The Syrian slaughter. North Korea nuclear warheads. ISIS attacks. School shootings. Social media-fed teen depression. Thugs victimizing people of color and women. Inequality increasing. Online…
Posts published in “talk psych”
The teen years are, for many, a time of rewarding friendships, noble idealism (think Parkland), and an expanding vision for life’s possibilities. But for others,…
Would you risk riding to the airport in a self-driving car? If you said no, you aren’t alone. In a 2017 Pew survey, 56…
Perceptual illusions are not only great fun, they also remind us of a basic truth: Our perceptions are more than projections of the world into…
Long ago, I read a jest that most people believe in the shaping power of environmental nurture—until they have their second child. That pretty…
In an earlier post, I offered my nominee for psychology’s most misunderstood concept: negative reinforcement (which is not a punishing, but a rewarding event—withdrawing or…
On most subjective and socially desirable dimensions, we tend to exhibit self-serving bias. We perceive ourselves as more moral than most others, healthier than others,…
My colleague, Lindsay Root Luna, has new data showing that virtues correlate. People’s scores intercorrelate on scales assessing humility, justice, wisdom, forgiveness, gratitude, hope, and…
In the aftermath of the mass murder at a Florida high school, gun safety advocates reminded us that countries and states with the most guns…
[A growing body of research suggests that true humility helps us grow intellectually and to learn from and connect with each other.] In his…