Misery is psychology’s stale bread and rancid butter. The field heaps attention on sadness, fear and anxiety, and their psychiatric cousins depression, phobia and neurosis. Anger receives much less scrutiny…
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Articles on Behaviour
Displaying 101 - 120 of 132 articles
As a teenager I observed a strange phenomenon. On awakening from an unusually vivid dream, I would often find that the moon was full. And as the silvery light prevailed on subsequent nights, my nocturnal…
The deluge of data we are subjected to daily can be a good thing sometimes. It gives us a wide-open window to look at people’s behaviour, say, through their use of social media. The obvious question then…
Do chimpanzees and bonobos throw tantrums when their decision-making fails to pay off? That’s the question posed in a new PLoS ONE study by Brian Hare of Duke University and Alexandra Rosati of Yale. It…
There are strong parallels to be drawn between last week’s Woolwich murder and the Boston bombings in April, and not just because of the terrorism connection. The subsequent shooting and hospitalisation…
It is known as the Nudge unit; a government behavioural insights team, that draws on theories popularised in a bestselling book from Yale. Following much hype and publicity, the behavioural insights team…
We’re told to have power naps to keep us safe on the road and improve our alertness if we’ve had insufficient sleep. They even help our surgeons stay awake during long shifts. But siestas and nana naps…
You’ve probably seen it happen. You’re driving your car and you come to a stop at the traffic lights. You’re mindful of traffic infringement fines and public safety, then someone on a bike rides past you…
We all do it from time to time – replay scenarios over and over in our minds. Problem is, these repetitive and, at times, uncontrollable thoughts inevitably leave us feeling worse and make us more prone…
Social psychology addresses many of the important questions that concern us as human beings. It’s also the subject of newspaper editorials on most days: why is there conflict between groups? How can it…
Lead exposure continues to be an important public health issue for Australian children, with as many as 100,000 children under five years of age estimated to have blood lead levels high enough to cause…
Are we cooperative or are we selfish? This question goes back as far as the philosophers Rousseau and Hobbes – Rousseau advocated for a “noble savage” model of humanity whereas Hobbes advocated for a “darker…
Memories influence our behaviour for better or worse. A traumatic incident, experienced once, can darken our lives for ever more. Drug or alcohol addiction – driven by remembered rewards – can render the…
Boredom arises from our inability to engage one of our brain’s attention networks. Our awareness of this inability to concentrate…
New research from Dr. Tara Marshall at Brunel University has found that Facebook surveillance of ex-romantic partners may disrupt post-breakup recovery and personal growth. That’s bad news, because earlier…
Researchers have linked temper tantrums in young children to potential burgeoning mental health problems. Asking about the…
On public transport, there’s an unspoken rule to not take the seat next to someone if there are other seats available. In especially longer public transport commutes, the entire ride can be done in silence…
When faced with uncontrollable outcomes, people act as though they can still get on the good side of fate by doing good deeds…
Using food to bribe children could result in childhood obesity, new research has discovered. Children who were bribed by…
Recent research in residential aged care by Anthony Tuckett from the University of Queensland has illustrated that, in some instances, lying is not only necessary, it’s actually virtuous. It is a complex…
Top contributors
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Professor of Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
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Professor of Economics, Tasmanian Behavioural Lab, University of Tasmania
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Professor of Marketing, University of Birmingham
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Professor of Management and Scientia Education Academy Fellow, UNSW Sydney
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Director, BehaviourWorks, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University
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Director of Health Programs, BehaviourWorks Australia; Lead, Monash-McMaster Social Systems Evidence Collaboration, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University
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Professor of Psychology, The University of Melbourne
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Associate professor, UNSW Sydney
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Professor of Avian Behavioural Ecology, Macquarie University
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Researcher at Microsoft Research, Cambridge UK. Previously, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology
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Professor of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney
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NHMRC Early Career Fellow, Telethon Kids Institute
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PhD Student in Communication and Social Interaction, The University of Queensland
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Senior Lecturer in Education Studies, Australian Catholic University
