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...

"She Asked For It": The Destructive Impact of Rape Mythology

Source A U.S. congressman and senate candidate recently made headlines for his comments about the link between rape and pregnancy. "If...

Honor Killings and the People Who Love Them

Source A husband shoots his wife in the back nine times with a rifle as neighbors watch and cheer. The first four shots shake her body as it...

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...

The Psychology of Hazing

Paddle to the back side - a classic hazing strategy Would you join a new club if you knew it meant you had to sing an embarrassing song in p...

Psychological contagion? The mysterious case of LeRoy, NY

LeRoy, NY In a small country town, population 7,500, a cheerleader and honor roll student woke up from an afternoon nap to discover she had ...

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...

What do Halloween and Social Psychology have in common? Deindividuation, of course

Cute trick-or-treaters or mahem-makers? As the children take to the streets tonight in search of a trick-or-treat, you might be wondering th...

The power of the police uniform: An instinct to obey authority

Source I am still processing the horrific events that happened as part of the horrific terrorist attacks in Norway last Friday. Reading ove...

But that’s not all! The art (and science) of persuasion

Source When I was in elementary school, there was a brief period where I was a member of the Campfire Kids (imagine a knockoff Girls Scouts ...