SWAG: Do the ends justify the means?

source Every Wednesday afternoon, I gather with a bunch of faculty and graduate students at the University of Illinois to discuss a journal ...

Friday Fun: Psychology at the Movies III

www.imdb.com It's been a few months since we last discussed movies on PYM. Since my spouse and I moved to Chambana, we have had a lot of...

More Authors or Less Authors?

source In my brief time in research I have written journal articles authored by as few as two people and as many as six people. Many of thos...

An Inconvenient Truth: Race in America (Part I)

source It is an American tragedy whenever an unarmed teenage boy--of any color--is fatally shot. And when you strip down the Trayvon Martin ...

Call Me Crazy: The Subtle Power of Gaslighting

Source Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over, but had me believing it was always something that I'd done,  sings Kim...

Friday Fun: It's all an illusion

As our eyes glance over the world around us we are able to quickly grasp a 3-D image of our environment. But can we always trust what we see...

Genes and the Power of the Situation

Today on PYM, I thought it would be a good idea to reach back into our archives to find a post on the Nature v. Nurture debate. In this post...

Neighborly Love: The Psychology of Mr. Rogers

Source Mr. Rogers is undoubtedly one of the most beloved cultural icons in American history. His TV show, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood , ran...

Two ways to right: The perils of naive realism

In honor of PYM's 1-year anniversary last week, I'm re-posting my very first post for PYM today. I also wanted to re-post it becau...

Why we sometimes make bad decisions: The anchoring and adjustment heuristic

How much to pay for the house of your dreams Imagine you are interested in buying a house and you've been out looking on the weekends. Y...

Freudian defense mechanisms: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Source Freud had some weird ideas, but he also had some brilliant ones. Along with Freudian slips , one of my favorites is his classificatio...

The Bachelor: A modern-day replication of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Bachelor Ben and his ladies. In 1971 a group of Stanford researchers led by psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted what became a famous stu...

How to trick yourself into keeping your New Year's Resolution

Source Year after year we make ambitious New Year's Resolutions, 90% of which ultimately fail, according to a  2007 study . There is no ...

Modern Day Freudian Slips

Source George H. W. Bush once made the following classic Freudian slip in a public speech: "For seven and a half years I've worked ...

Friday Fun: At the Movies With A Psychologist (Twilight Edition)

source This past weekend I was among the fortunate viewers of Twilight: Breaking Dawn (part I). Now, you might be asking yourself, "Mic...

Psi Your Mind?

source Earlier this year, Daryl Bem, a Professor at Cornel University, published a paper on Psi phenomena (also known as psychic phenomena)....

Why you might not like when others like you.

Source Take a moment to think carefully about the answers to these questions: Do you prefer when others  dislike  you? Do you feel  bad  whe...

The Happiness Chronicles, Part II: Does Money Buy Happiness?

This is the second installment of an occasional series on Psych Your Mind examining the pursuit of happiness. Last time we considered the da...

Go Tigers! The Southern Culture of Honor

source This weekend college football fans were treated to one of the most highly anticipated football games in the recent history of the spo...

Friday Fun: A Healthy Skepticism About Science?

"There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data, so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects....