Long stranded between ‘low’ and ‘high’ art, to rescue the middlebrow from cultural condemnation, we must first ask what it is ...

In the past decade, researchers have found data suggesting that, on average, the populations of developed Western countries are becoming more stupid. It’s a reversal of the so-called Flynn Effect, ...

Talking to teens reveals a hidden sophistication to their media use. Rather than policing it, maybe we could learn from it It is midday on a Friday, and I am in a room with about a dozen teenagers at ...

Few things derail a conversation – or even entire relationships – faster than someone going on the defensive. It’s a problem that plays out in many contexts, from the personal to the professional: ...

Imagine you’re at the dinner table, reaching for the salt, when someone stops you. ‘Don’t pass it hand to hand,’ they say. ‘It’s bad luck.’ You pause, confused. Why would passing the salt bring ...

Long considered a sign of mental illness, ‘pareidolia’ or seeing patterns in randomness might be a useful measure of creativity Have you, like Hamlet and Polonius, ever looked at the clouds and ...

You’ve probably heard it said that self-control – or what some people think of as willpower – is like a muscle. Use it too much and it gets fatigued, potentially to the point of exhaustion. The idea ...

Scenes from books, movies and games sometimes carry as much weight as events from people’s own lives. We’re finding out why Ask someone to describe their most vivid and emotionally charged memories ...

These experiences – which are more of an illusion than a hallucination – can be a healthy part of the grieving process In the weeks after the neurologist Oliver Sacks died, his friend Jonathan Weiner ...

To become more forgiving, we are often told to be more empathic. Empathy is a powerful social adhesive, one that most people believe helps us mediate forgiveness as it increases the likelihood of ...

People across time and place have considered it both possible and valuable to influence sex with food and drugs. Until the advent of modern vaccines, no medical product had been more widely traded ...

‘If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.’ How many times did I hear that growing up? My parents were attempting to teach me (just in case I hadn’t absorbed it from their actions) the importance of ...