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Mind and Behavior
Dark personality traits include psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. Is there room for empathy?
Outrage is a useful emotion that helped our ancient ancestors survive. Today, it leaves us feeling angry, tired, powerless, and miserable.
Nostalgia is a happy remembrance of the past, yet it also leaves us feeling sad. Perhaps ironically, it can serve as a painkiller.
Discussions of human evolution are usually backward looking, as if the greatest triumphs and challenges were in the distant past.
“At that time, it was just a wild idea, [...] that instead of just a loss of consciousness, anesthetics may do something to the brain that actually turns pain off.”
The laws of physics state that you can't create or destroy matter without also creating or destroying an equal amount of antimatter. So how are we here?
Zuranolone might help people feel better sooner than if they were relying on standard treatment alone.
Two aspects of memory – fast updating and long lasting – are typically considered incompatible, yet the insects combined them.
An expert explains the emerging science of nutrigenomics.
3mins
Why studying happiness is good for your “psychological immune system,” explained by Harvard “happiness professor” Tal Ben-Sharar.
Do the health risks outweigh the benefits?
Despite all that we've learned about the Universe, there remain unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions. Could "God" be the answer?
From a desert oasis to the Rocky Mountains, being filled with awe makes me a better scientist.
Too many people still view stay-at-home dads as feckless deadbeats, but their acceptance is an important step toward gender equality.
The human brain is only the latest chapter in the ancient story of thinking on Earth.
A ten-minute visit from a therapy dog reduces emergency room patients' pain and anxiety.
We cannot deduce laws about a higher level of complexity by starting with a lower level of complexity. Here, reductionism meets a brick wall.
If dark matter exists in a large halo in our galaxy, made up of particles, then it's passing through us constantly. But how much?
Pet owners have consistently reported higher levels of social capital in their communities than people without pets.
“What am I missing?” is a question that journalist Mónica Guzmán thinks more people should start asking.
8mins
IQ tests only measure two of the eight intelligences. Howard Gardner explains them all.
John Templeton Foundation
MIT neuroscientists have identified a population of neurons in the human brain that respond to singing but not other types of music.
When actual people correct misinformation online, it can be as effective, if not more so, as when a social media company labels something as questionable.
Think therapy is self-centered? Think again.
An ancient continent called Balkanatolia rose and fell in the area in and around what is now the eastern Mediterranean.
Human organs don't always show up where doctors expect.
Kids' underdeveloped brains seem to help them acquire new languages with little effort.
Step one, start with a trial separation.
It took a series of ingenious experiments in the 20th century to uncover some of our biggest cognitive biases.
5mins
People rarely question their own moral compass. But do you know what shapes yours?
John Templeton Foundation