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Sense and Superstition
The New York Times: Superstitious people do all sorts of puzzling things. But it’s not just the superstitious who knock on wood. From time to time, we all rap our knuckles on a nearby table
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Knock On Wood? Certain Superstitious Actions Make Us Feel Better, Study Shows
Huffington Post: Knocking on wood may not actually prevent a bad thing from happening, but it does do a good job of lessening our elevated fears, a new study shows. And interestingly enough, superstitious actions
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Whither the Type A personality?
I first studied psychological science in the 1970s, and one of the most popular ideas at that time was the Type A personality. Two cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, had made the case that
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Nudged to the Produce Aisle by a Look in the Mirror
The New York Times: Samuel Pulido walked into his local grocery store on a sweltering day, greeted by cool air and the fantasy-world ambience of the modern supermarket. Soft music drifted. Neon-bright colors turned his
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Public Policies, Made to Fit People
The New York Times: I HAVE written here before about the potential gains to government from involving social and behavioral scientists in designing public policies. My enthusiasm comes in part from my experiences as an
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Daniel M. Wegner, 65; Harvard social psychologist unraveled mysteries of thought and memory
The Boston Globe: If you read much of Dan Wegner’s writings on psychology, pretty soon you cannot stop thinking about Dan Wegner, particularly if you try to forget him. He could have told you that
