All Articles

The word “rational” is widely misapplied. Nobel laureates Kahneman and Becker use it very differently (they’re on opposite sides of a breach with our nature). They illustrate why economists can benefit from a paraphrasing of Shakespeare… though this has method, yet there is madness in it.   

Despite the booming use of Internet porn and conversations skeptical of sexual norms pervading popular culture, physical sexuality remains restricted to private life.

Scientists have found girls who consume more than one sugary drink a day start their periods more than two months earlier than those who consume fewer.

Far from dodging the issue of the environment, the mayor of Beijing, Wang Anshun, recently called his own city “unlivable” due to air pollution caused by industry, driving, and a population boom.

Why is a psychologist claiming “patent rights” for a basic psychological technique that he did not invent and does not own the patent for?

Researchers have found that singles who spend their free time helping friends and neighbors are more likely to be in a relationship a year later. And who says nice guys finish last?

Big Think+ presents a 6-part workshop with accomplished economist Lawrence Summers, who explains the theory and practice of rational thinking in order to draw conclusions and make smart decisions.

Kip Tindell, featured today on the Big Think homepage, is CEO of the Container Store. He’s also an evangelist for integrity-based sales and brand-building through sales rather than marketing.

Breakfast wasn’t always a mainstream mealtime. In the Middle Ages, it was thought as unhealthy to eat another meal before the previous one was fully digested. So what brought about breakfast? Coffee and stable working hours.

How does someone’s facial features influence how we view their decisions? The truth is if we think someone has a trustworthy face, we’re less likely to contradict their decisions.

How an experiment high above Antarctica — Spider — sheds new light on the cosmic microwave background. Observations of the cosmic microwave background continue to capture public attention, highlighted these last few weeks in […]

Inspired by the real-life story behind the recent film Unbroken, the John Templeton Foundation has released a video teaching the importance of forgiveness.

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”  

America’s most meritocratic institutions—schools, universities, and the workplace—are becoming places where inheritance thrives rather than individuals with talent.

This would have totally changed London

The ubiquitous salt truck of winter, which helps spread a collective fifteen million tons of salt each season, is becoming an hefty bill to pay. 

How would your brain respond to seeing an image of grilled chicken? How about a plate of french fries? It turns out lean and overweight women’s brains respond very differently to healthy and unhealthy foods.

For pregnant women, continuous anxiety and mental strain could cause babies to be underweight and nutrition-deprived at birth, according to a recent study. So, it’s important not to stress about your stress levels.

What do our brains look like when we read aloud? What about when we read to ourselves? To your brain, it’s the same thing.

Stress causes us to feel threatened, and even if the “threat” is something as small as a test, our minds shift into self-preservation mode, which may cause us to make immoral decisions.

In a world where the future of seemingly everything is online, museums — those repositories of the past — seem to resist the internet’s full digital embrace. It’s a question that’s increasingly crossed my mind thanks to a series of unrelated stories that share two common questions — how do people use museums now and how will they in the future? For every digital breakthrough enticing us to step on the virtual gas comes a cautionary tale reminding us to pump those virtual brakes. Ultimately, the online revolution is coming to museums, but is the future of museums really online?

A day after forecasters unanimously predicted a snowstorm of epic proportions for New York City, and the mayor ordered eight million people to stay off the roads, the predictions failed to materialize. The city received inches of snow rather than the feet predicted. A good thing, to be sure, but how did such dire predictions miss the mark?  

The degree to which the online abuse occurs could necessitate anything from a simple Facebook block to, in more dire cases, a call to the police.

The makers of Oculus unveiled a new project concerned with exploring the burgeoning realm of VR cinema.

Being bilingual does offer cognitive benefits. Exactly what those benefits are, however, may have been overstated and misconstrued.

How self-aware we are during the day can affect how we experience dreams, possibly helping us achieve states of lucid dreaming.

Messy workspaces have their benefits–some research suggests that the clutter makes people more creative. But there’s another aspect to the clutter, which may be undermining your ability to persevere through a difficult task.

Is it too complicated to squeeze helping others into your schedule? Be guilty no more. “Now, there is an app for that,” jokes Hans Jørgen Wiberg in his TEDxCopenhagen talk, […]

Loneliness is known to cause depression in people, however, social isolation can also have physiological effects, namely, cardiovascular disease. A new study offers further proof to show how heavy isolation can weigh on the heart.

Men and women respond differently to the prospects of parenthood. But a recent study delves into the details of these dynamics and how they can affect the future of a relationship.