A blog about human brains and behavior for students of psychology.
How are you feeling right now? And how do you wish you were feeling? Not everyone gives the same answer to that second question. Different people value different emotional states. Some people seek out high-arousal emotional states like excitement and
Do you feel younger than your age? If so, you might be right. Like other parts of the body, the brain ages. Certain regions shrink with time. And as with other types of aging, the speed of this process varies
Remember nap time in kindergarten? I hated it. I didn’t see the point of lying down and doing nothing. Nap time in high school on the other hand? I would have been down for that. As it turns out, a
Money can’t buy happiness, but not having enough money can sure get in the way of it. Which raises the possibility: maybe you can improve people’s mental health simply by handing them some cash. In a recent study, researchers in
The outward changes that come with age are the most obvious. What’s happening in people’s minds is more of a black box. There’s no direct information we have on the content of people’s thoughts without actually asking. So a group
How important was your home state in the course of United States history? Probably not as important as you think it was. A new study published in Psychological Science suggests that Americans have an inflated sense of the role their
Is living next to a park a recipe for happiness? Intuitively, it makes sense that easier access to nature could improve mental health. To some extent, the scientific findings are in line with the idea that being near green space
Someone’s personality can tell you how they approach all sorts of different things in life, including sex. But how exactly do personality and sexuality relate to each other? That’s the question psychologists asked in a review of 137 studies on
“Money never sleeps,” says Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street. Technically correct. But there’s a related point he never mentions: never sleeping costs money. This idea seems to go against the ideal of working more and sleeping less that’s
If you’re like most people, chances are you’d rather have a partner who listens to what you have to say. Listening is an important ingredient to healthy relationships, and a new study highlights at least one reason why this may
