Culture & Religion

Both men and women with two or more children outperformed their peers who had one child or were childless.

Ever since the arrival of agriculture, and more recently, cubicles, modern society has begun selecting for those who can interest themselves in the repetitive, or least force themselves to tolerate it.

Theaters, galleries, museums, and symphonies are increasingly hiring in-house writers to produce their own news stories. This cutting out of the middleman helps cultural institutions tell their own stories, though also evokes questions about legitimacy and credibility. 

Thousands of families across the United States will trick-or-treat tonight in neighborhoods not their own. The cultural debate surrounding “Halloween carpetbaggers” is tied into broader debates about race, class, and wealth.

“The environmentally friendly funeral industry is booming,” says The Atlantic, as Americans seek out ways to go green even after they’re dead.

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid! Of Ebola. Of ISIS. Of immigrants threatening to bring both threats across a porous border that can’t be protected by a President who can’t even […]

The San Francisco Giants are World Series champions. To celebrate, hundreds of fans took to the streets to vandalize their city. One expert explains the riots by describing how individuals take advantage of a “cloak of crowd anonymity” to behave badly.

Imagine if a century ago free access to a high school education in the United States had been available only to the wealthiest families. Imagine, further, that anybody else who had chosen […]

While Sam Harris doesn’t necessarily condone their use, his experimentations with psychedelic drugs were indelible in the formation of his worldview and understanding of consciousness. 

We’re facing and failing a global “Marshmallow Test.” Even if not individually, we’ve become systemically less good at making smart now-vs.-later decisions. And economics isn’t helping — it advises “discounting” the future.  

While rain on election day is known to keep people indoors, i.e. not voting, those who do come out to vote are more likely to vote for the incumbent

Venture for America is a non-profit fellowship program that grooms the next generation of American entrepreneurs by placing them in startup apprenticeships.

In the future robotic utopia, grandma and grandpa will have electronic helpers around the house to fold the laundry, collect the dirty dishes, or straighten a necktie.

One woman’s decision to end her life has a large segment of Americans rethinking their stances on assisted suicide.

When interior decorating, remember that what you put on the walls and how you arrange them will have major effects on a room’s aura and feel.

A plastic pumpkin full of candy could hold up to 11,000 calories worth of sweets. While banning candy is out of the question, parents should limit their kids’ intake.

Six years ago, in a mock presidential election held in my daughter’s pre-K class, Barack Obama was the clear winner. Of the 18 children, 16 voted for Obama. (“Superman” and […]

It was fifty years ago that the French philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre graciously refused the Nobel Prize for Literature. How different (and more noble?) his world was from ours.

Psychophysics secretly permeates our people-sciences (it assumes we’re motivated by physics-like forces). But as every infant—each a great causality detector—knows, but many scientists ignore, people aren’t biological billiard balls. 1. […]

While it’s more pleasant to be pleasant with those around you, being a crank can have its benefits when it comes to getting your way.

Two astronomers have a new theory which suggests that intelligent life on planet Earth may be as old as can be expected in our galaxy.

We often extrapolate from coincidental events to say they “happen for a reason,” suggesting that there is a greater meaning to them. Even atheists do it, but is it good for us or society?

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof discusses the importance of a compelling narrative that appeals to human biases when promoting a good cause.

In most respects, neurology’s attack on free will seems to have won the day, not the least reason being that randomness is a far cry from making free and intentioned decisions.

Photo of astronaut Reid Wiseman taken by fellow ISS crewmember Barry E. Wilmore.

Where college application season often means reaching for the stars, it’s also important to maintain perspective about your financial limitations.

The way our political parties approach freedom risks producing individuals who are slovenly free and in pursuit of their most base passions.

Researchers working on a new project at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University have begun tracking, in real time, cases of false news and the stories debunking them […]

When cultural commentators remark on the dangers of technology, they are not all Luddites by trade.

150, 50, 15, 5. Those are the magic numbers in the sociology of friendship, according to University of Oxford professor Robin Dunbar.