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What’s So Funny? The Science of Why We Laugh
“How Many Psychologists Does It Take … to Explain a Joke?” Many, it turns out. As psychologist Christian Jarrett noted in a 2013 article featuring that riddle as its title, scientists still struggle to explain
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Why your emotions and senses go haywire on a plane
When model, cookbook author and unofficial mayor of Twitter Chrissy Teigen wondered aloud on the social media platform whether there is a reason she cries more at movies while on a plane, she tapped into
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Pets, Pests And Food: Our Complex, Contradictory Attitudes Toward Animals
When psychologist Hal Herzog‘s son Adam was young, he had a pet mouse named Willie. One day, Willie died. “When he died, we thought it would be a good lesson for the kids in terms
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Does reading fiction make us better people?
Every day more than 1.8 million books are sold in the US and another half a million books are sold in the UK. Despite all the other easy distractions available to us today, there’s no
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Why This Image of a Woodpecker Is Creeping People Out
When a seemingly innocuous image of a woodpecker stashing away its acorn supply made the internet rounds, Twitter-users expressed revulsion. They weren’t reacting to the bird or the actual acorns, but to the set of
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Controlling Our Thoughts Is Harder Than It Seems
Research shows that even when we think we’ve successfully suppressed a thought, its traces may still linger outside conscious awareness.
