When people think of someone with an “addictive personality,” the image typically isn’t a pretty one. “When is an addict lying?” goes a joke told by addiction counselors: the snide answer is “when his lips are moving.” Media portrayals of addiction tend to depict people with addictions as “fiends” or “demons” whose…
After an order issued by the U.S. general in charge of Guantanamo Bay this month, most psychologists will no longer be employed at the infamous prison. Why? Because the American Psychological Association no longer believes that working where prisoners are held without trial and tortured is ethical, and the general…
Is science real? Maybe! But also maybe not???
It has become increasingly accepted to regard long-term solitary confinement of prisoners as torture. A new report from a psychologist who interviewed prisoners in long-term isolation adds to the bracing literature about how our prison system routinely destroys humans.
Life is a series of stark choices. None starker than this: Would you rather be fat, or stupid? Do not try to weasel out of this. Science demands that you choose one, and only one.
Americans are less stressed than they were a few years ago. But the Americans you'd expect to be stressed are really fucking stressed. I guess we all just need to get that $$$.
When people see significant, often religious imagery in everyday images, from grilled cheese to their dog's butt, it's called "pareidolia." But as for exactly why people see divine figures like Jesus in things like potato chips and other ordinary objects, a recent study in the journal cognition says it is due to a…
Hark; the time hath come for "Hey, Science," our intelligence-boosting feature in which we enlist real live scientific experts to answer humanity's most interesting/ idiotic scientific questions. Today: Is there an evolutionary or biological reason for preferring to have sex with people of a certain race?
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science today reveals what we already suspected: Being "hotheaded" is an actual physiological phenomenon. So are butterflies in the stomach and...contemptuous loins?
The Supreme Court is set to review the case of Freddie Lee Hall, a mentally retarded man in Florida who was sentenced to death for participating in a rape, robbery, and two murders. They tackle two main questions: How high an IQ should be necessary for capital punishment? And is IQ measurement even precise enough to…
The six-year-old had to have brought it up, because I can't imagine how I would have. But the argument flared so fast I don't really remember how it started. A is red, he was saying, and B is blue.
Results from a recent study from researchers at the University of Utah indicate that there is no evidence to support the theory that some people are "right-brained," while others are "left-brained," giving you one less easy way to dismiss someone's peculiar personality.
The American Psychology Association voted to finalize entries for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders yesterday, ending the last of several commenting periods open to the public, so if you were hoping to send them any recommendations I hope yours got in under the wire. There…
Barry Eisler, a former CIA agent turned novelist, has put forth a handy checklist that journalists can use to determine just how co-opted they have become by the very powers over which they are supposed to be serving as a watchdog. It can help any reporter decide just how far down the road to hackdom they've traveled…
Guilt: are you carrying enough of it? Likely not. Do you even care about your children? You don't, do you? Don't lie—that's another thing to feel guilty about A new report has finally pinpointed exactly how much abuse you—whether through negligence, malice, or just some other vague action you didn't even think twice…
Given that James Holmes is responsible for a massacre, calling his behavior "erratic" feels like an awful understatement.
Slate Magazine featured a write-up Wednesday of two recent studies out of University of Texas-Austin that suggest the hottest thing a woman can do (in the eyes of a gentleman on the prowl for a one-night stand) is look sleepy, drunk, and/or unintelligent.
Harvard psychologists have found that people are so desperate to share random bits of information about themselves (their habits, their likes and dislikes, what, all bullshit aside, they really think of Girls), they are willing to give up ACTUAL FREE MONEY to do it.
In a new post on Psychology Today's website, titled "Make-Up Sex Hurts: Why & How to Avoid It," Dr. Seth Meyers does his best to make a case against engaging make-up sex following an argument with a romantic partner.
A new psych study out of Wake Forest University has found that everyone's best side is their left side. Really.
