Psychology72 articles archived since 1845

How People Rate Pizza, Jobs and Relationships Is Surprisingly Predictive of Their Behavior

Researchers are perplexed as to why inner feelings about life and love predict our actions better than the best social science

How Much People Write Can Reveal Racial Biases

Society’s stereotypes can slip into communication in subtle ways

How Gaslighting Manipulates Reality

Gaslighting isn’t just between people in a relationship—it involves social power, too

Moral Injury Is an Invisible Epidemic That Affects Millions

A specific kind of trauma results when a person’s core principles are violated during wartime or a pandemic

What’s the Science of Public Grief?

Most of the people mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II were not close to her—research can shed light on the nature of their grief

Why Kids Are Afraid to Ask for Help

Children as young as seven years old may hesitate to ask questions in school because they worry classmates will think they are “stupid”

It’s Time To Rethink the Origins of Pain

Chronic pain is biochemical, but it’s also psychological, and treatment needs to address how we think and feel about it

Changing Perceptions about Harm Can Temper Moral Outrage

If you can find ways to make an activity appear safer, you can also make it more morally acceptable to some people

In Schools, Honest Talk about Racism Can Reduce Discrimination

New laws make it harder for teachers to discuss racism and inequality, but psychological evidence shows these conversations dispel causes of bias and distress

Why Thinking Hard Wears You Out

Concentrating for long periods builds up chemicals that disrupt brain functioning.

When Students Acquire Spatial Skills, Their Verbal Abilities Get a Boost

Learning to visualize objects might improve thinking in words, a finding that could enhance teaching methods

Why COVID Makes So Many of Us Feel Guilty

Making decisions based on complex information is frustrating and stressful, but a change in mindset can help

What Keeps a Crowd from Becoming a Mob?

Amid COVID, studies in Denmark suggest that crowds do not always engage in bad behavior—and that mass-gatherings sometimes offer meaningful connection

How Parents’ Trauma Leaves Biological Traces in Children

Adverse experiences can change future generations through epigenetic pathways

A Playbook for Science Denial, ‘Scientific Phallocracy’ in the Animal Kingdom, and More

Recommendations from the editors of Scientific American

Behind Every Smile

Strawberry Fields

Nothing is real about the colors you see here

How Dominant Leaders Go Wrong

Highly assertive, confident individuals may foster a selfish culture that hurts productivity

From Designing a House to Editing Text, Sometimes Less Is More

Our minds tend to create new stuff by piling on to what’s already there, a practice that narrows our thinking

Can’t Buy Me Luck: The Role of Serendipity in the Beatles’ Success

The right combination of variables is needed to achieve a blazing success—one explanation for why there was never a “Kinksmania”