Psychology

Some kids help others more than other kids. A lot of that is probably social learning. Yet a new paper reveals that being helpful may be a universal trait. The data were 336 children aged four to…

Imagine you are standing near the railing of a seventh-floor balcony with your infant in your arms when a sudden thought crosses your mind: you could drop your baby over the edge. How does that make…

Ghosts in Sweden? It sounds strange to place the supernatural in a country of health-conscious, pragmatic engineers. But even though Swedes readily accept modernity, their popular culture hints at…

Science has explained an extraordinary amount about the world around us. But one of its most elusive subjects remains remarkably close to home: ourselves.  What made humans the way we are? How…

Actors are famous for manufacturing traumatic situations about every movie they've done but the public builds that into their psychological makeup. People just chuckle that millionaires on union-run…

During the Obama administration, he was concerned about vaccines causing autism and it showed when it came to guidance about swine flu vaccines. His administration banned multi-use vials because of…

You can spend every day surrounded by other people and still feel lonely. You can also spend long periods alone without finding the experience distressing. That difference may help explain why…

Why have public displays of piano playing become so compelling? At railway stations, shopping centres and airports, an instrument usually associated with concert halls bursts into everyday life. In…

The Wilson Effect was coined in 2013 after psychologist Dr. Ronald Wilson of the University of Louisville, who wrote (e.g. in 1983) that "mental development", basically IQ, change as we age. In…

Dr. Iñaki Echeverría-Huarte at the University of Navarra in Spain has found across 40 experiments that people without any thought, guidance, or prompting drift to the left. It has nothing to do with…