For many residents of New York City, our bodies are our cars. So rather than engaging in “road rage” against slow or erratic drivers on a highway, New Yorkers descend into “sidewalk rage,” paroxysms of fury directed at people who …
Psychology
Awkward Silences: 4 Seconds Is All It Takes to Feel Rejected
It’s the pause that doesn’t refresh, the awkward moment that you relive over and over and over after you’ve realized that once again, you’ve put your foot in it.
The Bright Side of Anger — It Motivates Others
On the whole, brain scans shore up what we’ve known all along about our emotions: some are positive and some are negative.
Forget IQ: The Emerging Science of Collective Intelligence
Assembling teams is an art, one that involves intuitive thinking and — let’s face it — a lot of guesswork. A new study, however, is transforming this critical task into a science.
To Keep Willpower from Flagging, Remember the F-Word: ‘Fun’
Exercising self-control isn’t fun.
If you’re dieting, for instance, you may easily resist the blueberry muffin at that impossibly aromatic bakeshop you pass by in the morning. You may then have lunch with your friends but just …
I Don’t Actually Hate Myself: Why Harvard Is Wrong About Bias
My colleague Maia Szalavitz wrote a great piece we posted Monday on how an online test developed at Harvard can help uncover hidden biases in how you treat people.
The Authentic Self: How Do You Know If You’re ‘Really’ Racist or Sexist?
(Updated) In a world of constant scrutiny and infinite memory, what once might have been a fleeting moment of lost control can easily become a life-shattering scandal. Just ask Rick Sanchez, the CNN anchor who was recently fired, …
How Not to Feel Lonely in a Crowd
The best cure for loneliness may not be seeking the company of others, but rather, just the opposite: focusing inward and addressing the negative thoughts that underlie loneliness in the first place.
Psychology vs. Psychiatry: What’s the Difference, and Which Is Better?
Psychologists and psychiatrists tend to hate each other. The reasons are historical: beginning even before Freud, psychologists held enormous power over the cultural imagination. The whole idea of psychiatry — an explicitly …
The Healing Power of Touching Yourself
What’s the first thing you do when you burn or cut one of your hands? You might think the answer is that you put it under a faucet or wrap a towel around it. But that’s actually not the first thing you do. The first thing is …
A New Study Shows How We Can Prevent Some Cases of PTSD
We barely know how to treat mental illnesses, so it’s difficult to figure out how to prevent them in the first place. But as I wrote at some length last year, research into stopping breakdowns before they occur has advanced …
Profiling Student Cheaters: Are They Psychopaths?
There are lots of reasons students cheat — lack of preparation, lack of academic aptitude, sheer laziness. Now a new study suggests another explanation: it’s coded in their personality.
Relationship anxiety may cause more than heartache
A study conducted by researchers at Canada’s Acadia University finds that insecurity and anxiety about a relationship may not only generate heart ache, but also heart attacks. In a study of more than 5,600 people between the ages of 18 to 60, researchers found that those who said they felt insecure in relationships were more likely to
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