Psychology
essay
Neuroscience
The empty brain
Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer
Robert Epstein
idea
Economics
Conspicuous consumption is over. It’s all about intangibles now
Elizabeth Currid-Halkett
idea
Cognition and intelligence
What know-it-alls don’t know, or the illusion of competence
Kate Fehlhaber
essay
Language and linguistics
English is not normal
No, English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language
John McWhorter
idea
Social psychology
A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you
Clifton Mark
idea
Medicine
Gentle medicine could radically transform medical practice
Jacob Stegenga
essay
Human reproduction
The macho sperm myth
The idea that millions of sperm are on an Olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy of human reproduction
Robert D Martin
essay
Meaning and the good life
Indifference is a power
As legions of warriors and prisoners can attest, Stoicism is not grim resolve but a way to wrest happiness from adversity
Lary Wallace
essay
Childhood and adolescence
The play deficit
Children today are cossetted and pressured in equal measure. Without the freedom to play they will never grow up
Peter Gray
essay
Consciousness and altered states
Night school
New evidence suggests that we can learn while we sleep, but do we really want to put our hours of rest to work?
Kenneth Miller
idea
Medicine
Lifestyle changes, not a magic pill, can reverse Alzheimer’s
Clayton Dalton
essay
Gender and identity
Gender is not a spectrum
The idea that ‘gender is a spectrum’ is supposed to set us free. But it is both illogical and politically troubling
Rebecca Reilly-Cooper
essay
Childhood and adolescence
Childhood, disrupted
Adversity in childhood can create long-lasting scars, damaging our cells and our DNA, and making us sick as adults
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
idea
Personality
The bad news on human nature, in 10 findings from psychology
Christian Jarrett
essay
Philosophy of mind
The problem of mindfulness
Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos
Sahanika Ratnayake
essay
Ethics
A theory of jerks
Are you surrounded by fools? Are you the only reasonable person around? Then maybe you’re the one with the jerkitude
Eric Schwitzgebel
essay
Ethics
Kids? Just say no
You don’t have to dislike children to see the harms done by having them. There is a moral case against procreation
David Benatar
idea
Pleasure and pain
Psychogenic shivers: why we get the chills when we aren’t cold
Félix Schoeller
idea
Love and friendship
A temporary marriage makes more sense than marriage for life
Vicki Larson
idea
History of ideas
A philosophical approach to routines can illuminate who we really are
Solmu Anttila
essay
Neuroscience
The real problem
It looks like scientists and philosophers might have made consciousness far more mysterious than it needs to be
Anil K Seth
essay
Evolution
War in the womb
A ferocious biological struggle between mother and baby belies any sentimental ideas we might have about pregnancy
Suzanne Sadedin
idea
History of ideas
Before you can be with others, first learn to be alone
Jennifer Stitt
essay
Sex and sexuality
Pornucopia
Critics say that porn degrades women, dulls sexual pleasure, and ruins authentic relationships – are they right?
Maria Konnikova