Heads or tails we hate you

New research from the University of Sydney has found people tend to discriminate in favour of individuals who show a similarity to them, even when the similarity arises from a random event like the flip of a coin.

The gambler’s fallacy

We always want to find patterns in sequences of events – but often they aren’t really there. Understanding randomness can free us from unnecessary worry or false hope, allowing us to focus on decisions grounded in reality.

Mental gymnastics

The brain is a marvel of efficiency, honed by thousands of years of evolution so it can adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Yet, despite decades of research, the mystery of how the brain achieves this has remained elusive.

Sleep on it

John Steinbeck once observed that “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it” and modern research suggests he was right.

Unknown unknowns

New experimental data support the idea that people tend to assume the information they have is adequate to comprehend a given situation, without considering that they might be lacking key information.

Understanding teen decision making

Teenagers are often characterised as risk-taking and impulsive with poor decision-making skills, but those traits are actually a good thing.

The neuroscience of voting

The current British election campaign highlights the different factors which influence people’s votes, including fundamental aspects of our brain function.

No time to think

The frantic pace of modern life is damaging our innate sense of time, but getting out into the natural world can help us heal it.

You can teach old dogs new tricks

Employers – and the general public – often assume young people are smarter, or at least quicker to learn, than older people, but new research suggests that cognitive differences between the old and young have been tapering off over time.

The dress and the rabbit

Optical illusions and ambiguous pictures are more than parlour puzzles but can open our eyes to the scientific study of human perception and the role our brains play in shaping what we think we see.

Debunking Dunning-Kruger

The Dunning-Kruger effect – that unqualified people over-estimate their ability – is often quoted and uncritically cited, but may be misleading, if not entirely untrue.

Back on the couch

Writer and psychotherapist Adam Phillips is often hailed as one of the world’s great essayists. His new book – exploring the topic of giving up, among other things – is both erudite and slippery.