Can Envy Be Healthy?
Envy gets a bad rap. I mean, let’s be real: being on a list of “seven deadly sins” isn’t good PR for anyone. Fortunately, psychologists aren’t always the types to judge a sin by its cover, and research into this
The Psychology of Eating Meat
There’s often some cognitive dissonance involved in the act of eating meat. On one hand, you might like animals and not want any of them to suffer. On the other hand, you might really enjoy eating them. So how do
Recovering Drug Users May Be Happiest at Work
If I ask you to name a place you wish you were right now, work wouldn’t necessarily be the first thing to come to mind. But for some people, work can be a welcome distraction from the stresses of their
How Does Schizophrenia Affect Life Satisfaction?
That might sound like a silly question. Of course having a mental illness is going to lower life satisfaction. But how much? Does having a mental illness doom you to never enjoying life? In a study published earlier this month,
4 Studies That Show the Difference Between Shame and Guilt
Guilt and shame often get lumped together, but there’s an essential difference between the two: guilt is about what you did while shame is about who you are. Feeling bad about your actions can actually lead to positive change. Feel
Nostalgia Is a Powerful Motivator
Sometimes the best way to prepare for the future is to get stuck in the past. Nostalgia is the quintessential bittersweet emotion, but as far as the science is concerned, the sweet seems to outweigh the bitter. Several studies have
Helping Others Is One of the Best Ways of Helping Yourself
Let’s say you find someone who just did something generous and put them on the spot by interviewing them. You ask them, “Why did you do that generous thing?” They might say “because it was the right thing to do”
4 Unexpected Ways People Respond to Rejection
Rejection is a part of life, but it’s a part of life that isn’t particularly fun. Because we’re social animals, we respond to rejection in a predictable way: we feel bad. But it turns out we can respond to rejection
How to Buy Happiness
No mount of money is a substitute for happiness, or so the traditional wisdom goes. And science has tended to suggest that the traditional wisdom is right – that is, until a team of researchers from Cambridge came along this
The Science Doesn’t Lie: 10 Surprising Facts About Deception
I’ve been following the US presidential primary elections pretty closely lately, and I woke up this morning thinking I should research an article about lying and deception for AllPsych. Funny how that happened. Politicians aren’t the only people who lie,
