It’s that time of year again — when seemingly every advertisement, social media post, or well-meaning loved one is quick to remind you how you’re due for a refresh, a restart, a rebrand. Self-improvement is difficult any time of year, but you may feel extra pressure to embark on a life change at the top of the […]

Go back 25 years or so and psychology was almost exclusively focused on investigating mental illnesses and the suffering they caused. Then in 1998 pioneering psychologist Martin Seligman took up his term as president of the American Psychological Association and declared a new focus on “positive psychology.” This new area of study wouldn’t look at disease and

We all face demanding days that seem designed to test our self-control. Perhaps you are a barista, and you have some particularly rude and demanding customers, but you manage to keep your poise throughout. Or maybe you are finishing an important project and you have to remain in quiet concentration, without letting your attention slip

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is a US federal agency that supports participation in the arts and the development of creative capacities. As part of its mission, NEA offers two research awards that support scientific initiatives in line with the agency’s agenda, called “Research Grants in the Arts” and “NEA Research Labs.” Research

Do fetuses care about what their mothers eat? When do spouses cheat? Does the use of social media predict depression and anxiety? How can we understand and address older adults’ loneliness? Some of the top articles published in the APS journals in 2022 explored these questions and much more. In this conversation, Ludmila Nunes talks

From a cranky-faced fetus scowling at her mother’s healthy lunch choice to an octogenarian still benefiting from long-ago musical lessons, the most impactful psychological science research published in 2022 reveals that new understandings of human behavior—studied across the lifespan and from within a remarkable diversity of topics and scientific subdisciplines—continue to resonate with wide audiences. 

Executives looking to boost productivity on their teams might want to consider an experiment: cutting a day of work from the week. A four-day workweek could increase employee wellbeing while improving the pace of work inside companies, said Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Speaking at The Wall

I owned Blue Apron stock a few years ago. I’m unsure, but I think I purchased it at around $20 per share. (You’ll see why I’m unsure in a moment.) Since I owned it in my Roth IRA, any gains weren’t taxed, so for a while I made small profits selling during spikes and buying

If I remember correctly, my first breakup was with a kid named Anthony sometime in the seventh grade. I’ve forgotten the specifics, but I think our friends did the dirty work for us, feverishly ferrying our directives across the middle-school hallway like carrier pigeons. I don’t remember how long we were together — three weeks?

Awe can mean many things. It can be witnessing a total solar eclipse. Or seeing your child take her first steps. Or hearing Lizzo perform live. But, while many of us know it when we feel it, awe is not easy to define. “Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast