Psychology

Bryan Stevenson crusades for thousands of young people in America's prisons.

Why Mass Incarceration Defines Us As a Society

Bryan Stevenson, the winner of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in social justice, has taken his fight all the way to the Supreme Court

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The History of Boredom

You’ve never been so interested in being bored

According to a new study, beautiful people are indeed happier but not always for the same reasons.

How Much is Being Attractive Worth?

For men and women, looking good can mean extra cash in your bank account

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The Spookiest Photos Submitted By Our Readers

Abandoned mansions, ghostly twins and murders of crows are just a few of the scariest entries from past photo contests

According to author Kevin Dutton, psychopaths have a distinct set of personality characteristics. Pictured is Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho.

The Pros to Being a Psychopath

In a new book, Oxford research psychologist Kevin Dutton argues that psychopaths are poised to perform well under pressure

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Why Power Corrupts

New research digs deeper into the social science behind why power brings out the best in some people and the worst in others

In his new book, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, Frank Partnoy claims that when faced with a decision, we should assess how long we have to make it, and then wait until the last possible moment to do so.

Why Procrastination is Good for You

In a new book, University of San Diego professor Frank Partnoy argues that the key to success is waiting for the last possible moment to make a decision

The Champ has been used in experiments to see if depressed people are more likely to cry than non-depressed people.

The Saddest Movie in the World

How do you make someone cry for the sake of science? The answer lies in a young Ricky Schroder

Amy Herman at the Metropolitan Museum with Sargent's Madame X asks her class of cops, "How would you describe this woman in one sentence?"

Teaching Cops to See

At New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Amy Herman schools police in the fine art of deductive observation

John Allman (with colleague Atiya Hakeem at Caltech examining elephant brain specimens) is searching for one of the biological keys to human behavior.

Brain Cells for Socializing

Does an obscure nerve cell help explain what gorillas, elephants, whales—and people—have in common?

Citizens of Mexico City wear masks to prevent the spread of swine flu.

Dreading the Worst When it Comes to Epidemics

A scientist by training, author Philip Alcabes studies the etymology of epidemiology and the cultural fears of worldwide disease

The many colors of bell peppers.

Food and Think: Why Are There No Blue Foods?

Foods of every color carry different nutritional benefits, and even carry psychological side effects for your diet

Volvo introduced the three-point seat belt 50 years ago.

Buckle Up Your Seatbelt and Behave

Do we take more risks when we feel safe? Fifty years after we began using the three-point seatbelt, there's a new answer

Hysterical Men by Mark Micale.

History of the Hysterical Man

Doctors once thought that only women suffered from hysteria, but a medical historian says that men were always just as susceptible

Author of Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, Sam Gosling.

How to Be a Snoop

The way you arrange your home or office may reveal surprising results

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt examines traffic science and psychology

The Truth About Traffic

Author Tom Vanderbilt Shows Why Cars and People Don’t Mix

To learn how the mind works, biologist Laurie Santos (with a research subject on Cayo Santiago) studies a seemingly paradoxical question: Do monkeys assume that people act like monkeys?

Thinking Like a Monkey

What do our primate cousins know and when do they know it? Researcher Laurie Santos is trying to read their minds

There’s a misperception about prejudice, says Richeson, that “people do bad things because they’re bad people, and there are only a few of these bad apples around.” All of us have prejudices, she adds, but we also have the capacity to change.

The Bias Detective

How does prejudice affect people? Psychologist Jennifer Richeson is on the case

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Richard Lerner

The Tufts University developmental scientist challenges the myth of the troubled adolescent in his new book, "The Good Teen"

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Interview: Daniel Gilbert

What will make you happy? A social scientist explains why it's so hard to predict

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