Articles
I am a contributing editor at Scientific American and write the Brain Waves blog for Psychology Today (you can find those posts here). My work has also appeared in The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Vogue and many other publications. Earlier in my career, I was on staff at Newsweek, and People, among other places and I’ve included a few of my old favorites from those days.
Preventing Suicide
Social scientists have begun to close in on new ways to stop people from taking their own lives.
Thirty minutes and an index card. That’s what clinical psychologist Craig Bryan needs to conduct what he calls crisis response planning with a soldier who is suicidal. “Tell me the story about the day you tried to kill yourself,” Bryan asks. Then he listens and follows up with the type…
I Feel Your Pain
Our new understanding of the underpinnings of empathy might help us harness the emotion—just when we need it the most
Last year, a striking video made its way around the Internet. In it, male sports fans sat, one at a time, opposite a female sports reporter who had been the target of abusive, misogynistic tweets. Each man had to read the messages aloud to the woman who received them. One…
Is There a ‘Female’ Brain?
The debate over whether men and women have meaningfully different brains could have profound implications for health and personal identity.
In 2009, Daphna Joel, a neuroscientist at Tel Aviv University, decided to teach a course on the psychology of gender. As a feminist, she had long been interested in questions of sex and gender, but as a scientist her research had been mostly on the neural underpinnings of obsessive-compulsive behavior….
It’s Not Me, It’s You
New research reveals how pronouns help us cope with negative experiences.
You is one of the most common words in the English language. Turns out you might be using it in ways you didn’t appreciate. Grammatically, you is a second-person pronoun used to refer to someone who is not, well, you. Psychologists who study this call it “the verbal equivalent of pointing to one’s audience.” But you is…
The Three Basics of Friendship
Want to know who your real friends are? Look for these three essential things.
Friendship may sometimes feel complicated, but it turns out that recognizing your true friends can be surprisingly simple. There are some fundamental elements that every close bond — including those with family and romantic partners — shares: To call someone a friend, the relationship must be long-lasting, it must be…
So You Think You Can Dance?
A new study reveals the moves that make for good dancing.
Dance like no one is watching—or so they say. But people often are watching. Truth be told, they’re judging your moves. A study published last week in Scientific Reports used video of a variety of dancing women to pinpoint how observers distinguish good dancers from bad. If you care about such things, there’s one…