Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is among the most common, distressing, and disabling medical consequences of combat or other extremely stressful life events. The first-line treatment for PTSD is exposure therapy, a type of behavioral therapy where patients confront their fears in a safe environment. Although it is an effective treatment, many ...
Date Posted: June 8, 2012
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Perhaps the most notorious example of harmful behavior ever captured in a research lab comes from Stanley Milgram's work on obedience to authority. In these studies—ostensibly investigations of punishment and learning—a majority of people ...
Jun 7
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Across many studies, research has shown that deliberate suggestion can influence how people perform on learning and memory tasks, which products they prefer, and how they respond to supplements and medicines, which accounts for the well-known ...
Jun 7
GOA seriously cool study is coming out later this year in Psychological Science on the benefits of awe. Awe, which describes a "feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder" and comes from the old Norse word for "terror," seems like a ...
Jun 7
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A study into whether physical activity alleviates the symptoms of depression has found there is no benefit.
Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that adding a physical activity intervention to usual care did not reduce ...
Jun 6
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Survivors of childhood sexual abuse commonly report lingering feelings of being contaminated. This effect can lead to problems with self-esteem and body image, relationship trouble, and behavioral issues such as obsessive washing. Now a study in the ...
Jun 6
GOSex sells, or at least that is what advertisers hope. A recent study from the University of Georgia looked at sexual ads appearing in magazines over 30 years and found that the numbers are up. "Advertisers use sex because it can be very effective," ...
Jun 6
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There's a childish prank I never tire of. As soon as we've left the house and the front-door has slammed shut, I pat down all my pockets and say nervously to my companion "Er, you've got the keys, right?". Then, just when their dismay at the ...
Jun 5
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The tension between group and individual interests is famously illustrated by the prisoners’ dilemma game. In a variant called the voluntary contribution mechanism, each of several individuals is given some units of experimental currency and ...
Jun 5
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Remember the day you gazed into the eyes of your prospective partner and truly grasped that their excitement about you matched your fascination with them? You saw your idealized self reflected back to you in their soft smiling eyes. You were hooked ...
Jun 5
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The definition of an optimist:
Someone, like me, who plans to get more done than time permits.
Having failed to achieve the impossible, someone, like me, who is sure everything will somehow get done anyway.
A more classical definition from ...
Jun 4
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According to a 2010 survey, the British public considers the flush toilet to be the ninth greatest invention of all time, just above the combustion engine. Toilet paper, ranked 22nd, wipes the floor with trains, shoes and e-mail, and nappies, at ...
Jun 4
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“I walked into the house, and he was acting strange. I could tell he had done something wrong,” she told me. I pressed for further details.
“His head was down, and he wasn’t making eye contact,” she explained. “Then, I found it. Under ...
Jun 2
GOFundamentally, the term “compassion” means a sensitivity to the presence of suffering in others and in ourselves, coupled with a deep desire to alleviate that suffering. As we will see, the experience of compassion is essential to our ...
Jun 2
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Many of us hate hearing the word “No.” And many of us don’t like saying it either. You might be especially uncomfortable with saying no to your partner. Often people think that going along with their partner’s requests will be good for their ...
Jun 2
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New evidence shows the calming power of reminiscing about happy times
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