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1. The study of great books is usually contrasted with the use of textbooks and other technical books. It is contrasted, in other words, with study of the studies that […]

At the New Yorker last week, science journalist Jonah Lehrer penned a conversation-starting feature on the so-called “decline effect,” the tendency across scientific fields for a new and exciting finding […]

At Grist this week, David Roberts features a deeply valuable interview with Sandra de Castro Buffington, head of the Hollywood, Health, and Society project at USC.   She discusses the project’s […]

So my “True Grit” post got a lot of response (unfortunately not below) on Facebook and by email and all that–mostly critical.  One particularly astute critic–Ken Masugi–accused me of being in […]

If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, would he be counseling us on how to find happiness, or would he merely be setting an example of how to […]

A conversation with the Northwestern University professor of psychology.

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN JASON SILVA AND TECHNO-ECOLOGIC SCHOLAR RICHARD DOYLE Richard Doyle also goes by mobius, an indicator of just how important interconnections are to him – and how transformative, […]

Psychologist and ex-NBA player John Amaechi’s mother was a doctor who had an uncanny ability to calm anxious patients and relatives, which is why Amaechi grew up thinking she was a Jedi.

Some on the right are challenging congressional Republicans to increase federal investment in science and technology.

If you manage to find a match through an online dating site, that match is more likely to commit to meet if they have paid a fee for the service.

Although there are clearly more important things going on in Yemen today, and like everyone else we here are also riveted by what is happening in Iran, I am going […]

“Psychologist believes seeing images of skinny performers affects the way women and girls eat.” The Independent reports on a call for warning labels on TV programs.

Over the past few years, a growing body of research from the social sciences has pointed to one of the major challenges in communicating about climate change.  This research suggests […]

Columbia professor of philosophy Akeel Bilgrami asks why we read literature when it contains information more readily found in non-fiction journals. The answer is in the medium’s pathos.

Men and women make think similarly about sex: “New data is undermining the evidence that has long been proposed to support the eager males—choosy females paradigm.”

“This research is an important reminder that the unconscious is smarter than we can comprehend, as it processes vast amounts of information in parallel.”

“Positive psychology is a movement in social psychology which attempts to change the way that we think about humans,” explains positive psychology expert Shawn Achor. “Instead of focusing merely on […]

‘Humor is the great thing,’ wrote Mark Twain.’The saving thing.’ The irreverent satirist blazed a wayward path that happiness gurus should not ignore.

Do you acquire power and exercise control with assertive authority like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—or do you lead with sociable consensus like media queen Oprah Winfrey? Take this Big Think quiz to find which well-known female leader your style is most like.

Do science journalists have weird psychic powers? You might think so, given the near simultaneity of publications this fall on the touchy theme of studies that don’t really prove what they’re supposed to have proved.

Dr. Gary Marcus, a psychology professor at New York University, says we should develop a “Google-like” chip that could be implanted in our brains to enhance human memory.

“Brain imaging is not a very good way to test subtle distinctions [in the brain]…it’s like trying to find out something about New York City by studying New York State,” […]

Colonel Russell Williams is one of those double-life people—an able military commander who was also a rapist and murderer. The crimes for which he was sentenced last month were shockingly […]

A young violinist was made suicidal because of a critical byproduct of our time: the small inviolate zone of privacy that we all need has now become virtually impossible to maintain.

“‘The Social Network’…does a brilliant job dissecting the sorts of people who become stars in an information economy and a hypercompetitive, purified meritocracy.”

“Are humans continuing to evolve or has modern culture stopped evolution?” The answer affects assumptions made by public policy says Yale evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns.

One of the frustrations that comes with a new and interesting idea is the large number of people who will tell you that you’re actually saying something old and familiar. […]

“People are turned on by photographs of people who resemble their close genetic counterparts,” say researchers. The recent findings shed light onto who we are attracted to and why.

Columbia University’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions has released a primer on the “Psychology of Climate Change Communication,” synthesizing much of the research of the Center over the past […]

A conversation with the positive psychology expert