Can You Immunize Yourself Against Prejudice?
Could washing your hands or getting a flu shot make you less prejudiced against foreigners? A series of fascinating studies just released in Psych Science explores the preventative implications of...
View ArticleHow Would More Women Help the Economy?
The ratio of males to females has profound effects on other animal’s behaviors, but can it affect human economic behaviors, such as credit card debt, savings, and how much you spend on a Valentine’s...
View ArticleSelf-Evaluation via the Internet
Am I doing OK? Let’s see, 412 Facebook friends, 7,452 Google citations, 538,412 Psych Today hits, Amazon.com sales rank: 2,376th... But am I happy? I need to check authentichappiness.com... Healthy?...
View ArticleThe 7 Worst Things About Being a Male
According to cultural stereotypes, being a man is a lot like being James Bond. But I here list 7 of the real (and immense) psychological and behavioral costs of being a man. And there’s research to...
View ArticleSix Degrees of Social Influence
Why would a world-renowned group of psychologists and marketing researchers team up with a man who was once the world’s most wanted computer hacker to write about one man’s social influence?read more
View ArticleDoes a Woman’s Company Always Cost More Than a Man’s?
Men will often pay surprisingly large sums for women’s company, whether for a single evening of a lifetime. This phenomenon makes evolutionary sense, but why is it sometimes reversed, with women paying...
View ArticleThe Cost of a Woman vs. the Cost of a Man
Why would a women ever pay for a man’s company? And what’s she paying for? Why bride price and dowry are completely different stories. read more
View ArticleWhat would you pay for a romantic partner?
What’s a man’s dollar value as a marriage partner? What about as a sexual partner? I asked a large group of students and the answer might disappoint those of you with Y chromosomesread more
View ArticleWhy Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Do we all suffer from xenophobia? Over the last few days, a group of world-known experts in social psychology, anthropology, biology, economics, neuroscience, and other disciplines put their heads...
View ArticleIs the world becoming a nicer place to live?
All the evidence seems to suggest that people are getting increasingly violent and xenophobic. Or does it?read more
View ArticleDo We All Suffer from Multiple Identity Disorder?
William James suggested we all suffer from a form of multiple identity disorder. In a recent TedX talk I discussed modern research on evolution and social cognition that expands on this idea. read more
View ArticleEric Kandel: Nobel-Prize Winner and Regular Guy
Every once in a while life throws you a pleasant surprise. I got several today when I attended a luncheon for neuroscientist Eric Kandel. Kandel's approach to life and science is inspiring on at least...
View ArticleWhat’s the ONE Big Secret to Self-Control?
There’s a mind-numbingly large body of literature on will-power, enough to make you so exhausted you’ll want to eat an extra couple of brownies, or drink an extra couple of glasses of beer. But there’s...
View ArticleMen Steal ANGER, Women Steal HAPPINESS!
If you are at a crowded party, and the person next to you shows a sudden flash of anger or happiness on their face, someone across the room may misperceive the emotion as coming from you. This...
View ArticleWhat’s the One Best question to predict casual sex?
If you had to ask one question to predict whether you’ll have sex on a first date, what would it be? What if you wanted to predict long-term compatibility? read more
View ArticleThe 7 BEST Things About Being a Male
In a recent blog, I listed the 7 worst things about being a male. But there are trade-offs everywhere in nature. Here, I list 7 great compensations that come with the Y-chromosome package, and...
View ArticleHow the mind warps
Psychology’s coolest and craziest phenomena involve how the brain, encased in a dark skull, tries to make sense of a stream of confusing and misleading neural sparks. Here are a few examples that have...
View ArticleSurvival of the Sickest
Is there anything good about having a gene that predisposes diabetes or high cholesterol or Alzheimer’s disease? How can common genetic diseases possibly evolve, given their very high costs? The answer...
View ArticleBuy Here Now: Zen and the Art of Marketing
Do you define happiness as feeling excited or as feeling calm? The answer is related to whether you are focusing on the present or the future, which is in turn linked to whether you are young or old,...
View ArticleCulture Shock: Spain Versus America
Spain recently received some bad press — as a lesson on how not to do things. But being over here suggests to me that Americans could learn some more positive lessons about ourselves, and about human...
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