Inside the Mind

Ever tried to get your child, spouse or friend to do something by telling them to do the opposite? That's reverse psychology. But how often does it work?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Your brain is more than a recorder of memories. It's also an editor of them — cutting out some bad parts, expanding some good ones, maybe even changing the story line over time. In what ways does your memory betray you?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Nostalgia, contrary to centuries of common knowledge, appears to be a good thing. A really good thing.

By Julia Layton

You've probably experienced that moment where you're driving, get lost, turn down the radio, and then think, "Why did I just do that?"

By Maria Trimarchi

The human brain might just be Pandora's box. Will we like what we find when we really take a look? It might just depend on how you interpret the data.

By Kate Kershner

Everyone cries. For some it's an emotional response, while others just shed tears when chopping onions. Are tears a way for us to cleanse our bodies?

By Alia Hoyt

Are looking for ways of raising your self-esteem? Check out what we have uncovered for elevating your self-esteem in this article.

By DiscoveryHealth.com writers

Aristotle defined hate as a dislike so intense that whoever feels it wants to cause another person real harm. What is going on in our brains when we hate? And can hate ever be a good thing?

By Patrick J. Kiger

There's a connection between our physical bodies and the way it responds to emotion -- but scientists aren't quite sure what it is. Could it be that happiness is little more than a series of neurochemical responses to the world around us?

By Josh Clark

You think you'd know what happiness was -- you've felt it before, right? Not quite. It turns out that the definition of happiness pretty much depends on who's defining it.

By Josh Clark

Studies seem to indicate that men are more likely to harbor violent tendencies than women. What factors do researchers use to come to these conclusions, and most importantly, is it true that men are more violent?

By Jonathan Strickland

Why do we help others, even if we know it will hurt us? As it turns out, the concepts of altruism and selfishness may be linked -- much more so than we thought.

By Josh Clark

If you've ever dashed into the grocery store to pick up a tube of toothpaste, you've likely been stopped in your tracks by the sheer number of options available. So why does having more options make it so much harder to make the right choice?

By Tom Scheve

You've just touched a hot stove -- and probably felt an immediate sharp pain, then a dull ache. How do we sense pain, and why does it eventually go away?

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

That man dressed in animal skins and running around Jerusalem trying to baptize people isn't alone. Tourists in Jerusalem sometimes suffer from a strange conviction that they are Biblical figures. Are they mentally ill or is there more to it?

By Katie Lambert

You get home from a long day, and all you want to do is see your family. But when you walk in the door, your family isn't your family. They've been replaced by imposters -- or you have capgras syndrome.

By Katie Lambert

Most people would recall every detail of being held up in a bank robbery but not so well the details of their last birthday party. The brain is wired for recalling trauma for a very good reason.

By Colleen Cancio

Thanks to increased media attention, most people have probably heard more about concussions recently. But just what are concussions, and how serious are they?

By Chris Jones

Your dreams have meaning, but dream interpretation is tough. So what does it mean when you dream about someone all the time? We talked to dream analysts who help explain.

By Dominique Michelle Astorino

Imagination is one of the key characteristics that makes us creative and makes us human. But where did it come from?

By Andrey Vyshedskiy