Stories by Marina Krakovsky

Building on a Buddhist principle, psychologists are learning how being kind to yourself can bolster resilience, buffer against stress and improve relationships

People around the world are happier the more they donate to charity

Thinking about a close, happy relationship gives people the energy to explore

Research shows how to reap the benefits of self-compassion

A series of new experiments shows that analytic thinking can override intuitive assumptions, including those that underlie religious belief

Forming new habits that last requires setting realistic expectations

The Yahoo! Labs scientist and author explains why the "law of the few" is bunk, why history is full of failed hedgehogs, and why we can't make good predictions about just those things we most want to predict

Something is better than nothing, right? Not if you feel cheated, as experimental money games show

Researchers are developing a new understanding of how we judge people

Giving suspects an extra task helps to separate the liars from the truth-tellers

A new theory for why we put up with adulterers, steroid-using athletes and the mafia

People punish one another for stinginess more than they reward for generosity

Hotels find social pressure is more effective than environmental appeals in persuading their customers to adopt ecofriendly practices

Where you vote can affect how you cast your ballot

Through controlled experiments, Sonja Lyubomirsky explores ways to beat the genetic set point for happiness. Staying in high spirits, she finds, is hard work

Has the black-white IQ gap narrowed?

What's the best way to boost sales or handle competing resellers? By lab-testing business ideas, Kay-Yut Chen gets rid of some of the guesswork

How babies learn that unseen toys don't just vanish

Looking to make the downside of therapies known

Different brain areas "get it" and find it funny