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Solar panels aren’t born green. Their manufacture uses power, often generated in plants that burn coal or oil, and releases pollutants (including greenhouse gases) into the environment. The extent of […]

Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, came by Big Think today to share his unconventional wisdom about highly intelligent people and their preferences. Liberals, he […]

Scientists have found that microbes living in the human gut may have more influence over our health than our own genes, perhaps causing psychological and physical changes like obesity.

Victims of a widespread child abuse scandal in Ireland have begun speaking out after report found that the Catholic Church had covered up tens of thousands of abuse cases.

Want to terminate your pregnancy? Under a new Nebraska law, you’ll have to prove you’re not crazy first. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman signed two new laws restricting abortions on Tuesday. […]

Though often indirect, many urban dwellers are guilty of participating in a devastating pattern of displacement that is harming both the lives of low-income families and the fabric of cities […]

Is it time to accept that plenty of cancer-screening in the developed world is motivated by psychological needs, rather than fact? Screening addresses our fears of statistically unlikely horrors, which […]

A conversation with the professor of psychology at Yale University.

Paul Bloom has researched everything from religion and moral reasoning to children’s understanding of fiction and art. What’s the most unusual project he’s working on now?

There is no easy answer as to why we keep sales humming for books many would profess are not worth their time. “Betrayal” Lit, as so-called by The Daily Beast‘s […]

“Religion is not an adaptation,” Robert Wright says in his Big Think interview. “That is, it’s not here because it was conducive to the replication of the genes underlying it.” But […]

Though correlation doesn’t imply causation, prudish liberal atheists generally have slightly higher IQs than their lustful conservative theist brethren.

We tend to think of work done on assignment as being somehow cheaper than work springing entirely from the mind of the artist. Art on demand never strikes us as […]

“When I tell people I would like to paint them, I already have their portrait in mind,” German artist Otto Dix once said. “I don’t paint people who don’t interest […]

The “Prisoner’s Dilemma” is one of game theory’s oldest, most influential and most poetic ideas. As in life, a player’s best strategy depends on the kind of game she’s in […]

As the Nobel laureate explains, there is a very basic human need that stands as the basis of collecting—it allows us to cope with trauma. But in the museums of […]

As part of Big Think’s “What Is Love?” series, we release interviews with Helen Fisher and David Schnarch, two notable experts in the field of love. According to Fisher, there’s […]

Jonah Lehrer argues in the New York Times Magazine that depression might be good for us. He’s popularizing a theory advanced by two Virginia researchers who claim that depression is […]

Proposals to speed up adoption procedures for orphans of the Haitian earthquake are raising ethical dilemmas about the value of psychological safety versus the reality of food and water shortages.

The capuchin monkeys that Dr. Laurie Santos and her research team work with are “clever—sometimes more clever than we are.” Not only do they sometimes get the better of humans, […]

According to Newt Gingrich, the psychological impact of Ted Kennedy’s Senate chair being taken by a Republican incumbent will likely be as extreme for Democrats as the defeat of 1994.

The EU’s reluctance to bail out a floundering Greece raises all kinds of questions about whether or not European states will ever unify. But we sort of already knew that […]

When Marvin Zuckerman was developing his theory of sensation-seeking, his college friends provided a handy prototype.

As the psychologist explains, a very basic learning pattern stands as the basis for the increasingly violent nature of cinema.

Egyptian fruit bats apparently hit their food targets by deliberately not aiming at them. They point their sonar sound beam to either side of the target instead.

These are, to say the least, intimidating times for non-profits. With the coffers of even the wealthiest companies and individuals under such pressure, efforts to find a donor can seem […]

The non-religious know their right from wrong just as well as churchgoers, according to new research revealing a strong moral compass among atheists.

Robert Skidelsky compares the psychological motivations of savers and investors in the last few years.

British psychologists have discovered that people who spend a considerable time online are less likely to be happy than those who don’t, claiming there’s “a dark side” to web surfing.

Robert Skidelsky appointed to the British Parliament to advise the Queen on matters of high policy, discusses the psychological adjustment America might need to make as it’s superseded by China.