Blog
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The Secret to a Good Joke Is Silence
You’ve had this happen: you tell a story you know is funny, you get to the good part, and … nothing. Somebody smiles politely. And you replay it later thinking the joke was fine, the wording was fine, so what went wrong? A group of researchers just spent 86 hours listening to professional stand-up comedians…
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Who’s Actually Choosing What You Watch Next?
You open the app to check one thing. Twenty minutes later you are still there, watching videos you never went looking for, and somehow you have “decided” to buy something you didn’t know existed when you picked up your phone. So whose decision was that, really? A new study by Zhean Zhu and Kai Wang…
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Mixed Feelings About AI: Cognitive Dissonance and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Why using AI tools leaves so many of us stuck in an uncomfortable middle — and what four psychologists can tell us about the way we manage that discomfort. There’s a feeling a lot of us get when we sit down to use an AI tool. You ask it for help, and a few seconds…
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Why the Whites of Your Eyes Shape a Stranger’s First Impression
You meet someone for the first time, and within a second or two you’ve already decided something about them — whether you’d trust them, whether you’d want to keep talking. You didn’t run through a checklist. It just happened. And it turns out one of the things your brain quietly picks up on is something…
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Why Nobody Pushed the Button: The Psychology Behind a Subway Tragedy
When someone collapses in a public place, will anyone actually help? It’s one of the oldest questions in social psychology, and the newest research gives a surprisingly hopeful answer. But a recent death in a Boston subway station complicates that answer in a way worth understanding — not because it proves people are heartless, but…
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Why People Step Out of the Plane — and Go Back Up the Next Day
After a fatal weekend in extreme sports, a psychologist explains why sensation seekers feel clarity where the rest of us feel panic — and why they go back up.
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Your Muscles Are Talking to Your Brain — and It Might Be Why Exercise Fights Depression
You already know what people tell you when you say you’re feeling low: go for a walk, get some exercise, you’ll feel better. And maybe part of you bristles at that, because it sounds too simple to be real. How is moving your legs supposed to touch something as heavy as depression? Well, scientists have…
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Does Your Dog or Cat Need Closure? Pet Grief and the Psychology of Loss
Our cat Charles who we miss very much.
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Why Your Favorite Playlist Eventually Bores You — and the Algorithm Is Part of the Problem
A new study suggests the recommendation algorithms that find you the perfect song may be quietly making your entertainment boring — and a little randomness is the fix.
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Does Spoiling Your Kids Actually Create Narcissists? Here’s What the Research Says
You’ve probably heard it before — maybe you’ve even said it yourself: “That kid is going to grow up to be a real handful.” We have a strong gut sense that giving children everything they want, never saying no, removing every obstacle before they can encounter it — all of that leads to something dark…
AP Psych Terms
accommodation aging animal cognition assimilation Attractiveness Automatic processing biological bases of behavior bystander intervention Cognitive Dissonance Confounding variable Craik and Lockhart depression dopamine elaborative rehearsal encoding Evolutionary psychology First Impressions Framing health psychology Heuristic Humor Lawrence Kohlberg Leon Festinger levels of processing long-term memory memory mere exposure effect mood disorders narcissistic personality disorder neuroplasticity neurotransmitters Peripheral route persuasion Piaget pluralistic ignorance Selective Attention self-fulfilling prophecy sensation seeking social cognition social support stereotype threat