When we make important social decisions – which political candidate to vote for, whether to trust someone with our money, whether a person is guilty of a crime – we’d like to think we do so rationally…
Icy times for mom-to-be meant bad news for baby-on-board.
Shaun Best/Reuters
In January 1998 five days of freezing rain collapsed the electrical grid of the Canadian province of Québec. The storm left more than 3 million people without electricity for anywhere from a few hours…
Science fiction author William Gibson said: “virtual reality is like mainlining television.” Virtual reality is no longer limited to the wealthy few who can afford it. It is also becoming more common in…
Friendly or flirting? Science says you stink at telling the difference.
Cafe image via www.shutterstock.com
When you have more than one child, the importance of fairness seems to trump all other considerations, including self-interest. Give a child £1 and she will be happy. But if she finds out that her sibling…
Guns were part of Pistorius’ life at home and in public.
EPA/Phill Magakoe/Pool
South African paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found not guilty of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The presiding judge, Thokozile Masipa, found him guilty, though, of culpable…
Justice and forgiveness can co-exist so that one may encourage the other.
Steve Calcott/Flickr
One of the inevitable things in life is that someone will do or say something to upset and hurt us. While forgiveness is a good way to overcome such hurts, we also don’t want people to get away with what…
Most of us were taught that saying “thank you” is simply the polite thing to do. But recent research in social psychology suggests that saying “thank you” goes beyond good manners – it also serves to build…
Didn’t improve their brains much.
Review of Reviews (1904)
Brain-training programmes are all the rage. They are part of a growing digital brain-health industry that earned more than US$1 billion in revenue in 2012 and is estimated to reach US$6 billion by 2020…
Take a moment to think of a task you wish to accomplish in the next three months. It should be something specific like clearing out your backyard, or completing an online course, so that you could judge…
Personal dispositions, feelings and beliefs may play a decisive role in explaining why people become radicalised.
EPA/Stringer
So far, the ongoing discussions about radicalisation of extremists both at home and abroad have tended to emphasise its sociological aspects. It has focused on concepts such as the religion and social…
Zelda Williams: taking a break from Twitter.
Popculturegeek
Ciarán Mc Mahon, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
When I read that Robin William’s daughter Zelda was deleting her Twitter and Instagram because of abusive messages in the aftermath of her father’s death, I recalled Richard Dawkins’ book The Selfish Gene…
When the line blurs between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ is it really cause for concern?
David Blackwell./Flickr
Step aside Olympians – the new sporting pursuit of choice may soon be professional gaming. Electronic sports (or esports) are now mainstream, drawing more than a million viewers in large tournaments and…
You may find yourself talking to a therapist who is completely inappropriate to your needs.
James Nash/Flickr
People seeking therapy should always talk to a practitioner who provides good quality treatment that’s appropriate to their needs. Because research shows that even the innocuous-sounding “talking therapies…
We’re all singing from the same hymn sheet and that’s not a good thing.
InfoMofo
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that as we spend more time communicating via social media, we are disappearing into bubbles. We receive information from the same sources and witness the views of the…
Introverted and A-type? We’re not that easily categorised.
Ivana Vasilj/Flickr
The idea that people can be classified into types has a long history. Writing 23 centuries ago, the Greek philosopher Theophrastus sketched 30 characters that are instantly recognisable to this day. They…
Fears about air travel are common and entirely understandable. Human beings have not evolved to fly (beyond the fact that we have evolved brains sophisticated enough to invent aircraft). In an alien environment…
He’s only 28 years old, but Eamon Sullivan has hung up his goggles.
EPA/Julian Abram Wainwright
As the Commonwealth Games enters its last days, Australian sprinter John Steffenson announced he’s hanging up the spikes after the tournament is over, and diver Matthew Mitcham hinted at retiring too…
Hi Mum … or should I say … impostor?
Aaron Tait/Flickr
In the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers aliens invade earth by replicating individuals. While the idea that we could be duped by shape-shifting aliens is a great idea for a film, the story echoes a…
Facebook’s efforts in 2012 to manipulate the emotions of its users for part of an academic study have left the kingpin social network struggling to explain its actions. Maybe part of their mistake was…