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The human brain is arguably the most powerful machine in the known universe, its inner workings an profound, impenetrable mystery. Except when it comes to remembering things. In that case, it's basically the same thing as a bird finding dinner. More »
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Babies are easy to underestimate. This is understandable; after all, when most of us interact with an infant, we see a clumsy, messy creature — one more adept at stringing together strange gurgling noises than distinct consonants and vowels. More »
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Are you more creative when you're drunk? It's one of those soundbites that you're liable to hear a friend spout off somewhere between their fourth and fifth beer — a little factoid that might actually sound somewhat feasible if only there were a scientific study lying around to back it up. More »
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You probably know that Frank Herbert's Dune teaches that "fear is the mind-killer." But what else can you learn from Dune about the power of using your mind and avoiding negative thoughts? Psychologist Maria Konnikova delves into the real-life neuroscience that Paul Atreides taps into. More »
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Metaphors and other figurative language are deeply woven into the fabric of human communication, as this very sentence actually demonstrates. But how do our brains translate these metaphors into something they can understand? More »
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If you're trying to attract men in San Francisco who like to visit coffee shops, you may want to skip filling in your "about me" section, and spend as much time as possible picking out your very best profile picture. More »
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In 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott was getting aggravated by the number of psychologists and psychiatrists being used as expert witnesses in legal trials. To protest this perceived overuse of psychiatric professionals, Scott tacked the following protest amendment onto a bill: More »
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Seriously. This map suggests that unless you live in California, a smattering of states out East, or a small handfull of other states sprinkled across the country, you're looking at a very grave problem when it comes to scientific illiteracy in your community's youth (and, presumably, its population in general). Come to think of it, this map should really concern you, no matter where you live. More »
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The very definition of a phobia is an "irrational fear." Phobias are always overreactions to mild dangers, constant fear of rare dangers, and outright terror of things that are not dangerous at all. Because of their irrationality, it seems like phobias can't have an evolutionary purpose. But why do we have them? More »
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We hear a lot about the downside of plugged-in teenagers — the anxiety the experience on social media, sexting, cyberbullying — but that doesn't mean that teens don't feel some psychological benefits from all that time spent online. In fact, a recent study found that good old fashioned blogging can actually function as a form of therapy. More »
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If you want to win over your political adversaries, first make sure you look like a giant baby. According to a slightly bizarre new psychological study, we're way more open to opposing ideas if they come from a baby-faced person. More »
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Under the right circumstances, a home furnishing has the power to make visitors green around the gills. Such is the findings of a recent paper published in the journal Perception, "The sickening rug: a repeating static pattern that leads to motion-sickness-like symptoms." More »
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Evidence continues to mount that your political leanings are determined, to some extent, by aspects of your biology. The latest installment in this emerging area of research comes from the University of Nebraska, in a study that looks at peoples' responses to certain forms of visual stimuli — politically themed or otherwise. More »
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A new study purports to use evolutionary psychology to explain why men fall asleep after sex, and what it actually means. The study is being widely reported as proving that men only fall asleep after sex to avoid giving affection or commitment to their female partners. Or maybe it proves that men who fall asleep after sex really are in love, after all. More »
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Sherlock Holmes isn't what you'd call a traditional psychologist. In fact, he isn't even real (despite the letters that to this day arrive at 221B Baker Street). But his insights into the human mind do more to teach us about how we do think and how we should think than many a more conventional source. More »
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Are you big on science and science communication? If you are, do yourself favor and check out ScienceOnline2012 (or scio12 to those in the know), the sixth annual international meeting on science and the internet. More »
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For the first time in seventeen years, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (D.S.M.) is undergoing a significant revision. One of the mental conditions facing major emendations in its D.S.M. definition is autism. If the changes go through, a recent analysis suggests that the rate of official diagnosis for autism, and related disorders like Asperger syndrome, could plummet. And that, some people worry, could be bad news for those marginalized by the new diagnostic criteria. More »
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Artist Alasdair Hopwood and the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College are creating an archive of memories — false memories. And one of your false memories could be in there. It's easy enough to acquire one. More »
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This video uses your eye's built-in blind spot to trick your brain into making a man's head vanish. I've seen some pretty awesome optical illusion videos in my time, and I'm calling it now: this is the best one yet. More »
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Gossip is generally seen as malicious, something that destroys relationships and reputations alike with a deadly mix of garbled half-truths and outright lies. But did you ever stop to consider all the good that gossip does? More »
