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Much of What You Know About Groupthink Is Wrong
Everyone knows the concept of groupthink. A tightly knit and overconfident set of decision makers form an insular echo chamber, fail to see the big picture, and end up making disastrous decisions. By now, most
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The ‘Psychology of Regret’ Helps Explain Why Vaccine Mandates Work
The official U.S. approval of a coronavirus vaccine for elementary school students removes one of the last barriers to ending the pandemic, but it’s obvious that a significant portion of the country will never fully embrace vaccination.
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How Pandemic Life Mimicked Pioneer Times
In the spring of 2020, faced with a deadly pandemic and instructions to stay at home, a remarkable number of Americans began baking bread. They planted vegetable gardens. They took up DIY home repair. They
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Awe Makes You Feel Better. Here’s a Surprising Way to Find It.
This summer, Beverly Wax had an experience that filled her with awe. It wasn’t a gorgeous sunset, a sweeping mountain vista or the sound of waves gently lapping on a beach that got to her. It
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You’re a Different Person When You Travel. Here’s Why, and How to Transform Yourself at Home.
Every so often, I pack a bag for a solo trip that lasts as long as I can manage. The lifelong habit has weathered career changes, a pandemic and marriage. “Where is your husband?” people
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People Aren’t Meant to Talk This Much
Your social life has a biological limit: 150. That’s the number—Dunbar’s number, proposed by the British psychologist Robin Dunbar three decades ago—of people with whom you can have meaningful relationships. What makes a relationship meaningful? Dunbar