Personal Growth

Adolescent friendships are often fleeting, but what causes some teens to drift apart?

A new study in the journal of Applied Psychology shows that rudeness has a ripple effect, negatively affecting interactions outside the initial one.

[A Top 15 Podcast on iTunes!] We surprise the world’s brightest minds with ideas they’re totally unprepared to discuss. This week on Big Think’s podcast, we’re joined by renowned physicist and author Brian Greene. 

The trouble with productivity as a value is that it treats a morally ambiguous act as a moral good. What, specifically, do we want to be producing more of?

For all we make about our disagreements with each other, we are bound to have more in agreement by the nature of conservation.

Objective truth is fine if we want to know the weather conditions, but to live as a human in a human society, a more nuanced approach is needed to knowledge and understanding.

Anxiety is typically a helpful evolutionary tool, but it can sometimes become a pathology.

We never give people who live in the public eye the same amount of privacy and respect that we afford our personal friends.

Researchers have developed computer software that can diagnose clinical depression by noticing how people behave during psychiatric interviews.

Mathematicians believe Americans are letting their anxieties over math get the better of them.

Growing older and accepting death can make you value your life or cause you to scream and run the entire time. 

“How are you?” It’s a question we ask each other every day, almost reflexively, and we rarely pause to think when responding: “Fine, thanks. You?” Of course, these frequent exchanges are […]

Journaling can help you see progress and where progress needs to be made.

Our anger over the murder of nine black church-going individuals in South Carolina is real and justified, but is it useful?

How does one make a marriage last? Researchers interviewed and surveyed over 700 people with a combined 40,000 years of marriage experience.

Liberals and conservatives unite when thinking of America’s Golden Age — a fictionalized time whose history we constantly rewrite. 

June 21 is International Yoga Day, a move sponsored by the Indian prime minister — and quickly capitalized upon by the Indian tourism board.

The Internet is a funny place. Humor is one the things it does best, which is why I was shocked, and ultimately disappointed, at the collective reaction to Joyce Carol Oates’ recent tweet.

Researchers find extroverts are too distracted with their social lives to go green.

A recent New York Times op-ed advocating for student loan default has elicited a bevy of critical responses.

Irritation is a powerful force. It has the whiff of righteousness. 

Psychedelics are showing promising results in helping a wide variety of ailments. But can they also result in addiction? 

Think you’re contributing 110 percent to a project? Researchers suggest you may be overclaiming.

Alas science does not operate outside the human realm, but as an extension of our natural capabilities — the good as well as the bad ones.

Called ZipCap, the private loan company enables small businesses to treat loyal customers as collateral — an asset which traditional lenders have never considered viable.

Miscarriages are difficult to talk about, but the only way we can begin to heal is to let each other know we’re not alone.

The high-paid consultants who change companies over to “Holacracy” explain from the outset that it takes an average of five years to make the transition.

The second most-watched TED Talk of all time has been debunked.

It’s not just about the frequency of sex, according to researchers, but creating an environment where intimacy can organically grow.

Ideas about religion can be so powerful that people can’t endorse them without giving up a part of their identity. It’s the same thing with diets.