Psychology & Behaviour
Cognition, decision-making, motivation and human behaviour.
Beyond Instinct: How Behavioral Flexibility Reveals Animal Sentience
An exploration of how ethological studies, through slow observation of wild animals, are revolutionizing our understanding of animal consciousness and why acknowledging this flexibility is vital for ethical coexistence.
From Evolutionary Bias to Collective Resilience: A New Approach to American Civility
As we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, the pervasive atmosphere of stress and division may seem overwhelming. By leveraging insights from psychology and neuroscience, we can understand the cognitive biases driving our current fractures and purposefully reconstruct more constructive, resilient forms of civic dialogue.
The Silent Manipulator: Exploring the Potential Impact of Toxoplasma gondii on Human Cognition
An exploration of Toxoplasma gondii, a widespread parasite known for manipulating rodent behavior, and the ongoing scientific debate surrounding its potential influence on human psychology and behavioral health.
Tailoring the Intelligence: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Launches Inkling to Bypass Monolithic AI APIs
Thinking Machines Lab has released Inkling, its first open-weight model. Structured as a mixture-of-experts model, Inkling allows organizations to customize and fine-tune AI on their own data platform, bypassing the high costs and dependency of proprietary APIs.
Subscription Models Mirror Life: The Hidden Maintenance behind Mind, Body, and Relationships
How subscription economy principles apply to mental health, wellness habits, and relationship upkeep — reframing health maintenance as a renewable access agreement rather than ownership.
Playful Presence: A Simple Game Helps Teens with OCD Redirect Attention
A gentle, game-based approach helps teens with OCD shift attention away from obsessive thoughts and build tolerance for uncertainty—without pressure to sit perfectly still.
When Proximity and Attention Align, Hearts Beat as One: New Study Captures Real-World Physiological Synchrony
A naturalistic study with wearable sensors reveals how heart rate synchrony emerges during close physical proximity and shared attention, and how environmental noise disrupts this spontaneous connection.
Beyond the Lens: The Hidden Psychological Cost of Public Recording
The moment you lift your phone to film someone in public, a subtle shift occurs — not just in that person’s posture, but in your own brain. This isn’t surveillance gone rogue; it’s the quiet normalization of recording others, so routine now we barely notice. And the cost? It’s measured in stress hormones, fragmented memories, and eroded empathy.
Why We Double Down: The Psychology of Sticking With Bad Decisions
We've all been there — staying in a dead-end job, finishing a terrible book, or clinging to a failing plan. The sunk cost fallacy explains why past investments hijack our future choices, and how recognizing the bias can set us free.
Why We Trust ChatGPT for Advice — and What We Lose When It Always Agrees With Us
An exploration of AI sycophancy, cognitive reinforcement, and the erosion of self-challenge when we rely on AI that never contradicts our beliefs — and how human relationships uniquely provide the friction necessary for growth.
You're Not Tired From Doing Too Much. You're Tired From Supervising a Machine That Was Supposed to Do It for You.
The mental exhaustion plaguing modern knowledge workers isn't from using AI — it's from the cognitive overhead of constantly monitoring, correcting, and context-switching around AI systems. Research confirms that AI oversight loads produce 14% more mental effort, 12% more fatigue, and 19% more information overload than actual AI delegation.
The Calculator Analogy for AI Is Wrong: Why Delegating Judgment Is Not Delegation
The common comparison of AI to a calculator ignores the critical difference: calculators execute known operations; AI makes judgments. Without expertise, users cannot verify outputs, leading to cognitive substitution—not delegation.