s buttons. Either way, they create un...
The wisdom of crowds breaks down when people are biased. Now researchers have discovered a simple method of removing this bias–just listen to the most confident.
Way back in 1906, the English polymath Francis Galton visited a co...
I'm dying of boredom,” complains the young wife, Yelena, in Chekhov’s 1897 play Uncle Vanya. “I don’t know what to do.” Of course, if Yelena were around today, we know how she’d alleviate her boredom: She’d pull out her smartphone and...
One psychologist claims that staying single gives people a chance to “live their best, most authentic and most meaningful life,” while also stating that the idea of a blissful marriage is entirely myth.
At the American Psycholog...
The Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith has provided the long awaited, first principal, biological explanation of the human condition, our capacity for so called ‘good and evil’. With the clarifying, biological explanation for why we...
Here’s a modern paradox: People report that they feel significantly happier outdoors than they do indoors, yet we spend less than 5 percent of our waking hours in nature.
Such were the findings of a recent
Psychologists have a pretty good idea of what typically makes a human happy. Dancing delights us....
Survival is the Basic Instinct of most chemical or biological life forms. It is what makes flowers turn toward the sun. It is what makes birds fly to warmer climates. It is what makes turtles recede into their shells. It is what makes...
Scientists say one's mental habits can be bad for the
Creativity is highly prized in Western society—much touted by cultures that claim to value individualism and the entrepreneurial spirit. But scratch beneath the surface, and it turns out that a lot of schools and businesses aren’t act...
Holding religious or spiritual beliefs is important for ‘thriving’ in life, a study by the University of Portsmouth has found. Dr Daniel Brown, a sport and exercise scientist, assessed all the research on what helps people to flourish...
If you believe the class genius is a loner because he’s an arrogant know-it-all, or because he’s socially awkward, that’s not (necessarily) the case. Instead, it might be because he or she is honestly happier without the incessant ina...
A psychologist in Italy has figured out how to induce a drug-free altered state of consciousness by asking 20 volunteers to sit and stare into each other’s eyes for 10 minutes straight. Not only did the deceptively simple task bring o...
The idea of empathy for all ignores the limits of human psychology.
The world seems to be getting more empathetic. Americans donate to charity at record rates. People feel the pain of suffering in geographically distant countrie...
