As the annual World Series of Poker gets rolling in Las Vegas later this month, hopeful competitors will be buying in and getting their poker faces on. But why is it such a challenge to recognise deception…
Celebrity couple Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin announced a split after 10 years of marriage.
EPA/Britta Pedersen & Jose Coelho
Oscar winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin seemed to have the perfect marriage until their “conscious uncoupling” earlier this year. Was the split destined to happen? What…
Everyone knows someone with a quick temper – it might even be you. And while scientists have known for decades that aggression is hereditary, there is another biological layer to those angry flare-ups…
Subjecting job seekers to bogus personality tests, as the UK did, was a misuse of behavioural insights.
Lucky Business/Shutterstock
Do you consider yourself a rational person? For the most part, you probably are. If something hurts, you’ll stop doing it. If you like something, you’ll buy more of it, but you’ll rethink your decision…
Awkward and embarrassing, the human act of blushing raises many difficult psychological and physiological questions. Why should an emotional response take this particular form and does it serve any purpose…
New research shows how a climate of uncertainty pushes us towards worse outcomes.
Lukiyanova Natalia/frenta/Shutterstock
If we’re not certain that the problem’s there, then … we shouldn’t take actions which have a high severity the other way. This was the response from David Murray – then chairman of Australia’s Future Fund…
Milgram concluded that most of us can be induced to torture someone else at the behest of an authority figure – but that’s only part of the story.
afromztoa/Flickr
Nick Haslam, The University of Melbourne and Gina Perry, The University of Melbourne
Chances are you’ve heard of Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments. In 1961, Milgram recruited pairs of volunteers to take part in a “memory test”. One volunteer was given the job of teacher, the other…
Climbing the social ladder can be slippery in parts for teenagers.
Sadie Hernandez/Flickr
The stereotype that popular kids don’t get bullied has been busted by a new study that found becoming more popular at school can actually increase a student’s risk of being bullied. The study, published…
What do you think the opposite sex finds attractive in you? If you’re a guy, do you think that women prefer bulging muscles and washboard abs? Or, if you’re a woman, maybe you think men prefer skinny girls…
Artist Ash Keating, like others, relinquishes final control to the laws of physics and nature.
David Crosling/AAP
There’s a two-storey warehouse wall in Melbourne’s western suburbs where man-made concrete uniformity has been transformed. On this enormous vertical surface is a complex, apparently natural scene that…
In the face of pressures that turn us against each other, it pays to be aware of the potential costs of reducing sympathy.
mrhayata/Flickr
Neil Levy, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Every now and then, and rarely far apart in time, the media features a story about an assault in public where bystanders failed to come to the victim’s aid. Of course, there are many possible reasons why…
Never before have we been such compulsive multitaskers, blogging and tweeting using multiple devices and smartphones anywhere and everywhere, from trains to cafes. It seems a little backwards, then, that…
‘I’m walkin’ on sunshine, whoooa oh! And don’t it feel good!‘
Daniele Zedda/Flickr (cropped)
Think of your favourite piece of music. Do you get shivers when the music swells or the chorus kicks in? Or are the opening few bars enough to make you feel tingly? Despite having no obvious survival value…
Research published today in the journal Cell Biology describes a new condition, musical anhedonia – the inability to experience pleasure from music. Specifically the researchers were able to identify a…
It seems intuitive that many of us would fear and avoid emotions such as anger and anxiety. But some people fear positive emotions such as happiness and contentment, and of accepting the compassion, kindness…
The bird that just won’t die. But can you live without it?
Flappy Bird, a deceptively simple gaming app, has been withdrawn by its creator Dong Nguyen because it is too “addictive”. His decision appears to have sparked a frenzy among fans who are reportedly so…
Some psychological theories can help us understand why some people stick with rough relationships and try to ride out the storm.
Sean Davis
Thousands of couples will celebrate a day of romance this week, while many single people will hope for their own one. But what makes a relationship last? And what makes one couple crumble while another…
Sorry, but ‘sensing’ change isn’t unique – everyone can do it.
Flickr/Machine Project
Many of us have had this experience: you’re sure that something has changed, but unable to say what it is. Perhaps a colleague has new glasses, or has grown a beard. For all of your trying to identify…
Seventy years ago Swedish sociologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Alva Myrdal pointed out in Nation and Family the generational bias inherent in democratic political systems: young voters will be old…