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May 11, 2013 For those lucky enough to have a mother to thank, consider putting pen to paper for a heartfelt letter of gratitude and appreciation. Your mom will surely love it, and the science says it's good for you.

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April 29, 2013 People crave explanations that are simple, broad, elegant. But the prettiest, most satisfying explanations aren't always the best explanations, as the dark story of Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel makes clear.

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April 29, 2013 Psychologists say kids who get entangled in their parents' arguments often suffer shame and low self-esteem. So some are trying to teach parents who feel they just can't stop arguing when they get angry how to "get to calm."

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April 19, 2013 Tylenol may relieve more than physical pain; it may dull existential aches, too. Researchers say their work is consistent with a growing body of research that suggests the brain processes physical and emotional pain in similar ways.

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April 17, 2013 Psychologists have used the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and other tragedies to track the arc of recovery from incidents like the marathon bombing. Such tragedies make many people think about their own vulnerability.

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March 25, 2013 Philosophers are burning their armchairs and heading for the lab as part of a new movement called, appropriately enough, "experimental philosophy." Commentator Tania Lombrozo wonders why this small subfield of philosophy has captured the popular imagination.

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March 21, 2013 Little children understand the idea of sharing, but they'd prefer not to play along. But by age 8, the typical child decides that it's a good idea to follow through and be fair, researchers say.

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February 11, 2013 An attention researcher wanted to find out how radiologists would fare in a version of the famous Invisible Gorilla study. He found that 83 percent of the radiologists failed to spot an image of a gorilla on slides they were told to inspect for cancer. It's just one example of how, when people are asked to perform a challenging task, their attention can narrow and blocks things out.

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January 11, 2013 Does music have a history? Why? Listening to Bowie, and reading Gary Marcus's Guitar Zero provoke commentator Alva Noë to wonder.

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November 26, 2012 Scientists say that whether tipping waiters or trading Christmas cards, we're programmed to reciprocate when we receive a gift. But the rule of reciprocity can also complicate politics and medicine.

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November 12, 2012 For the most part in American culture, intellectual struggle in school children is seen as an indicator of weakness, while in Eastern cultures it is not only tolerated, it is often used to measure emotional strength.

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November 5, 2012 What does one vote matter, your vote? Clearly the election is not going to turn on your individual action. So where does the motivation come from to get up out of your chair and head to the polling station? Commentator Tania Lombrozo digs into the psychology of our decision to vote, or not.

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October 29, 2012 Humans may well be programmed to seek purpose in everything — mountains, for instance — whether one exists or not. Commentator Tania Lombrozo says that it's not irrational to seek purpose in our scientific quest to understand the natural world, but that we won't always find it.

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October 24, 2012 Scientists often face a quandary when deciding how to communicate important results to the wider world. Commentator Tania Lombrozo asks whether delivering a forceful message to the public on issues of the day is more important than remaining true to the questioning nature of science when addressing a general audience.

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August 22, 2012 Psychology explains why people don't always do what they intend to do. Can it explain why many independents vote along partisan lines?

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