This post is in response to The Ghost of Situationism and Why Personality Is Not a Myth By Scott A. McGreal MSc. This article is part 1 of 2. Every year, the Edge asks many different scientists to ...

This article originally appeared in Science of Us. Generally speaking, when you’re trying to understand a news event through a behavioral-science lens, it’s not a good idea to roll up, loudly invoke ...

Years of research suggests that we tend to hold other people to different standards than we hold ourselves. For example: Your coworker turns in a project late, and you assume he's a slacker. The next ...

Have you ever thought to yourself, “He is an anxious guy," or "she seems kind of edgy?” As human beings, one of the most instinctive things we do is make judgments about people we meet. But in doing ...

There I was, sitting in a packed movie theatre. I waited two years for this sequel and I’ve got enough popcorn and diet soda to last me a full three hours. Fifteen minutes into the movie, the hero and ...

People make snap judgments all the time. That woman in the sharp business suit must be intelligent and successful; the driver who just cut me off is a rude jerk. These instant assessments, when we ...

I've found myself lately reading a number of books about how humans think - Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Switch by Chip and Dan Heath, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, The Righteous Mind ...