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Is intelligence related to an increased likelihood of recreational drug use? It's an interesting hypothesis, and one that's been gaining momentum in recent years. More »
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Between political disagreements, economic instability, and climate troubles, you might assume every newspaper is full of bad news. Weirdly enough, the exact opposite is true. No matter what's going on in the real world, English is a perversely positive language. More »
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Zombies may seem like the purview of AMC dramas nowadays, but in 1997, English medical journal The Lancet published an intriguing set of case studies detailing three reports of zombification in Haiti. What caused the dead to walk in these instances? Well, let's just say reality is far less lurid than George Romero flicks. More »
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Though desire and its associated effects - lust, love, aggression, ambition - are generally the purview of poets, that hasn't stopped generations of thinkers from trying to explain it scientifically (and pseudoscientifically). Can desire really be described using the scientific method? Here are ten ways that researchers have answered that question with a resounding "yes." More »
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This is the 1980s toe-tapper "Cathy Don't Go" (lyrics and en Español), an earworm New Wave number that almost certainly ripped off Survivor's "Jackie Don't Go." Unlike Survivor's ditty, "Cathy Don't Go" was written by the evangelical doomsday cult The Family International about how the Antichrist is controlling us through barcodes. The music video will make your head explode. Here's a sample verse: More »
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Most of us have had an experience like this: we turn our heads to the side in bed and see a strange shape. It has a weird line to it, and it's an odd color, and it's suspended in a strange way. We're wary. We're confused. Whatever we're experiencing doesn't 'ring a bell,' for us. And then we turn our heads slightly, and recognition dawns. That thing we're seeing was the fringed scarf that we borrowed from someone last night for the walk home through the rain. It's in that weird position because we hung it between the desk and the doorknob to dry. More »
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Being outside gives us a sense of freedom and spaciousness, and as far as some German engineers are concerned, that means increased work efficiency. That's why they've invented a "dynamic luminous ceiling" that simulates working outside during a clouding day. More »
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Did you know that there's a not unsubstantial corner of YouTube devoted to pornographic videos that aren't pornographic? And did you know that thousands of people click these painfully unsexy clips daily? More »
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Few sensations are weirder than the bizarre feeling that you are floating outside your own body. "Out of body" experiences are a mysterious phenomenon that's often mixed up in the occult, but scientists are still trying to puzzle out how it works. More »
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Height is often a sign of dominance, as anyone with a Napoleonic complex will be only too happy (well, not happy) to tell you. Yes, powerful people are taller...and when that's not actually the case, they just assume they are. More »
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Guillaume Duchenne didn't use the Joker's extreme methods to make people smile — but he did employ a technique that was nearly as gruesome. This nineteenth century researcher was fascinated by finding a "genuine" smile — and wasn't averse to using electrodes on people, to achieve his goal. More »
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It is the year 2251. All is well on Earth – food is plentiful, climate ills are cured, and war is nonexistent. Humanity left its home decades ago, with the United Nations of Earth currently on the 20th round of colonization. How would you go about convincing a new round of colonists to brave the hazards of space? More »
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What's your earliest accurate memory? Chances are, it occurred after your third birthday, and until recently, scientists assumed that this was because children do not form accurate memories until the ages of three or four. But a new study from New Zealand suggests that children can correctly recall experiences from when they were two years old. More »
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Many corporate work environments are designed to encourage optimum efficiency. Managers want to encourage productivity with the amount of light and music, or discourage socializing by erecting walls. Do any of these tactics work at all? And if they do, how is your work environment influencing you? More »
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Unless you're an art expert, your brain is completely unable to distinguish between a genuine masterpiece and a convincing forgery. But if you're told you're looking at a forgery, your brain goes haywire trying to deal with being duped. More »
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While most of the globe seems pretty okay that Kim Jong-il is quite dead, things are considerably more doleful in North Korea. North Korean state news has released footage of the public mourning en masse in Pyongyang today. More »
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If you're tying to figure out how cute a baby is, you had better ask a premenopausal woman: they're scientifically proven to have the highest cuteness sensitivity. Yes, this experiment involved coming up with an objective scale of baby cuteness. More »
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You might think that democracies work best when people care and know about the key issues. But a new study argues that for a democracy to function at all, you need lots of ignorant people blindly siding with the majority. More »
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Supernormal stimuli make birds ignore their eggs (and then their chicks), cause fish to fight dummies (while live competitors go uncontested), and can drive humans back to sugary snacks. Find out how these special stimuli use just the right trigger to make an animal destroy itself. More »
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Remember the naked lady in the ice cube that was supposed to sell us soda? How about all the pranks that Tyler Durden pulls in Fight Club? Both are equally fictional — and people have pretty much given up on trying to influence our subconscious minds via subliminal imagery. More »
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