Hugging is a particularly intimate and intense way to express emotions. Through a hug we can convey joy or sorrow, we can say to a person that can count on us unconditionally and understand his state of mind without speaking. But the fact is that embraces not only help us connect with others and express what we feel, also have a very positve effect on the emotional balance and brain health.

It's a psychological quirk that when something becomes rarer, people may spot it in more places than ever. What is the 'concept creep' that lets context change how we categorize the world around us?

New research indicates that the pitch of a baby’s cries at 4 months old may predict the pitch of its speech at age 5.

We influence each other in many ways besides pure reason. What’s the moral difference between persuasion and manipulation?

A hypothetical model to understand how “touch” is represented in the brain.

Technologies and organizations should be redesigned to intermittently isolate people from each other's work for best collective performance in solving complex problems.

You're having a conversation with someone and suddenly his eyes drop to his smartphone or drift over your shoulder toward someone else. It feels like this is happening more than ever, and there are signs that the decline of eye contact is a growing problem.

How has the ubiquity of online porn affected the sexual development of children and teens? The scientific consensus is: We have no idea.

13 scientific studies that teach us how to live happier and more optimistic lives.

This week on Distort, we are measuring how slow (and dumb) humans are, in centimeters. Guest Dr. Adam Gazzaley explains reaction time and tells us why our brains are more like plastic, not cement.

Fast-accumulating data seem to indicate that our close cousins, the Neanderthals, were much more similar to us than imagined even a decade ago. But did they have anything like modern speech and language? And if so, what are the implications for understanding present-day linguistic diversity?

When members of a choir sing, their heart rates quickly become synchronized, beating in the same rhythm. Researchers think this may be why singing together is a key part of religious rituals around the world, and such a joy for the singers.

Déjà vu is a rare occurrence, but you know it when you feel it. As you walk through a new city for the first time, something familiar clicks in your mind, giving you pause. You’ve definitely been here before. But you haven’t. So what gives?

How can we ‘hear’ ourselves speak even when we are not speaking aloud? Research published this month suggests that the same mechanism that means we cannot tickle ourselves is responsible…

If both men and women have nipples, why don't men also produce milk and breastfeed? It's a question that's been on all our minds, leading Laci to, once and for all, explain the reason for male nipples.

Would you like to live forever? Probably not. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, most Americans don’t want to stick around much longer than current life expectancy. Sixty percent don’t want to live past 90. Thirty percent don’t want to live past 80.

New footage reveals an isolated indigenous tribe in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

My best friend at 9 was white - but interracial friendships later became a struggle. Here's why everything changed.

Abraham Lincoln and Emma Watson have something in common. So do Eleanor Roosevelt and Christina Aguilera. They, like an estimated one third to one half of the population, are introverts.

Search warrants reveal letters Hannah Anderson sent to James Lee DiMaggio, a series of phone calls the day of her abduction, and references to trips the two had taken in the past.

Why did the heirs to one of the largest fortunes in America grow up horribly neglected and abused?

A billion people have been lifted out of poverty in just the last 20 years. Did you know that? Do you know how it happened? Do you sit around thinking about how wonderful that is?

Amid the horde of world-ending dipshits hogging the headlines, there are those kindly folks out there who don't cause us to pray for Ragnarok.

Look, we all know how it is. You're at work, but your mind is somewhere else. It happens. You can't be too hard on yourself. Ideally your lack of attention wouldn't result in the wrongful demolition of two houses, but you're only human, right?

Once, on a trip to the beach with a girlfriend, I watched her disappear under one of the biggest waves I've ever seen before it pounded her into the sand and stripped off the top half of her bathing suit. Concussed and embarrassed, she staggered to shore where I was clapping and whistling to keep her oriented toward safe ground.

A Reddit thread has ignited a new debate over unconventional black names. But white people do it too, writes Jamelle Bouie—and the double standard says something about racial inequality

Why do we scare the hell out of ourselves? Why do we pay for the privilege? Is it pure thrill-seeking, or is it what's known as counterphobic behavior?

It’s money. And time. And quality matters, but not as much as the fact that everything’s available. For free.

It's easy to mock the wealthy - especially the ultra-super-rich, whose incomes have weathered the recession better than anyone else's, and who are taking home a chunk of the total economic pie that is obscene and unfair. Watch documentaries like "Born Rich," by Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson, and it's impossible not to laugh, or vomit, as you see how detached many 1-percenters are from reality.

“You don’t see a deer bringing up raccoons or a bison deciding to raise a baby wolf. No other animals take in, nurture and protect members of other species.”

Good-luck socks, numbers, and stars: Although research suggests that education plays an antagonistic role in relation to superstition and the paranormal, the results are not clear-cut. Magical thinking remains popular across cultures and professions.

The idea of 'radical life extension' gives many adults pause. At least for now.

Taking candy from children, and then laughing at their tears—as Jimmy Kimmel has been doing for three years on his show—is morally not OK.

What makes humans capable of horrific violence? Why do we deny atrocities in the face of overwhelming evidence? A small group of psychologists say they are moving toward answers. Is anyone listening?

Adam Lanza spent the final months of his life mostly alone in his bedroom. His windows were covered with black trash bags. He was preoccupied with violent video games and created a spreadsheet of some of the worst massacres in American history.