Psychology

Could you kill this robot?

“The relationship [between humans and machines] is profoundly social,” says Stanford researcher Clifford Nas, who specializes in communication between humans and interactive media, in a recent interview with NPR’s Alix Spiegel. “The human brain is built so that when given the slightest hint that something is even vaguely social, or vaguely human… people will respond…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Can you guess the subject of this photograph?

From an advertisement for Brown, Barnes & Bell (photographers in Liverpool, we presume) comes an optical illusion ca. 1890 that is half elephant man, half… well… something else. We don’t want to spoil it. Check below the fold for the big reveal. One more time. Here’s the original view: Aaaand the reveal (for those having…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

How can you tell if you are suffering from Future Shock?

It’s been four decades since futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler predicted a wave of “future shock,” the sensation of panic and unease that happens when people are “overwhelmed by change.” And, depending on who you talk to you, we’re either in the middle of a huge epidemic of future shock, with people struggling to adapt…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Pretending to be a superhero could make you more altruistic in real life

Can pretending to fly around like Superman inspire you to save the day? Does great power truly encourage great responsibility? A new study suggests that stepping into the role of a superhero in the virtual world could spark more helpful behavior in reality, at least briefly. The study, conducted at Stanford University and published this…

io9 Lauren Davis

Can you learn to taste numbers, smell words, or hear colors?

Do you know anybody who experiences synesthesia? Also known as “synesthetes,” they’re people whose cognitive pathways have become jumbled, such that they associate seemingly unrelated senses or mental states with other senses or experiences — hearing colors, for example, or tasting sounds. Scientists still aren’t sure what gives rise to this strange phenomenon and its…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The bizarre psychological syndrome that affects only medical students

Medical Student Syndrome is a psychological disorder that’s endemic to, well, medical students. It’s when you become convinced that you have whatever terrible disease that you’re studying. You’re in a new area, in a high-pressure situation, among strangers, and have likely taken on a new and exciting financial burden. You eat badly, sleep badly, and…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

6 Possible Secrets to Happiness, According to Science

Science has all the answers, right? Wrong. But it has a pretty good sense of things, a lot of the time*. So what does science have to say about the pursuit of happiness? A lot. Like, build-an-entire-industry-around-it, even-the-pseudo-scientific-stuff a lot. So let’s look at some of the more recent things science has had to say…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Among Independent voters, belief in climate change actually shifts with the weather

A newly published study by climatologists and sociologists at the University of New Hampshire suggests the views of Independent voters on anthropogenic (i.e. caused by humans) climate change are as capricious as New England weather. Write researchers Lawrence Hamilton and Mary Stampone, who conducted the study (emphasis added): Statewide data from 5,000 random-sample telephone interviews…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Do men really have higher sex drives than women?

There is possibly no greater source of debate than the age-old question of whether men want sex more than women. But embedded in that debate are a host of other questions. What is a “sex drive” anyway? What is a good scientific way to compare men and women’s sexual desires? What happens when women want…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Science of Comment Trolls

Comment trolls are the worst. Now, a new study reveals why: apparently the online peanut gallery can get you so riled up that your ability to reason goes out the window. Go figure. Everybody who’s written or blogged about climate change on a prominent website (or, even worse, spoken about it on YouTube) knows the…

io9 Chris Mooney - Mother Jones

Pickpocket master Apollo Robbins reveals how to steal someone’s watch

Check out this fantastic video on professional pickpocket Apollo Robbins (pictured above) — a man so talented at his craft, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and the military have studied his techniques for what they reveal about the nature of human attention. Robbins’ act (and it is an act; this slight-of-hand artist has put his talents to use…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Weather forecast calls for heavy rainfall, 50% chance of Batman

Because it’s the weather system Texas deserves, etc. Over at Newton Blog, Ross Pomeroy serves up a great example of misperceived random stimuli in the form of a 3-day rainfall forecast. The screenshot, he says, was captured by a friend working at Weather Nation, and comes from the Rapid Precision Mesoscale weather forecasting model. Tempting…

Movies Robbie Gonzalez

Are your eyes and brain forcing you to conform?

Quick! Draw a coffee cup. Or sketch a dog. Or a car. Chances are, if you ask someone else to draw the same object, they’ll sketch it from the same angle you do. This is called canonical perspective, and it has an effect on everything from your mental image catalog to the icons on your…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Why does winter make you so SAD?

Why do people get depressed during winter? Odds are you’ve heard of seasonal affective disorder, or you’ve experienced it for yourself. Fittingly abbreviated “SAD,” this periodic melancholy is most often seen in Northern latitudes with the long nights and short days of nature’s coldest season. But what’s really going on when your body catches a…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Does multitasking actually improve your memory?

We tend to assume that the best way to remember stuff is to concentrate on it, with no distractions or interruptions. But one influential theory says the opposite is true — you may actually remember stuff better when you’re interrupted in the middle of dealing with it. Find out why the Zeigarnik Effect might mean…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Everything you ever wanted to know about sensory deprivation chambers

On Fringe, a sensory deprivation tank can activate your mental powers and even open a gateway to another universe. But what can floating in a dark warm tank do for you in real life? And why would people even want to do such a thing? The sensory deprivation tank — a temperature-regulated, salt-water filled, soundproof,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The lasting mystery of the Hawthorne Effect

The Hawthorne Effect is cited by both business experts and psychology experts, but rarely in the same way. Some say it’s real, some that it’s real but misinterpreted, and then others that it doesn’t exist and never has. It all started with an attempt to increase productivity at a factory in the 1920s, and we’ve…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The most viral media correction of 2012 combines My Little Pony with Aspergers

Over on Poynter, Craig Silverman has served up his excellent list of the best (and worst) media errors and corrections of 2012. The most viral correction of all was released by the New York Times after it ran this feature, which explores how people with autism spectrum disorders navigate the the uncertain emotional terrain of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What Does Space Travel Do to Your Mind? NASA’s Resident Psychiatrist Reveals All.

Space travel is tough on the human body. But what does it do to the human mind? Gary Beven, a space psychiatrist at NASA, answers our questions about how humans adapt to space, and what we have to do to go to Mars. Doctor Gary Beven has to have one of the most surprising careers…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

These 1938 psychological researchers studied college students by hiding under their beds

Nowadays, if you want to conduct ethically dubious on how college students speak to one another, you have all sorts of technologically advanced options: bugs, nanny cams, recording applications installed on cell phones. But in 1938, when a team of psychological researchers wanted to study the speech habits of students, they had to resort to…

io9 Lauren Davis

Could you kill this robot?

Can you guess the subject of this photograph?

How can you tell if you are suffering from Future Shock?

Pretending to be a superhero could make you more altruistic in real life

Can you learn to taste numbers, smell words, or hear colors?

The bizarre psychological syndrome that affects only medical students

6 Possible Secrets to Happiness, According to Science

Among Independent voters, belief in climate change actually shifts with the weather

Do men really have higher sex drives than women?

The Science of Comment Trolls

Pickpocket master Apollo Robbins reveals how to steal someone’s watch

Weather forecast calls for heavy rainfall, 50% chance of Batman

Are your eyes and brain forcing you to conform?

Why does winter make you so SAD?

Does multitasking actually improve your memory?

Everything you ever wanted to know about sensory deprivation chambers

The lasting mystery of the Hawthorne Effect

The most viral media correction of 2012 combines My Little Pony with Aspergers

What Does Space Travel Do to Your Mind? NASA’s Resident Psychiatrist Reveals All.

These 1938 psychological researchers studied college students by hiding under their beds

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