Sports fans aren’t typically in the mood for academic research in the minutes before a big game. But Paul Bernhardt, an aspiring young behavioral scientist at Georgia State University, was determined. Armed with a bag of sterile vials, Bernhardt inched through the crowd at Atlanta’s Omni arena, politely asking anyone decked out in either University of Georgia or Georgia Tech basketball garb—the teams that were set to battle that evening—for a bit of saliva.

Ever feel during one of these recent sweltering days that it’s just so hot you can’t think straight? Well, maybe you can’t.

New research suggests how distancing yourself from a decision may help you make the choice that produces the most benefit for you and others affected. One key to maximizing benefits for everyone is realizing that occasionally the best decision will benefit you the most, said Paul Stillman, lead author of the study who did this work as a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at The Ohio State University.

Ever feel during one of these recent sweltering days that it’s just so hot you can’t think straight? Well, maybe you can’t. Harvard researchers say that they studied students in dorms with and without air conditioning and during a heat wave. They found that the students suffering through the heat performed worse on a series of cognitive tests.

Growing evidence suggests that hallucinogenic drugs can help quell depression. Following the government’s review of medicinal cannabis last month, Jack Dutton asks whether we are at a turning point in drug policy

We’re eating alone more often than in any previous generation. But why should a meal on our own be uninspired?

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?

The spread of fake news may have less to do with ideological blinders and more to do with a lack of thinking, according to new research published in the journal Cognition. The two-part study of 3,446 participants found that more analytic people were less likely to believe fake news headlines than less analytic people, regardless of partisan bias.

Like a lot of students, many elementary school teachers dread math class. But, according to a new study from researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Education, when teachers reexamine how they were taught math and their perceptions of their ability, student test scores and attitudes about math dramatically improve.

Why you should use percentages, not words, to express probabilities.

Maya kids do better on tests measuring attention, researchers say it's because these kids have something that many American kids have lost.

Emotional intelligence can make or break your career, relationships, and wellbeing. Read the ultimate guide on how to improve emotional intelligence.

Genetic ancestry tests are often advertised as a tool to uncover new connections to diverse cultures and ancestries, but new research from the University of British Columbia has found people tend to pick and choose which races they identify with based on preconceived biases. Ancestry testing is part of a rapidly growing, billion-dollar industry that claims to use DNA to tell people about the parts of the world from which their ancestors originated.

Want to know who will win a World Cup game or Wimbledon match? Look closely at the athletes’ eyes — including when it seems they're about to lose.

Done right, this research could help us vet those vying for the most powerful, and therefore potentially most dangerous, positions in society. Back in 2000, a man known only as Mr. Oft began to grapple with an unwanted realization: He was becoming a pedophile. In fact, it wasn’t long before he was charged with child molestation. But the day before his prison sentence, his head felt like it was about to burst, and a few brain scans later, an egg-size tumor was found burrowing through his brain.

I was a gay teen in the 1980s, hiding from a terrifying world in an arcade. The WHO's push to uniquely pathologize gaming won't help people like me.

Some 50 years since the original “marshmallow test” in which most preschoolers gobbled up one treat immediately rather than wait several minutes to get two, today’s youngsters may be able to delay gratification significantly longer to get that extra reward. This was the key finding of a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

Jerome Rogers: 1995-2016

How to succeed at self-sabotage. Most of us claim we want to be happy—to have meaningful lives, enjoy ourselves, experience fulfillment, and share love and friendship with other people and maybe other species, like dogs, cats, birds, and whatnot. Strangely enough, however, some people act as if they just want to be miserable, and they succeed remarkably at inviting misery into their lives, even though they get little apparent benefit from it, since being miserable doesn’t help them find lovers and friends, get better jobs, make more money, or go on more interesting vacations. Why do they do this?

The most famous psychological studies are often wrong, fraudulent, or outdated. Textbooks need to catch up.

Treatment for the most common mental health problems could be ineffective or even detrimental to about 50 percent of the population, according to a radical new model of emotion in the brain. Since the 1970s, hundreds of studies have suggested that each hemisphere of the brain is home to a specific type of emotion. Emotions linked to approaching and engaging with the world – like happiness, pride and anger – lives in the left side of the brain, while emotions associated with avoidance – like disgust and fear – are housed in the right.

Sometimes people kill themselves because their lives lack meaning.

You've tried changing your habits before but you it's tough to maintain new habits, isn't it? So here are the best tactics on how to change your habits.

Why do many problems in life seem to stubbornly stick around, no matter how hard people work to fix them? It turns out that a quirk in the way human brains process information means that when something becomes rare, we sometimes see it in more places than ever. Think of a “neighborhood watch” made up of volunteers who call the police when they see anything suspicious. Imagine a new volunteer who joins the watch to help lower crime in the area. When they first start volunteering, they raise the alarm when they see signs of serious crimes, like assault or burglary.

Costco is a wholesale retail store known for its great bargains. It offers food samples, cheap gas, and sale items to attract customers and make their shopping experiences worthwhile. But strategies like these also encourage customers to stay longer and spend more.

The overkill backfire effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to reject arguments that they think are too complex, in favor of arguments that are easy for them to understand. Accounting for this bias is important, because it means that past a certain point, presenting additional evidence in support of your argument can actually make people less likely to accept it.

Self-criticism can take a toll on our minds and bodies. It’s time to ease up.

Over the course of a few years in the 20th century, the midlife crisis went from an obscure psychological theory to a ubiquitous phenomenon.

One possibility is that the effort of taking a photo tricks us into thinking we've already paid adequate attention to the target of the photo. By Alex Fradera

Affluence—not willpower—seems to be what’s behind some kids' capacity to delay gratification.

A new book argues that children are less disciplined than ever. Author Katherine Reynolds Lewis identifies several culprits and says there are several things parents, teachers and caregivers can do.

"I felt as though I were communing directly with a plant for the first time."

New longitudinal research provides evidence that converting to Christianity is associated with some psychological changes. “Religious conversion is a major life event that some people claim would bring big psychological changes,” said C. Harry Hui of The University of Hong Kong. “However, no research has systematically looked at it with a rigorous, longitudinal research design.”

When a man throws money around on flashy cars, people intuitively interpret this behavior as a sign that he is more interested in short-term sexual relationships than in romantic commitment. This is according to Daniel Kruger of the University of Michigan and Jessica Kruger at the University at Buffalo in the US, in a study published in Springer’s journal Evolutionary Psychological Science.

Retailers say returns are costing them a fortune. But in a new NPR/Marist poll, about 90 percent of online shoppers say they rarely or ever return orders. For many, it's not worth the hassle.