Are the endless decisions of modern life leading to decision fatigue, depleting our willpower to the point that we end up making increasingly poor, even self-destructive choices?
Psychology
Why Being Hard-To-Get Attracts Consumers (And Men)
Why would a person drive across town to get a bottle of wine rather than pick up a nice red down the street? Why would a guy at a bar seek out the woman across the room instead of the one right in front of him? According to a …
Casey Anthony Released: Can She Ever Lead a Normal Life?
What would you do if you met Casey Anthony in Target? She yearns to stroll the aisles of the chic big-box store, at least according to letters she wrote while imprisoned on charges of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Does ‘Magical Thinking’ Help People Lose Weight?
For some people struggling to lose weight, researchers say it may help to engage in a little “magical thinking” as a way to cope with the stress of dieting and being overweight.
Q&A With a Family Therapist: How Kids Survive Family Secrets
As details continue to emerge about former Calif. governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s infidelities, many are wondering how the revelations will affect his children — not only the four teenagers he has with estranged wife, Maria …
A Proposed New Definition May Make ADHD Easier to Spot in Adults
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is still thought of as a childhood condition, even while it persists into adulthood for many patients who are diagnosed as children. But now, psychiatrists say, a proposed new …
Apocalypse Now: Why Believers Will Grow Stronger If the World Doesn’t End
In case you haven’t heard, the world is about to end on May 21. According to 89-year-old radio host Harold Camping and his followers, who have been placing billboards and subway ads across the country, people must repent now and …
What Annoys You? An Examination of the Little Things That Drive Us Bananas
Do not lick your fingers when you’re done eating — if you’re licking your fingers, it’s time to accept that the bag of chips is finished. Move on. On that note, don’t crinkle the bag while you retrieve your snacks, and don’t …
Why Happiness Isn’t Always Good: Asians vs. Americans
Among journalists — and less so among psychologists — the subset of mental-health research called “positive psychology” has become powerfully influential. Positive psychology, which was more or less founded by a …
A Mother’s Murder-Suicide: Chilling but Familiar
(Updated) On Tuesday night, after an argument at home, a mother in the industrial town of Newburgh, N.Y., drove herself and her four children into the Hudson River, off a boat ramp several blocks from her home. Her eldest son …
To Live Longer, Granny, Get Your Fanny to the Mall
Feel like living longer? Grab a shopping cart.
Why Getting ‘High’ Increases Acts of Charity
Want to persuade people to give more? Then get them “high” first — physically that is. New research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows that people act twice as nice when they have just ridden up …
Do We Really Need Psychiatrists to Do Therapy?
In a front page story headlined “Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy,” the New York Times Saturday bemoaned the fact that most psychiatrists now focus on prescribing medications, not practicing psychotherapy.
