Articles
Articles
Short, honest pieces about personality, habits and the research behind them.
Aphantasia: What If You Cannot Picture Things in Your Mind?
Close your eyes and picture a red apple. Some people see it vividly; roughly four in a hundred see little or nothing at all. The trait was only named in 2015, and it is a difference, not a disorder.
Does Your Star Sign Affect Your Personality?
In 1985 professional astrologers helped design a test of their own claims, then failed it. A larger 2006 study of over 15,000 people failed to find any sign of a link either.
Attachment Styles: What the Research Supports and What Social Media Gets Wrong
When researchers checked the classic one-question attachment test, about 30% of people changed style within weeks or months. Adult attachment is real and it matters, but it looks much more like two sliding scales than four fixed boxes.
Why Personality Tests Feel So Accurate
In 1948 a psychologist gave thirty-nine students the same personality profile and asked them to rate it. Almost all of them said it described them well. Here is what he had actually written.
Why Psychologists Use the Big Five Instead of Personality Types
Four-letter personality types are everywhere, yet almost no research psychologist uses them. The reason goes back to a dictionary, 1,431 adjectives and one awkward fact about where most people fall on a scale.
Does Birth Order Shape Your Personality?
The oldest is responsible, the middle child is overlooked, the youngest is the charming rebel. Two of the largest studies ever run on birth order, covering hundreds of thousands of people, found almost none of it.
What Is Boredom For?
Left alone for 15 minutes with nothing but their thoughts and a button that delivered an electric shock, 12 of 18 men and 6 of 24 women shocked themselves. What that says about boredom, and why the feeling may be useful.
Can Your Personality Change as an Adult?
Researchers compared teachers' ratings of Scottish teenagers with how the same people saw themselves 63 years later, and found surprisingly little overlap. Here is what decades of studies say about how, and how much, personality changes.
How to Actually Change a Habit
Willpower is the least useful thing you have. Four changes that work on the situation rather than on the person, and one finding about self-criticism that surprises almost everybody.
Is Too Much Choice Really Bad for You?
A famous supermarket experiment with jam seemed to prove that more options make us less likely to choose anything at all. Twenty-five years and dozens of replications later, the honest answer is more interesting than the headline.
What Actually Causes Deja Vu?
About six in ten people report the sudden, unsettling feeling that a brand new moment has already happened before. Psychologists have a real explanation for it, and it has nothing to do with premonitions.
Do Opposites Really Attract? What the Evidence Shows
People overwhelmingly end up with partners similar to themselves, not opposite. But a large 2008 meta-analysis found the similarity that matters most is the one you feel, not the one a personality test would measure.
What the Dunning-Kruger Effect Really Says (and What It Does Not)
In 1999 the weakest students in a Cornell study scored around the 12th percentile but placed themselves at the 62nd. Twenty years later, statisticians showed that random numbers can draw almost the same graph.
Is Willpower Really a Battery That Runs Out?
For twenty years, psychology's biggest idea about self-control was that willpower works like a muscle that tires with use. Then labs around the world tried to reproduce it, and the picture got much more complicated.
Does Emotional Intelligence Predict Success? What the Evidence Says
A meta-analysis of more than 42,000 students found that emotional intelligence does predict grades. But once intelligence and personality were accounted for, it added only a few percent. Both halves of that sentence matter.
Does Exercise Really Improve Your Mood? What the Evidence Shows
A 2023 review pulled together 97 earlier reviews covering more than 128,000 people and found that physical activity reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety by a medium amount. Here is what that means - and what the headlines leave out.
How Fast We Judge a Face
One hundred milliseconds is less time than a single blink. It is also, researchers found, all the time a stranger needs to decide whether your face looks trustworthy - and more time barely changes their mind.
Does Gratitude Really Make You Happier? What the Evidence Says
Students who listed what they were grateful for each week felt better about their lives than students who listed hassles. But pooled studies show a smaller effect than the hype suggests - and the most underrated part is the letter you have not sent.
Does a Growth Mindset Really Work? What the Research Found
A national experiment with 12,490 American ninth-graders found that under an hour of online lessons raised grades by about 0.10 points - but only for some students, in some schools. Here is what the growth mindset research really shows.
Left-Handedness: What the Research Actually Shows
About one in ten people is left-handed, a number that has stayed remarkably stable across centuries and cultures. Genetics explains only part of it, and the link to creativity is weaker than the folklore suggests.
Is Handwriting Really Better Than Typing for Notes?
A famous 2014 study found that students who typed their notes remembered less of what a lecture actually meant. When other researchers tried to repeat it, the story got more complicated - which is usually a sign that the real answer is worth hearing.
Does Winning the Lottery Actually Make You Happier?
In 1978, psychologists tracked down people who had recently won a lottery and asked how happy they felt. The answer surprised everyone, including the researchers.
How Many Friends Do We Need, and How Long Does It Take to Make One?
