Psychology Today
Viewpoint: Evolutionary theory is predicated on gender equality. Here’s why
Evolutionary theory is predicated on gender equality because parents have an equal genetic contribution to children. It is the only ...
Why has female sexual health research been so neglected?
In a recent News Hour segment on PBS television, doctors and researchers pointed out that female sexual topics were largely ...
Viewpoint: Our personalities are genetically shaped but not hardwired
Everything about us is partly genetic, but this doesn’t mean genes determine our traits. Our genes assemble every aspect of ...
The downside of human intelligence
I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Justin Gregg's new book If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals ...
Why do we yawn? Here are several theories on the evolution of this sleepy signal
Obviously, people and other animals yawn when they are tired; we all know that. But there must be more to ...
Updating the ‘serotonin hypothesis’: Mental illness is way more complex than a chemical imbalance
Almost as soon as it was floated in 1965 by Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Schildkraut, the serotonin hypothesis of depression—reduced and ...
‘Dark personalities’: When are destructive traits like narcissism and psychopathy most likely to appear?
Stories about insufferable teenagers, selfish college students, or inconsiderate older adults have one thing in common: They attribute the presence ...
Here’s what we still don’t understand about consciousness
The mind-body problem addresses one of the fundamental questions of science and humanity. How is consciousness related to the body ...
Sexsomnia, sleepwalking and sleep terrors: 3 misunderstood disorders reveal hidden secrets of the brain
Currently, little is known about the origin or neurobiology of sleeping disorders. Recent research has revealed that sleepwalking, night terrors, ...
‘Little brain’: What is the science behind superfluid thinking?
Until recently, the human cerebellum was viewed primarily as a brain region that's sole job was to coordinate motor movements; ...
Did cannibalism play a role in the extinction of the Neanderthals?
Spanish anthropologists Jordi Augustí and Xavier Rubio-Campillo (2016) conducted a virtual experiment to study factors underlying the extinction of Neandertals ...
Is ‘sex addiction’ a real disorder — or an excuse?
Another week, another sex addict. Or so it seems. In the most recent case of a celebrity claiming 'sex addiction' ...
What is a human being? The evolution of ‘personhood’
It is at the intersection between psychology and the social sciences (as well as humanities and philosophy) that we find ...
Why does time slow down when we’re afraid?
There is evidence that experiences of slowed-down time—such as when someone is in grave danger—may not simply be “in our ...
Why exercising more doesn’t necessarily lead to weight loss
Scientific studies have shown overwhelmingly that a 25 percent reduction in daily calorie intake will significantly improve your health far ...
The intriguing brain science of left-handedness
Handedness is one of many functional left-right differences in the brain. Specifically, in left-handers, the motor cortex in the right ...
Facial structure and sex: Women can intuitively read features to assess whether a man is interested in a long-term relationship or a casual romp
Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell, just by studying [someone's] face, whether they’re interested in a long-term relationship ...
Neuroscience of emotions: what we ‘see’ — smiles, frowns, puckered brows — are actually social constructs that your brain has learned from infancy
If you show pictures of actors portraying [common] emotions to people in all corners of the earth, they pretty reliably ...
Viewpoint: A case for moderate exercise — We get the most cognitive benefits by ‘performing activities that we evolved to perform’
Your body clearly benefits from a daily moderate level of exercising. Does your brain care? Yes, your brain does pay ...
Here is the consensus theory of why Neanderthals went extinct
Noting over “a dozen serious hypotheses'' about the enigmatic disappearance of our nearest cousins [the neanderthals, researchers] conducted a poll ...
Our ‘evolutionary superhighway’: How the brain connects smells and memories
Whereas other sensory systems are thought to have been re-routed during human evolution, [a new] study suggests that olfactory-hippocampal functional ...
Why cooperation based on reciprocity is unique to humans
It has long been known that human cooperation is so successful in large part because of our reciprocity. We help ...
Viewpoint: Reducing the number of Down syndrome births is a form of eugenics
No one should underestimate the complexity and difficulty of deciding whether to test for Down syndrome or terminate a pregnancy ...
How honest are you? When do you think it’s okay to deceive? It may be hard-wired
Humans are a social species. There is pretty compelling evidence that without cooperation, people are much less likely to survive ...
How do physiological processes produce a conscious state of mind?
I believe there are two reasons why we have failed to solve the hard part of the problem [of consciousness] ...
‘Extinguishing of other species is one of our defining traits’: How humans are destroying the world’s animals, insects and plants
If extinctions are events, they are so only in geological time, and geological time is rather vast. The late Devonian ...
How evolution and genetics shape human morality
There is a large body of research demonstrating and delineating the complex moral instincts of young children, including babies far ...
The growing tachysensia community: What is it like when our mind’s speedometer goes awry?
Drive for an hour at 65 mph on an interstate alongside other vehicles moving at similar speeds. Then take an exit ...
