Can worshipping celebrities be a predictor of impulse shopping? A study published in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that it could be, but the relationship appears to be mediated by empathy. ...

You don’t think you’re hungry, then a friend mentions how hungry he is or you smell some freshly baked pizza and whoaaa, you suddenly feel really hungry. Or, you’ve had surgery and need a bit of morphine for pain. As soon as you hit that button you feel relief even though the medicine hasn’t even hit your bloodstream.

New research provides evidence that people with psychopathic tendencies become more manipulative and abusive after age 50, causing those around them to suffer. The study, published in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, casts doubt on claims that antisocial behavior among psychopathic individuals decreases after middle adulthood. ...

By Emma Young. But are extraverted people actually worse at listening? Only further research will tell.

USC study: Many behaviors are habitual, people strongly discount influence of habits.

Regret is often seen as undesirable, but it’s a crucial emotion in helping us develop. How do we harness its powerful lessons?

Research shows we perceive unfailingly cheerful people as ignorant, naive, or not capable of critical thinking.

By Emma Young. But study also finds no evidence that only children are any more altruistic.

People benefit from deep and meaningful conversations that help us forge connections with one another, but we often stick to small talk with strangers because we underestimate how much others are interested in our lives and wrongly believe that deeper conversations will be more awkward and less enjoyable than they actually are, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Dozens of traditional cultures use a whistled form of their native language for long-distance communication. You could, too.

Exploring the changing nature of public debate

Decades of research gives insight into how free our choices really are.

Overwork culture is thriving; we think of long hours and constant exhaustion as a marker of success. Given what we know about burnout, why do we do give in?

Lies and distortions don’t just afflict the ignorant. The more you know, the more vulnerable you can be to infection

About 97% of the most-bullied boys and 73% of the most-bullied girls have violent fantasies, according to a new study of 1,465 young people.

Types of challenging behaviour

One of nature's most prolific cannibals could be hiding in your pantry, and biologists have used it to show how social structure affects the evolution of selfish behavior.

The anger feels so good, but it’s insidious

A new study finds that on average, participants wished their conversations had been 1.9 minutes (or 24%) longer than they were.

Many Westerners take morning showers, toilet tissue and sitting toilets for granted. But in much of the rest of the world, these habits are rather strange – and may be less hygienic.