One study estimated that it takes more than 200 hours together to turn an acquaintance into a close friend. Here is what the research on friendship numbers really shows, including why the famous figure of 150 is shakier than it sounds.
How Much Sleep Do Adults Really Need?
In 2015 a panel of fifteen sleep scientists was asked for a single number, and settled on seven hours or more. The fine print, and the timing of your sleep, matter almost as much as the number.
How Common Is Impostor Syndrome, Really?
A 2020 review of 62 studies found impostor feelings in anywhere from 9% to 82% of people. That enormous range says less about you than about how the question is asked.
Does Everyone Have an Inner Monologue?
When researchers beeped people at random moments and asked what was in their mind, inner speech turned up in only about a quarter of moments. Some people say they have none at all.
How Much of Happiness Is Genetic?
A famous pie chart says 50% of your happiness comes from your genes and 40% is up to you. Twin studies do show a real genetic influence, but the pie itself does not survive a close look. Here is what the numbers actually mean.
Are Learning Styles a Myth? What the Evidence Says
In one survey, 93% of British teachers and 96% of Dutch teachers believed pupils learn better when taught in their preferred learning style. A major review found almost no evidence for it. Here is what does work.
Left-Brained or Right-Brained? Why It Is a Myth
In a 2013 study, researchers scanned the brains of 1,011 people looking for 'left-brained' and 'right-brained' individuals. They did not find them. Here is what the two hemispheres really do.
People Like You More Than You Think
After talking to someone new, most people leave replaying their own awkward pauses, convinced they came across worse than they did. Researchers gave this a name - the liking gap - and it is remarkably consistent.
Is Loneliness Really Bad for Your Health? What the Research Shows
A review of 148 studies and more than 300,000 people found that those with stronger social ties had about 50% higher odds of surviving the follow-up period. Here is what that number means, and what it does not.
Do Love Languages Really Exist? What the Studies Found
When researchers tested whether couples who share a love language are happier, 67 couples gave a surprising answer: self-control mattered more than matching. Here is what the evidence actually supports.
Does the Marshmallow Test Really Predict Success?
When a researcher broke a promise to them first, only 1 of 14 preschoolers waited the full 15 minutes for a second marshmallow. When she kept it, 9 of 14 did. What the famous test really measures.
Your Memory Is Not a Recording
In one experiment, changing a single word in a question changed how fast people remembered a car going - and made some of them recall broken glass that was never there. Memory does not replay the past; it rebuilds it, every time.
Does Mind Wandering Make You Unhappy?
A smartphone study of 2,250 people found their minds wandering in nearly half of all sampled moments, and they were less happy when it did. The full story is more interesting than the headline.
Does Money Buy Happiness? What the Research Shows
For a decade, a single number - $75,000 - stood for the point where money stops buying daily happiness. A 2023 study built specifically to settle the debate found the ceiling was real, but only for one in five people.
Is Multitasking Bad for You? The Real Cost of Switching
Every time you jump between tasks your responses get slower and more error-prone, even when you know the switch is coming. The famous claim that heavy multitaskers are worse at everything is a different story - and a shakier one.
Why Does Music Give You Chills?
In a drug study, a medicine that boosts dopamine made people enjoy music more and feel more motivated by it, while a medicine that blocks dopamine did the opposite. What happens in the brain, and why some people never feel a thing.
How Much Time in Nature Is Good for You?
In 2019 researchers asked almost 20,000 people in England how much time they had spent in nature that week. A number appeared where the benefit leveled off, and it was smaller than you might think.
Why Bad Feels Stronger Than Good
One sharp comment from a boss can outweigh a year of praise. Psychologists have a name for this asymmetry, and a large body of research on exactly how far it reaches - and where the popular '5 to 1' version of it goes wrong.
Is Nostalgia Good for You?
For most of its history, nostalgia was treated as a disease. Psychologists who actually studied it found something closer to the opposite: a mood that shows up uninvited and quietly does you good.
What the Research Actually Says About Parenting Styles
In the 1960s, a psychologist watching preschoolers and their parents noticed something that split into four categories still used today. The evidence behind them is real, but it comes with a large cultural asterisk.
Do Pets Really Make Us Happier and Healthier?
The claim that owning a pet makes you healthier has been repeated for decades. A psychologist who reviewed the actual studies in 2011 found the evidence far shakier than the claim.
Why Everything Takes Longer Than You Think
In 1994, 465 students predicted how long their own tasks would take - and were consistently too optimistic. Asked about someone else's identical task, they got it right.
Does Power Posing Actually Work?
In 2010, a study claimed that standing like a superhero for two minutes could raise your testosterone and change your risk-taking. A larger, stricter replication - and the original author herself - later walked much of it back.
Why Pseudo-Profound Quotes Feel So Deep
"Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty." A randomly generated sentence with no meaning at all - and in a 2015 study, most people rated it as fairly profound.
