Psychology

A Simple Scan Can Tell How Fat You’ll Get and How Much Sex You’ll Have

The world is full of delicious food and beautiful people, and sometimes it’s hard to turn down their respective charms. But now a team of researchers has used data from fMRI scans to successfully predict weight gain and sexual activity—and can tell if you’re likely to fall foul of temptation well in advance. Using functional…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Happy Memories Become Less Special If You Talk About Them

When we have a positive experience—a great meal, say, or a wonderfully romantic encounter—it’s natural to want to talk about it. But a new study suggests that word-of-mouth stories blunt our feelings about experiences. In other words, telling people about your best kiss or favorite restaurant will make it feel less special. In fact, Sarah…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Uncanny Valley masks transform you into a beautiful nightmare

Designer Meike Harde has printed out a series of two-dimensional masks of attractive human features that — when skewed by the contours of the actual face — become positively repellent. The flawless (albeit substitute) eyes and lips meld with the exposed skin, and these perfect traits become imperfect and downright macabre. Explains Harde of this…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Are humans too optimistic for their own good?

We humans are a hopeful bunch — so hopeful, in fact, that our views of the future are often irrationally positive. But at what point does unflagging optimism become detrimental to our progress and success? Is there any chance that our starry-eyed tendencies could actually work in our favor, or do they simply leave us…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Want to Look Two Inches Taller? Try Holding a Gun

A core tenet of the human “fight or flight” response begs the question, is this guy bigger than me? A recent study suggests that answer depends on if he’s wielding or not. Turns out, our brains might give a subconscious size advantage to opponents if they’re holding a weapon. Dr. Daniel Fessler and a team…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

Everyone Around You Is An Impostor: Inside the Mind’s Most Bizarre Delusions

Imagine that your best friend has been replaced by an exact double, or that everyone you meet is really the same person wearing lots of disguises. These aren’t just plots of The Prisoner episodes — they’re all real mental delusions. The various delusions I just described are examples of monothematic delusions, which are simply any…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

And now, Monty Python’s John Cleese on the origins of creativity

This lecture may be from 1991, but the topic is timeless, the discussion is lucid, and it’s all delivered by Basil Fawlty himself. Here’s 36 minutes of John Cleese discussing the psychology of being creative. Listen to one of the funniest fellows alive talk seriously about how to become more creative, how to spitball ideas…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Scientists still aren’t sure why the “uncanny valley” freaks you the hell out

When Pixar screened a computer-animated short film called “Tin Toy” in 1988, test audiences hated the sight of the pseudo-realistic baby named “Billy” who terrorized the toys. Such a strong reaction persuaded Pixar to avoid making uncannily realistic human characters – it has since focused its efforts on films about living toys, curious robots and…

io9 Jeremy Hsu - InnovationNewsDaily

When stress makes you healthier

Diabetes. Cardiovascular disease. Depression. These are the effects you typically see associated with stress. While it can cause disease, stress is also good for you. It’s part of important cognitive and physiological functions that extend far beyond keeping us alive in “fight or flight” scenarios. The question, then, is how we can use stress to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Do you feel more lonely after using your smart phone?

In a recently-posted TED talk, MIT professor and psychologist Sherry Turkle explains why people who are constantly tethered to their smart phones feel so alone. She argues that loneliness in the age of social media has become far more crippling than ever before in history. But is she right that connectivity is driving us apart?…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Salary Envy Can Actually Make You Happier

It’s extremely common to look around at your peers who earn more than you do and bemoan your lack of personal income. But, according to a new study, that could be a good thing; a little salary envy could in fact make you a happier person. While that might sound crazy, a team of economists…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

To Ace an Interview, Forget Being Liked: You Just Need to Love Yourself

While self-confidence is definitely a route to job interview success, it’s often suggested that outright arrogance and narcissism is a real turn-off for employers. But a new study suggests that’s not the case: interview performance doesn’t depend on how much the interviewer likes you in the slightest, but just how much you like yourself. The…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

This weird optical illusion makes a moving spiral appear out of nowhere

It’s not unusual for optical illusions to create afterimages, ghostly reflections that show up after staring at something too long. This particular afterimage is a bit different. For one thing, it looks nothing like the original image. Also, it moves. Discovered by game designer Hjalmar Snoep, this optical illusion of lots of tiny interlocking spirals…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Watching Sad Movies Actually Makes You Happier

From bawling your eyes out over Bambi as a kid, to the slow, painful tug of the heart strings that was Beginners, most of us are suckers for a sad film. But a new study suggests that the reason for that might be incredibly simple: It turns out that sad films make us happy. The…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

The size of your brain can predict how many friends you have

We recently learned a bigger brain doesn’t necessarily mean a better brain, but here’s a potentially major exception. Your ability to make and maintain friendships appears to be linked to the size of one particular region of the brain. https://gizmodo.com/the-4-biggest-myths-about-the-human-brain-5890414 It’s sometimes said that you can know a person by looking in their eyes, but…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Science Brings Us One Step Closer to Implanting False Memories

Researchers say they’ve succeeded in giving mice a “hybrid” memory that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. They forced the mice to recall memories while they were already busy forming new ones, by reactivating specific neurons in their brains. This could even represent a step towards implanting full-blown false memories. And this could mean…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Scientific Proof That Red Meat Makes You Happy

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that a big, juicy hunk of steak makes you happier. But now there’s scientific proof, too; according to a new study, consumption of red meat halves the risk of depression. The study, carried out at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, confirms that people who avoid red meat are…

Health Jamie Condliffe

What does anger look like? Creepy, ghostly stick figures

Anger carries a lot of baggage. Musical tones, color schemes, physical sensations, and words can all convey this emotion, and the pictures above are compilations of people’s feelings of rage. The far left is a strip of colors that people associated with anger, with the thickest bands representing the most popular colors and the thinnest…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Packing a Gun Makes You Think Everyone Else Is Too

There are plenty of reasons not to run round wielding a gun, but here’s a new one; holding one makes you think that other people are holding guns, too. And that is not a desirable kind of paranoia to find in someone wielding a weapon. A study conducted a Notre Dame University found that holding…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

10 of the Most Surprising Findings from Psychological Studies

Psychology has a reputation for being the science of common sense, or a field that simply confirms things we already know about ourselves. One way of battling this misconception, explains Jeremy Dean — a PhD candidate in psychology and master of ceremonies at the always-awesome PsyBlog — is to “think about all the unexpected, surprising,…

io9 Jeremy Dean - PsyBlog

A Simple Scan Can Tell How Fat You’ll Get and How Much Sex You’ll Have

Happy Memories Become Less Special If You Talk About Them

Uncanny Valley masks transform you into a beautiful nightmare

Are humans too optimistic for their own good?

Want to Look Two Inches Taller? Try Holding a Gun

Everyone Around You Is An Impostor: Inside the Mind’s Most Bizarre Delusions

And now, Monty Python’s John Cleese on the origins of creativity

Scientists still aren’t sure why the “uncanny valley” freaks you the hell out

When stress makes you healthier

Do you feel more lonely after using your smart phone?

Salary Envy Can Actually Make You Happier

To Ace an Interview, Forget Being Liked: You Just Need to Love Yourself

This weird optical illusion makes a moving spiral appear out of nowhere

Watching Sad Movies Actually Makes You Happier

The size of your brain can predict how many friends you have

Science Brings Us One Step Closer to Implanting False Memories

Scientific Proof That Red Meat Makes You Happy

What does anger look like? Creepy, ghostly stick figures

Packing a Gun Makes You Think Everyone Else Is Too

10 of the Most Surprising Findings from Psychological Studies

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