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Psychology

So much potentially misleading information, so little time.

New Research

How Fake News Breaks Your Brain

Short attention spans and a deluge of rapid-fire articles on social media form a recipe for fake news epidemics

Research shows: dads are important, and so is understanding their role in kids' lives.

Three New Things Science Says About Dads

Fathers can have a significant effect on their children

John Frankenheimer's classic The Manchurian Candidate built upon the idea of brainwashed GIs in Korea.

History of Now

The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America

Fears of Communism during the Cold War spurred psychological research, pop culture hits, and unethical experiments in the CIA

The Mona Lisa's sparse setting may help visitors better appreciate its beauty, according to a new psychology study.

New Research

Distraction May Make Us Less Able to Appreciate Beauty

Truly experiencing the beauty of an object could require conscious thought, vindicating the ideas of Immanuel Kant

A still from the 2015 film The Big Short, featuring actors Billy Magnussen and Max Greenfield.

New Research

From Budweiser to Heineken, Alcohol Brands Are Rampant in Hollywood Films

Over the past two decades, even G-rated films have amped up the booze labels

Why I Take Fake Pills

Surprising new research shows that placebos still work even when you know they’re not real

Are orangutans aware that others have different minds than their own?

New Research

Monkeys May Recognize False Beliefs—Knocking Over Yet Another Pillar of Human Cognition

Apes may be aware of the minds of others—yet another remarkable finding about the cognitive abilities of non-human animals

Naomi Weisstein was a feminist activist, a neuropsychologist and, for a brief time, a rock 'n roll musician.

This Feminist Psychologist-Turned-Rock-Star Led a Full Life of Resistance

Naomi Weisstein fought against the idea of women as objects in both the fields of psychology and rock ‘n roll

Can Playing Tetris Block Traumatic Memories?

New research suggests that the engaging, visual-spatial nature of the game may disrupt the formation “intrusive memories”

Sometimes when we say "you," we really mean "me"

New Research

When I Say “You” But Really Mean “Me”

In some cases, the use of the second-person pronoun could help us put distance between ourselves and negative emotions

Unmasking the Mad Bomber

When James A. Brussel used psychiatry to think like a criminal, he pioneered the science of profiling

ASMRtists, as they are called, type on keyboards, tap on brushes and whisper gently to induce "the tingles." But is there any whisper of scientific truth to the trend?

How Researchers Are Beginning to Gently Probe the Science Behind ASMR

Once a mysterious Internet phenomenon, “tingleheads” are starting to get real scientific attention

Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, C.G. Jung, A.A. Brill, Ernest Jones, and Sándor Ferenczi posed at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts in September, 1909.

When Freud Met Jung

The meeting of the minds happened 110 years ago

Researchers have found that when our minds wander, our moods tend to suffer.

Why Mind Wandering Can Be So Miserable, According to Happiness Experts

We still don’t know why our minds seem so determined to exit the present moment, but researchers have a few ideas

Who in society gets to be viewed as "brilliant"?

New Research

By Age Six, Girls Have Already Stopped Thinking of Their Gender as ‘Brilliant’

The’re more likely to assume that someone who is ‘very, very smart’ is male, new research finds

Dyslexia affects up to 17 percent of American schoolchildren. Researchers now believe it may be caused by difficulty in the brain rewiring itself.

New Research

Dyslexia May Be the Brain Struggling to Adapt

The learning disorder may be less a problem with language processing, and more a problem with the brain rewiring itself

Violence can spread like an epidemic among impressionable teenagers, according to new research.

New Research

Violence Among Teens Can Spread Like a Disease, Study Finds

Surveys of thousands of American teens add evidence to the theory that violence spreads in communities like a contagion

A new study on pilots' mental health suggests the skies may not be that friendly after all.

New Research

Think Your Job Is Depressing? Try Being an Airline Pilot

New study suggests pilots are more depressed than the average American

New Research

You May Not Have Rhythm, But Your Eyeballs Sure Do

Tracking eye movement gives researchers a peek into how the brain reacts to music

Researchers gave capsules containing psilocybin to cancer patients with terminal cancer—and witnessed spectacular results.

New Research

Could Magic Mushrooms One Day Help Cancer Patients Face Down Death?

Two new studies show the promise of psilocybin for patients with anxiety and depression

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