The Daddy Chronicles: What Happened To My Testosterone?

Zoë at two weeks I'm not sure how many of you know this, but on March 19th of this year I became a new daddy. It's hard to describe ...

Sour in the Sun? 3 Unexpected Ways the Weather May Affect Your Mood

Warm Weather = Happy Amie Last weekend I returned from the tropics to find myself outside the San Francisco airport basically barefoot in su...

Friday Fun: My Favorites of 2012!

Hello again PYM readers! The end of 2012 marks the end of our second year as a psychology research blog (the first full year). I feel like a...

Tabula Rasa: Do genes influence personality?

wikipedia.org If I were to ask you the simple question, "Do you think that genes influence your personality?" The first thing you ...

What is Charisma?

Did charisma win the 2012 election? Today on PYM we are pleased to bring you the second guest blog from Emily Plutov, advanced undergraduate...

Why don't people evacuate before storms?

source As a Manhattan resident, this past week my life has been dominated by one event: Hurricane Sandy. Fortunately, unlike torna...

Obama or Romney? Leave the decision to your parents!

Tell your parents that obedience  is overrated! (source) Whenever I teach a group of undergraduates I always hope that I will be shaping the...

For the Love of Humanity: The Psychology of Thinking Globally

Source When was the last time you thought about the fact that you are a member of the human species? For most of us, this aspect of our iden...

What Do Letters of Recommendation Reveal About Gender Bias?

Source Over the past month I have been putting together materials to apply for professorships. Much like applying to college or graduate sch...

The Importance of Being Agreeable

Consider, for a moment, two very different people: Draco Neville   Neville is a friendly, warm person who tends to cooperate with and trust ...

When Good is Bad and Bad is Good: Beyond "Positive" Psychology

What is the prescription for optimal living? The burgeoning field of positive psychology appears to have many of the answers: We should be ...

No Pain, No Gain: The Psychology of Self-Punishment

Source One of my favorite professors once told the following story: She was in the check-out line at the grocery store, and two young childr...

Friday Fun: You Are What You Say

Source Outside of high school English classes, most people don't give much thought to pronouns, prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs,...

How to survive a break-up: Give yourself a break

Source There is no shortage of advice on how to recover from a bad break-up: keep busy, don't contact your ex, go out with friends, make...

Friday Fun: Birth Order and Romantic Compatibility

Source Research suggests  that the order in which you were born, relative to your siblings, plays a role in shaping your personality -- olde...

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...

SPSP 2012: How does culture change over time?

Today's "Cultural Change Over Time" symposium was a perfect example of why I enjoy SPSP so much: The talks involved (1) compel...

Friday Fun: Five Surprising Findings from 2011

Source Social psychology findings can sometimes seem obvious . At times, however, they contradict common sense, make us question our assumpt...

I'm sorry: Sometimes not enough, sometimes too much

Source "I'm sorry" is infamous for its inadequacy. It often seems flippant, insincere, or incomplete, as in "I'm sorr...

An unending supply of willpower? All it takes is believing

Need willpower? When you have to work hard on a task that requires a lot of concentration, do you find yourself losing concentration after a...