Speaking of Psychology

For most of us, the idea of jumping off a bridge with a parachute or surfing a wave 70 feet tall seems to defy comprehension.  Psychologists, too, have wondered what drives people to participate in ex...

We’ve all heard the advice: Save for retirement, start saving early, don’t spend more than you earn. But rules like these are far easier said than followed, especially when you’re short on time, or mo...

Despite the sexist jokes, the menstrual cycle doesn’t cause significant changes in mood or behavior for most people. But a small percentage do suffer severe premenstrual symptoms, or premenstrual dysp...

Microaggressions, the indirect, subtle, sometimes unintentional incidents of racism and bias that members of marginalized groups experience every day, can take a large toll on people’s mental and phys...

When you’re sad, do you say that you’re feeling blue? Have you ever felt green with envy? Domicele Jonauskaite, PhD, of the University of Vienna, discusses why language so often links color with emoti...

Almost everyone lies occasionally, but for a small percentage of people, lying isn't something that they do every once in a while -- it's a way of life. Drew Curtis, PhD, of Angelo State University, a...

There’s a common stereotype is that teenagers’ brains are immature and underdeveloped, and that teens are “hard-wired” to take unwise risks and cave to peer pressure. But psychologists’ research sugge...

Is there anything more agonizing than being in limbo? Time may seem to slow to a crawl when you’re waiting for high-stakes news like a hiring decision, a biopsy result – or the end of a pandemic. Kate...

It used to be that if you wanted to gamble, you had to go to a casino or a racetrack to do it. But the expansion of online gambling and newly loosened laws around sports betting mean that people can n...

From Ponzi schemes to e-mail phishing identity thieves, the world can seem full of people who want to deceive us. Daniel Simons, PhD, and Christopher Chabris, PhD, co-authors of the “Nobody’s Fool: Wh...