Is Remote Work More Productive? What the Evidence Shows
A Chinese travel agency once let a coin-flip decide who worked from home. The resulting experiment, and a much larger one a decade later, are still some of the best evidence anyone has on whether remote work actually helps or hurts.
How You React to Good News May Matter More Than How You Handle Bad News
When researchers filmed 79 couples talking about good and bad events, the way partners responded to good news was the better predictor of how the relationship was doing two months later. Here is what they found.
Why We Enjoy Sad Music
A 2012 study induced real sadness in 120 listeners using nothing but music, and confirmed it was genuine, not performed. So why does anyone put the same song on again the next day?
Self-Compassion vs Self-Esteem: Which One Actually Helps?
Decades of advice have told people to build their self-esteem. A newer line of research asked a different question: what if the goal itself is the problem, and something else works better?
Does Smiling Actually Make You Happier?
In 1988, people held a pen in their teeth or their lips without ever being told to smile, and it changed how funny they found a cartoon. The idea that your face can talk back to your feelings has had a rocky forty years since.
Is Social Media Actually Bad for Your Wellbeing?
Two researchers ran the same question through thousands of reasonable analyses to see if it would survive. Here is what held up, what did not, and why the scientists studying this still cannot agree.
Does Spending Money on Others Make You Happier?
Students handed an envelope of cash and told to spend it on someone else ended the day happier than those told to spend it on themselves. Here is what later, much larger studies found, and why the effect is smaller than the headlines.
There Are Two Completely Different Ways to Reach the Top
A feared boss and a beloved mentor can both end up running the same room. Researchers argue these are not the same kind of status at all, but two separate strategies with different costs.
Why You Are Still Tired After Eight Hours of Sleep
There are at least four different things people mean by tired, and only one of them responds to going to bed earlier. Working out which one you have is most of the solution.
Is Stress Always Bad for You? What Stress Mindset Research Shows
In a sample of almost 29,000 American adults, heavy stress went with a 43% higher risk of early death, but only among people who also believed stress was harming their health. What that finding can and cannot tell us.
Study Techniques That Actually Work
In 2013 a team of five memory researchers rated ten popular study techniques on the actual evidence behind them. Highlighting and rereading, the two most common habits, came out near the bottom.
The Sunk Cost Trap: Why We Throw Good Time After Bad
In a classic experiment, people who had already paid for a ski trip were more likely to go even after learning a better trip was available for free. The money was gone either way. It still changed the decision.
Is It Really 10,000 Hours to Become an Expert?
The famous rule came from a study of 30 violin students in Berlin. When researchers pooled the evidence across fields, practice explained 26% of the differences in games, 21% in music and less than 1% in professions.
Does Venting Anger Help, or Make It Worse?
Hitting a pillow to let the anger out sounds sensible. In a classic experiment, people who hit a punching bag while thinking about the person who angered them ended up angrier and more aggressive than people who did nothing at all.
What Awe Does to Your Mind
Researchers had people look up at eucalyptus trees for exactly one minute, then watched what happened when someone nearby dropped a handful of pens. The results say something odd about what standing in front of something vast does to the self.
What Burnout Is - and What It Is Not
In 2019 headlines said the WHO had declared burnout a medical condition. It had not. Here is what the definition actually says, the three parts researchers measure, and why some scientists think it may be depression under another name.
What Is Flow, and How Do You Get More of It?
Rock climbers, surgeons and chess players describe the same strange thing: total absorption in a task, no sense of time, no room left in the mind to worry. A psychologist spent decades trying to work out why it happens.
What Introversion Really Is (and Why It Is Not Shyness)
When psychologists tracked people every three hours for two weeks, every single participant, introverts included, felt happier in the moments they acted extraverted. Here is what introversion is, what it is not, and why it is not the same as shyness.
What Actually Predicts a Happy Relationship?
Eighty-six researchers pooled data from 43 long-running studies of couples and used machine learning to find out what really predicts relationship satisfaction. The answer was not what most compatibility quizzes assume.
Why Do People Believe Conspiracy Theories?
In 1979 two researchers found that the same assassination attempt was judged far more likely to be a conspiracy when it succeeded and the target was powerful. The reasoning behind that judgment turns out to explain a lot.
Why We Forget Our Dreams (and What Lucid Dreaming Can Do)
Most dream content is gone within minutes of waking, no matter how vivid it felt. Researchers can now predict who will remember a dream from brain activity recorded in the seconds around waking - and have even had short conversations with people while they were still asleep and dreaming.
Why Everyone Gossips (Yes, Including You)
People who track their own conversations report gossiping for close to an hour a day, on average. Most of it is not the malicious kind you are picturing.
Why Do We Procrastinate? What the Research Actually Says
Students who procrastinated felt less stressed than their classmates at the start of term - and more stressed, sicker and lower-graded by the end. Procrastination is less about laziness than about feeling better right now.