In the New Yorker, Rachel Aviv has written about “resignation syndrome,” an affliction specific to immigrant children in Sweden who essentially and physically lost the will to live upon being told they will be deported. It’s a profoundly heartbreaking story that illustrates the true human cost of denying asylum to…
How can modern parents raise the next generation to be free from corrosive gender and racial stereotypes? By the time children start elementary school, gender and race shape their lives in many ways that parents might want to prevent. As early as first grade, girls are less likely than boys to think members of their…
The newest and largest U.S. study to date, following nearly 1,000 women over five years, shows that abortion doesn’t cause short- or long-term psychological issues. Not that politicians use facts or science when passing abortion laws anyway, but should they decide to start, this is good news.
Picture this: It’s 1960. You’re settling in to enjoy an X-rated film at a local theater, minding your own business, when suddenly, a man appears draped in a sheet and wanders back and forth across your line of sight. Would you find this spooky? Or just incredibly weird and annoying? Or would you even notice at all?
If you’re somewhere between your mid twenties and thirties, you might be experiencing a serious low point in your life. A trial of confused identity, misguided purpose, and hopeless transition. And, if you’re anything like me, you feel lost, anxious, and panicked. But you’re not alone, even if it feels that way, and…
Nobody likes complaining, but is it really that bad? Complaining feels cathartic. Complaining gives us something to talk about. Ninety percent of Seinfeld was just listening to four characters complain, and it was entertaining and relatable. Complaining can be harmful and obnoxious, but it can also serve a purpose. It…
Doing your best to stay up with current events can often feel like drowning in a torrent of never ending bad news. With information coming at you in every direction, it’s easy to get burned out. Compassion and solidarity are important, but being an informed citizen doesn’t mean you always have to go down with the ship.
We’ve known for a while that testosterone is associated with aggressive behavior. But a fascinating new experiment reveals that these hormones are a two-way street: Simply acting aggressive can also raise levels of testosterone, in both women and men.
Maybe you heard about that study that showed men don’t want to date smart women. It certainly plays into our stereotypes of how men behave, and it got a lot of press as a result. But if you actually dig into the paper, you’ll find there are some serious problems with those results.
A typical four-year-old lies about once every two hours, according to some studies. A typical six-year-old lies even more often (hourly)! Fellow parents: What do we do about this deception? How can we build trust with our kids and prevent them from growing up into psychopaths? This is the dilemma I’m learning to deal…
People say that “everyone should work retail or service at least once in their lives.” I couldn’t agree more. Like many people, some of my first jobs were retail service gigs. One in a department store, another in a bookstore. I’ve long since moved on, but I learned a lot about the nature of people—and how that battle…
Turns out every other Super Bowl commercial is a waste of everyone’s fucking time.
A new study from researchers at Cornell and Tulane has found that know-it-alls who claim to know everything about sustainable farming or how to get rich or the DC go-go scene are actually more likely to fall for made-up facts in the area of their so-called expertise.
It’s easy to think of empathy as something you’ve got or don’t got, but researchers contend that a new spate of research proves the opposite: You can choose to be more empathetic, and people who lack empathy are often people whose lives are set up so that they don’t “need” it.
Being in a romantic relationship when one (or both) of you suffer from depression is a massive challenge. Depression can make your partner seem distant. They may feel like they’re a burden or close themselves off. None of that means your relationship is the problem. You two can tackle this together. Here’s how.
Each of us has a narrative we’re peddling about ourselves, an image we think we present to the world: he’s gracious and funny; she’s tough but fair. But does this story line up with how other people see us? According to a psychologist who’s just written a book about the mechanics of being misunderstood, the answer…
You’re taught about history, science, and math when you’re growing up. Most of us, however, aren’t taught how to identify or deal with our own emotions, or the emotions of others. These skills can be valuable, but you’ll never get them in a classroom.
So a woman emerges from a bunker after 15 years. She's cheerful and ready to embrace life. It's the premise of the recent Netflix series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but what is the reality? What do years of isolation and confinement actually do to a person's brain?
A recent study from Penn State has put together a definitive profile of the average American female serial killer, combing through the 64 "FSKs" who committed their crimes in the US between 1821 and 2008.
It'd be wonderful if you could just say to children, "People might look different and come from different places, but we're all equal and should be treated the same" and leave it at that. But if recent news has taught us anything, it's that reality is not so simple, and we need to face the topics of race and racism…
