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Psychology

The New York Stock Exchange trading floor in 1963.

New Research

How Stress Hormones Impact the Behavior of Investors

Cortisol, a natural hormone, has been found to rise during times of market volatility and make people more risk-averse

Cool Finds

Finding the Best Office Temperature Is Basically Impossible

Is there a universally perfect working temperature? Probably not, and trying to find it might be a wild goose chase

Your brain only sees some of these as faces.

New Research

Your Brain Now Processes a Smiley Face as a Real Smile

Perhaps eventually we’ll respond to emoji as we would to real dogs, cats and night skies

Cool Finds

Americans Are More Into BDSM Than The Rest of the World

Not only is BDSM far more common than you might think, it’s also far less of a red-flag when it comes to health and psychology

New Research

Attractive Cyclists Are More Likely to Win Races

Endurance might be correlated with how attractive we find someone, new research suggests

Dreaming of world domination.

New Research

How You Describe a Dream Could Help Determine What Kind of Psychosis You Have

A recent study found dream descriptions could be used ot distinguish between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Everybody is listening, but nobody is learning.

Trending Today

When Are We Going to Stop Making Famous People Argue About Evolution?

From the Scopes trial to last night’s Nye/Ham face-off, Americans love pointless creationism debates

New Research

Human Faces Might Only Express Four Basic Emotions

How many faces can you make? Offhand, you might guess ten, or twenty, but researchers now say…it’s really only four

None

Cool Finds

It Takes Just Five Seconds to Find Out If You’re a Good Liar

But maybe don’t read too much into this test

The Holmes of BBC/Masterpiece's Sherlock, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, uses a mnemonic device straight out of ancient Greece—the mind palace.

The Secrets of Sherlock’s Mind Palace

The BBC/Masterpiece sleuth employs a memory technique invented by the ancient Greeks

New Research

Humans Are Naturally Inclined to Believe We’re Immortal

Even children who live in a culture with no beliefs about existence before birth have a concept of “pre-life”

The frozen brain of famous memory patient H.M., shown during the slicing process.

A Postmortem of the Most Famous Brain in Neuroscience History

Patient H.M.’s brain has been sliced and digitized, leading to new insights for scientists

Hugh, a manatee, undergoes training at Mote Marine Laboratory, learning to touch his nose to a plastic target.

A New Paradigm for Animal Research: Let Them Participate

In labs around the country, researchers are realizing that in many cases, it’s easier to work with animals than against them

The Science Is Clear: Don’t Text and Walk

Being distracted by texting makes people walk more slowly and crookedly, and they are more likely to be hit by cars

Being on the beach helps too.

New Research

You Can Get Placebo Sleep

Simply thinking you got better sleep makes your brain work better

New Research

To Boost Your Chances of Kickstarter Success, Use These Key Phrases

Some phrases shows up time and again in successful Kickstarters, while others are associated with failure

New Research

Do Babies Fake Cry?

Babies can be evil little creatures: they can even fake cry

Moving to An Area With More Green Space Can Improve Your Mental Health for Years

A new study finds that the mental benefits of greenery are immediate and long-lasting

Cool Finds

How Scientists Recorded the Music Inside One Woman’s Head

A patient was hallucinating musical scores, and researchers have managed to record it

New research suggests that before the age of seven, you can remember plenty from before you were three. But after, you start to forget.

New Research

Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7

Memories of that awesome zoo trip? Those first few birthday cakes? All gone

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