Inside the Mind

If someone tells you he or she possesses the secret of happiness, that person may also have a bridge to sell you. The things that make some people happy may lead to utter despair in others. As it turns out, humans may have to look into themselves to find happiness.

By Josh Clark

What constitutes happiness? Is it the absence of pain or an abundance of pleasure? It is simply a fortunate function of the brain? If it's the latter, then we should be able to manipulate it -- perhaps in the form of a "happy pill." It may surprise you, then, to learn that we already have one.

By Josh Clark

You've been looking forward to your European vacation for months. But the first few days of your trip, you're grouchy, exhausted and brain dead. Is there some way to prevent or cure jet lag?

By Patrick J. Kiger

A new study shows that IQ levels have been falling since 1975, reversing a 20th-century trend.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Ever walked from your kitchen to the living room to find your phone and then forgotten what you were looking for once you got there? Researchers think your brain is hard-wired to undergo precisely that process of forgetting.

By Nathan Chandler

Maybe. A study that wasn't even about kissing turned out to (sort of) give the answer.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

You're deep in dreamland when you hear an explosion so loud you wake up. But there's nothing outside or inside your house making the noise. What just happened?

By Sean Russell

Emotionally sensitive people sometimes get a bad rap from others. But being an empath can be a gift, as long as you take care of it. So how do you know if you're one?

By Alia Hoyt

We all know what it feels like to be burned out. But does that really mean that our brain is tired? And is it the same as when other muscles tire out?

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

Most people throughout the world are right-handed. So can they teach themselves to use their left hands, too and become ambidextrous?

By Patty Rasmussen

The Kobayashi Maru simulation puts future Starfleet commanders in a classic "no-win" scenario. It's so accurate, even the U.S. military uses the exercise to test the measure of a good leader.

By Mark Mancini

Whether you're a procrastinator or a workaholic, you can improve your time management. How? With a timer, scheduled breaks and some serious discipline.

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

Phrenology, the belief that you could determine personality from the shape of someone's skull, was so popular in the Victorian era that phrenology parlors sprang up all over Europe and America. But the trend was soon debunked.

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

Heuristics are rule-of-thumb strategies that help us shorten decision-making time and solve problems quickly and effortlessly.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

This new form of sound therapy takes advantage of the fact that a different frequency in each ear yields a third frequency that can allegedly calm you down or improve your focus. Does it really work? Our writer tried it out.

By Alia Hoyt

We see faces in clouds, on buildings - heck, in grilled cheese sandwiches. But why is that? And how is this a help to our survival?

By Dave Roos

Erosion and weather can combine to make rock formations look like all kinds of things, from human faces to animals. They're called mimetoliths and we've taken a look at four of the most famous.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

Do we have a tendency to walk clockwise around the block? Why do sports favor counterclockwise rotation? Does it have anything to do with handedness or driving habits?

By Laurie L. Dove

An extensive study looks at personal space in 42 countries, and how weather affects preferences.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Although left-handed people were thought to be "sinister" or "unnatural" in previous eras, we now know that left-handedness is natural for 10 percent of the population. And it can have some advantages over right-handedness too.

By Alia Hoyt

A series of studies showed that including the word 'sorry' in a rejection actually made the rejected person feel worse.

By Alia Hoyt

We often think that if a drug has been studied by scientists and given a favorable outcome, then it must be safe and proven. But many kinds of biases can creep into a study, rendering it less than effective.

By Patrick J. Kiger

It's already a scary world. Why do we seek to experience more fear?

By Jamie Allen

A new study shows that belief in perceiving patterns correlated strongly with belief in conspiracy theories and the supernatural.

By Alia Hoyt

People who hallucinate typically see, hear, feel, smell or otherwise experience things that simply aren't real. Often, these sensory fake-outs indicate a serious medical condition.

By Alia Hoyt