Category: Psychology
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The Science of Dreams and Why We Have Nightmares
The psychology of our built-in nocturnal therapy. “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind,” Freud argued in his influential treatise The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900. “The earth is heavy and opaque without dreams,” Anaïs Nin wrote in her diary in 1940. “In the…
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From fables to Facebook: Why do we tell stories?
Throughout human history, stories have existed across all cultures in all forms, from ballads, poems, songs to oral history, plays, novels. Some narratives have evolved along with the human species—we are consistently drawn back to ancient parables, fables and fairytales, constantly reworking them into modern contexts. Narrative is a gift unique to the human species,…
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The Science of Productivity: All You Need to Know About Productivity, Animated
After their illustrated primer on how our brain works, the scientific power of thought, and the science of procrastination (and how to manage it), folks behind the AsapSCIENCE look at the science of productivity. This video is made in collaboration with Sparring Mind, the behavioral psychology blog. The moral of the story: It’s hard to…
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Tricks of the mind
Have you ever experienced a sudden feeling of familiarity while in a completely new place? Or the feeling you’ve had the exact same conversation with someone before? This feeling of familiarity is, of course, known as déjà vu (a French term meaning “already seen”) and it’s reported to occur on an occasional basis in 60-80%…
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Amy Cuddy at TED: Your body language shapes who you are
Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our…