Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Psychology

New Research

Researchers Find Word Optimism Is Linked to National Misery

Even Pollyanna changes her tune in times of war and economic hardship

New Research

Feeling Down? Scientists Say Cooking and Baking Could Help You Feel Better

A little creativity each day goes a long way

"I will never forget that you did this to me."

New Research

Dogs May Possess a Type of Memory Once Considered ‘Uniquely Human’

New research suggests that man’s best friend remembers more than we thought

Conforming to masculine norms can leave men isolated and unable to cope with the stresses of life.

New Research

Sexism Sucks for Everybody, Science Confirms

Adhering to masculine norms can be toxic for men, not to mention everybody else

Getting to the Bottom of How Apes Think

Great apes show an ability to discern what others are thinking that we once only attributed to humans

Why do some people seem able to lie without feeling bad?

New Research

How White Lies Snowball Into Full-On Deception

Using brain scans, researchers find evidence that bad feelings associated with lying lessen over time

Hello, I am goat.

What Living Like Goats and Badgers Can Teach Us About Ourselves

Two Englishmen won the Ig Nobel Prize for eating grass, earthworms and worse in the name of science

A new study investigates booze in bars.

Loud Sounds Can Make Your Drink Seem Stronger

The scientific reason that clubbing and cocktails go hand in hand—but shouldn’t always

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Can This App Cure Your Fear of Flying?

No, you’re not plummeting from the sky. But the SkyGuru app can help explain why it might feel that way, using real-time flight data

Could This Painless Brain Stimulation Help Treat Depression and Alzheimer’s?

UNC researchers have shown that transcranial alternating current stimulation can help improve memory

The Tent of Casually Observed Phenologies.

Art Meets Science

Can the Art of Divination Help People Cope With Climate Anxiety?

A Brooklyn-based artist strives to create emotional connections with the looming threat of climate change.

fMRI changed the way researchers look at the human brain.

New Research

New Study Calls the Reliability of Brain Scan Research Into Question

Three million analyses point to a problem with fMRI brain activity studies

String theory—feline edition.

New Research

Cats Are Adorable Physicists

Beneath that fluffy exterior lies a shrewd understanding of how the world works

If Grit Breeds Success, How Can I Get Grittier?

University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth talks about her new book and the importance of the personal quality

Playtime with baby can help expand a child’s attention span, a new study shows.

Infants Learn to Pay Attention (or Not) From Watching Mom and Dad

Parents who focus on play may help babies develop critical skills that predict future success

Scientists keep finding new ways the brain can be deceived.

A New Way to Trick the Brain and Beat Jet Lag

For all its complexity, the human brain is not hard to deceive. Here are four studies where scientists have learned more about duping it

A recent study on clutter and overeating gave a new spin to the term "Hell's Kitchen."

New Research

Messy Kitchens Could Make You Eat More

Researchers put participants in the world’s most stressful kitchen for the sake of science

Ain't no rest for the wicked … or the innocent.

New Research

Sleepy Suspects Are Way More Likely to Falsely Confess to a Crime

In a study, almost 70 percent of sleep-deprived people admitted to something they didn’t do

New Research

Women “Catch” Yawns More Easily Than Men

Researchers sneakily observed thousands of interactions to see if gender made a difference in the contagiousness of yawning

Brain Scans Could Identify Kids at Risk of Depression

Knowing who’s at risk before the disease strikes could make preventative treatments possible

Page 11 of 24