What if you could swap bodies with someone else? What would it be like to be someone of the opposite sex? A different race? We’re getting darn close to being able to do that with new techniques like the Rubber Hand Illusion, the Enfacement illusion, and now the Full body illusion. You can now virtually switch bodies with someone else … Read More
Ep 229: What Makes a Song Popular? How We Detect Melody
Why are some songs popular? Guess what – psychologists actually know a lot of the answers. In this episode we’ll listen to excerpts from Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah, as well as Noisestorm’s Ignite, Adele’s Someone Like You, the Enterprise Theme from Star Trek, and even two pieces of music from the motion picture Koyaanisqatsi. We’ll especially deconstruct Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” … Read More
Ep 227: I Remember How I Felt (Or Do You)?
Do “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation” or are we actually pretty happy most of the time? As it turns out humans are far more resilient than you think. Ever heard of the term “affective forecasting“? It’s something we do every day and very often we make mistakes doing it. In this episode you’ll learn more about positive psychology … Read More
Ep 221: The Facebook Study on Your Emotions: Ethical or Not?
You may have heard that Facebook manipulated the content of user’s New Feeds during January of 2012 so that some users saw more positive posts than others, while other Facebook users saw more negative posts. They interpret this as an indication of Social Contagion on a massive scale (almost 700,000 Facebook users were part of the study). How did this … Read More
Ep 192: An Example of How Psychoanalysts Really Interpret Dreams
What do psychologists really think about your dreams – do they have meaning? In this episode I talk about what psychologists think today about dreams. You probably know that Freud thought that dreams had a manifest content (the people and things that happened in the dream that you remember) and a latent content (the unconscious meaning of the dream). Do … Read More
Ep 190: Why Do You Get So Absorbed in that Book (or Movie)?
Have you ever become so immersed in a book or movie that you actually felt like the character? Or you felt the character’s pain or joy? Why does this happen? When does this happen? What is it about the book or the movie and its characters that draws us in like this? It’s amazing isn’t it? To be so moved … Read More
Ep 189: The Psych Files Brief #6 – Facebook Untagging, Money and Happiness, and Memory and Aging
We have some great articles covered in this episode so I hope you find them thought-provoking and leave your comments below! We cover four topics, all of which can be relevant to your everyday life. Join me and my intern Madison for a fascinating discussion on some new research in psychology. First, a throwback to a previous episode on how … Read More
Ep: 166: The Secret Life of Pronouns – an Interview with James Pennebaker
What do you reveal about yourself in the way you use the smallest and seemingly most insignificant words you use every minute? That’s the focus of Dr. James Pennebaker‘s fascinating book and one of the most interesting psychology books of 2011: The Secret Life of Pronouns. If you’re fascinated by language then you’ll find this episode especially interesting. When … Read More
Ep 164: What’s So Disgusting About Poop?
Just about everyone finds poop disgusting right? So who finds it not so disgusting? Would you believe women in their 20s who are in the middle of their menstrual cycle, and who have motherhood as one of their goals in life? Disgust has become quite a popular topic in psychology lately. Join me as I discuss one of the more … Read More
Ep 162: How to Spend Your Money and Truly Make Yourself Happy – Part 2
In episode 160 I discussed the first 2 ideas on how to spend your money wisely. In this episode I’ll talk about 4 more great ideas on how to get the most from your money and 2 things you have to be careful about. Get the latest findings from positive psychology researchers like Elizabeth Dunn, Tim Wilson and Dan Gilbert … Read More
