Does the unconscious matter? You bet it does. In fact, nothing matters more.| Psychology Today
Empathy enables us to relate to others and motivates us to help those in need. Unfortunately, empathy is on the decline. Here's how to promote empathy in our kids and ourselves.| Psychology Today
Margee Kerr spends her evenings watching people melt down at one of the country’s most popular haunted houses. In her new book, she shares what really scares us, why we love it, and how pros like her stay a step ahead of us.| Psychology Today
Navigating a divided America with cognitive flexibility.| Psychology Today
Successful leaders are often credited with having high social intelligence, the ability to embrace change, inner resources such as self-awareness and self-mastery, and above all, the capacity to focus on the things that truly merit their attention. These are desirable skills for everyone else, too.| Psychology Today
The high-stakes science of campaign messaging reveals that success at the ballot box hinges more on how you feel about things than on what you think about them. Is anyone getting it right?| Psychology Today
The most carefully crafted incentives, from cash rewards to social props, routinely backfire. What does it really take to get people to do the "right" thing?| Psychology Today
In a world of wannabe Michael Jordans, be a Dennis Rodman.| Psychology Today
“A deep, persistent unease with being associated only with the binary gender assigned to them from infancy.”| Psychology Today
The study of politics draws from the knowledge and principles of political science, sociology, history, economics, neuroscience, and other related fields to examine and understand the political behavior that ultimately informs government policy and leadership. Exploring these relationships can help us understand how we act collectively, govern ourselves, make political decisions, resolve conflict, and use and abuse power, all of which reflect our deepest fears at least as much as our aspirati...| Psychology Today
Human beings are not always—in fact, probably not often—the objective, rational creatures we like to think we are. In the past few decades, psychologists have demonstrated the many ways people deceive themselves in the process of reasoning. Cognitive faculties are a distinguishing feature of humanity—lifting humankind out of caves and enabling language, arts, and sciences. Nevertheless, they are also rooted in and subject to influence, or bias, by emotions and instincts.| Psychology Today
Chocolate or strawberry? Life or death? We make some choices quickly and automatically, relying on mental shortcuts our brains have developed over the years to guide us in the best course of action. Understanding strategies such as maximizing vs. satisficing, fast versus slow thinking, and factors such as risk tolerance and choice overload, can lead to better outcomes.| Psychology Today
Though our need to connect is innate, many of us frequently feel alone. Loneliness is the state of distress or discomfort that results when one perceives a gap between one’s desires for social connection and actual experiences of it. Even some people who are surrounded by others throughout the day—or are in a long-lasting marriage—still experience a deep and pervasive loneliness. Research suggests that loneliness poses serious threats to well-being as well as long-term physical health.| Psychology Today
Cognition refers, quite simply, to thinking. There are the obvious applications of conscious reasoning—doing taxes, playing chess, deconstructing Macbeth—but thought takes many subtler forms, such as interpreting sensory input, guiding physical actions, and empathizing with others.| Psychology Today