Psychology
We Need Real Empathy
Empathy is not sympathy, compassion, pity, or a host of other words that often get mistaken for empathy. Real empathy is the full expression of both feeling what others are feeling and understanding what those feelings mean. Interpersonal empathy requires us to become aware and acknowledge the physical feelings we are having when watching others…
Read MoreIs It Still Possible to Hope?
There’s no doubt that the past few months have been among the most traumatic in recent memory.Few people would use the word “hopeful” to describe the state of our world. On the contrary, words like tragic, heart-breaking, and painful come to mind. In a 2016 article in The Guardian, essayist and activist Rebecca Solnit wrote,…
Read MoreHow to Persuade People to Change Their Behavior
Directives aren’t particularly effective in driving sustained behavior change because we all like to feel as if we are in control of our choices.Why did I buy that product, use that service, or take that action? Because I wanted to. So when others try to influence our decisions, we don’t just go along, we push back…
Read MoreThe Neuroscience of Racism Can brain science help to understand one of society’s most complex problems?
Many people might be asking themselves why some people would perpetrate crimes against other human beings just because they belong to a different ethnic group. Can brain science help provide an answer? Here are the main insights: How we categorize others How we perceive the actions of others How we feel empathy towards somebody else…
Read MoreWhat Allows Some Psychopaths to Be Successful?
When describing certain psychopathic individuals as “successful” versus “unsuccessful,” the researchers are referring to life trajectories or outcomes. A “successful” psychopath, for example, might be a CEO or lawyer high in psychopathic traits, whereas an “unsuccessful” psychopath might have those same traits but is incarcerated. The study tests a compensatory model of “successful” psychopathy, which…
Read MoreHedonic Treadmill
The hedonic treadmill is a metaphor for the idea that an individual’s level of happiness tends to return to where it started—a “set point”—regardless of good fortune or negative life events the person experiences. The process by which positive or negative effects on happiness fade over time is called hedonic adaptation Starting a new romance,…
Read MoreWhat Near-Death Experiences Reveal about the Brain
Near-death experiences are triggered during singular life-threatening episodes when the body is injured by a heart attack, shock, or blunt trauma such as an explosion or a fall. These events share broad commonalities: becoming pain-free, seeing a bright light at the end of a tunnel, or detaching from one’s body and floating above it and…
Read More