Technology-driven efficiency has achieved wonderful things. It has brought people in developed countries an astonishingly rich standard of living, and freed most of us from the work of growing the food we eat or making the products we use. Human jobs in the future will be the ones that require emotional labour: currently undervalued and underpaid but invaluable. The NHS could employ hundreds of thousands of staff with the right technological skills, but without the compassion to care, then we will have failed to meet the needs of patients.’

If you like your coffee black, you may be someone who prefers strong flavours, takes good care of their health, or just wants to drink their coffee the way it’s supposed to be drunk.  Or, you may be a psychopath. 

Ms. Carter, who pressed Conrad Roy III to kill himself, was convicted in a rare finding that a person’s words can directly cause someone else’s suicide.

DNA evidence exonerated six convicted killers. So why do some of them recall the crime so clearly?

A neurologist’s perspective on research into consciousness. By Robert A. Burton

Reading “Careful” may make you want to stay in—but, in fact, fifty per cent of all fatal accidents happen at home.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle described pride as the "crown of the virtues". It's after all an emotion we experience when we've achieved something great, or when someone close to us has. It usually has a recognisable physical expression – a slight smile, the head tilted back, the chest expanded, with arms raised or akimbo. Think Superman after he's defeated a villain.

Feeling lonely can make people more focused on their own needs rather than those of others.

In a culture where fast replies, constant stimulation and the omnipresence of social media rule the day, you might not expect that boredom is a booming business. Yet it is true: scholars from philosophy, psychology, art history, sociology and history—among others—have all tossed in their two cents on this suddenly fashionable subject, and not just by boring their own students. You can tell an academic publishing phenomenon is well and truly arrived when Routledge, that marker of all trends in the world of ideas, publishes a volume called "The Boredom Studies Reader."

Honesty may be the best policy, but scheming and dishonesty are part of what makes us human.

A new study suggests that people who speak two languages fluently think about time differently depending on the language context in which they are estimating the duration of events.

Genetically-identical animals experiencing the same environmental conditions should develop, in theory, identical behavioral traits. However, Bierbachet al. show here that behavioral differences still emerge among cloned fish under tightly controlled experimental conditions.

Whether divining ancient wisdoms or elevating the art of cold reading, tarot is a form of therapy, much like psychoanalysis

New research published in Development and Psychopathology has found that physical maturation and teasing predict the growth of appearance-related anxiety in adolescent girls and boys in Australia. The study found a “steep growth” in appearance-related anxiety symptoms in the first half of the teenage years.

In our culture, normal human emotions like temporary sadness are often treated as disorders. Manipulative advertising, marketing and self-help industries claim happiness should be ours for the asking. Yet bad moods remain an essential part of the normal range of moods we regularly experience.

The condition has long been considered untreatable. Experts can spot it in a child as young as 3 or 4. But a new clinical approach offers hope.

Can writing about pain and secret feelings really help boost your body’s immune system? Claudia Hammond investigates.

In a classic experiment in 1953, students spent an hour doing repetitive, monotonous tasks, such as rotating square pegs a quarter turn, again and again. Then the experimenters asked the students to persuade someone else that this mind-numbing experience was in fact interesting… By Jim Davies

A life spent dutifully responding to emails is a dull one indeed. And “wasted” time is, in fact, highly fulfilling and necessary.

Has it ever seemed to you that less competent people rate their competence higher than it actually is, while more competent people humbly rate theirs lower? It’s not just your imagination.

Trying to boost your own ego is largely pointless. Here's what works better.

New research shows that seeing through another's eyes takes a detached mind not just a warm heart.

Most adults can do a decent job of understanding other people’s internal mental states. Not the leader of the [supposedly] free world. By Jesse Singal.

Our grins are not as simple as they seem. There are a myriad different ways to smile – and some of them can conceal some less than happy feelings.

it might be time to revise the authenticity trope in romantic movies… By Christian Jarrett.

'Tereska' is one of David 'Chim' Seymour's most famous photographs

On my birthday this year, my coworkers planned an elaborate surprise. When I came into work, several dozen colleagues had dressed up as me, donning my trademark accessories: a flannel shirt, a baseball cap—and a scowl. There are two takeaways from this anecdote. The first is that I have truly thoughtful and quirky colleagues. The second is that my habitually grumpy demeanor is so noticeable in the workplace that it has become a hallmark of my persona.

In computer-mediated communication, you would expect that because there aren’t many opportunities to signal irony and provide cues, like gestures or facial expressions, you would expect that people avoid it. But they don’t. The internet speaks for itself on this point, but research also backs it up: In 2004, Stanford communications professor Jeff Hancock published a study in the Journal of Language in Social Psychology suggesting that people may use sarcasm more frequently online than they do in face-to-face interaction. Sarcasm is alive and well online; that much is obvio

You'd like to think that looks aren't everything when it comes to dating: that you will attract partners by your wit, warmth and creativity as much as your physical appearance. And that’s certainly true – at least for men. Women on the other hand are rather less lucky. A study published this week by the Royal Society found that if you’re an “average-looking” or ugly man, being witty, entertaining and imaginative will increase your overall attractiveness.

Psychosis, sometimes called schizophrenia, is a psychological state characterised by symptoms such as paranoia and hallucinations. In England, one person in every 100 will be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder at some point in their lives. Disturbingly, evidence gathered from Western nations suggests that immigrants experience psychosis at rates two to five times higher than non-immigrants.

Our society rewards social behaviour while ignoring the positive effects of time spent alone. An excerpt from "Solitude" by Michael Harris.

Pollen can cause inflammation that leads to impulsive, fatal behavior, researchers say.

Make America great again. Clearly the message resonated. In 2016, prior to the presidential election, the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan group, published its annual American Values Survey. It revealed 51 percent of the population felt the American way of life had changed for the worse since the 1950s. Further, 7 in 10 likely Donald Trump voters said American society has gotten worse since that romanticised decade. Of course America today has its problems, but by many standards of living, the general population is better off now than it was 60 years ago. So why do so many people see the past as better than today?

The Joe Camel approach to social media addiction.

It’s possible to vent without feeling worse afterward.