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Tech NewsGiz AsksWhy Am I Still Embarrassed About Things That Happened 10 Years Ago?
It’s a nice day, you’re strolling along, music’s queued up, prospects looking good, your sweater’s matching your pants, the person you’re seeing just sent you a cute text, no one you know is actively sick or angry at you, your dreams are, if not on the brink of actualization, not impossibly far from it, and … Continued
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Tech NewsGiz AsksWhy Do I Feel Like I’m Dying During a Panic Attack?
If you would like to know what it feels like to die, while at the same time continuing to live, you have a number of solid options. You can eat fast food quickly on a 90-degree day; you can lay awake all night mentally rehearsing your greatest failures and then board a packed bus to … Continued
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Tech NewsGiz AsksWhy Does Music Make Us Feel Things?
Once a day, at least, I’ll tear up listening to music. Just a drop or two, or not even a drop, just a pre-cry convulsion, a sudden seizure of feeling. More often than not, I have no specific memories tied to the song in question—sometimes I’m hearing it for the first or second time. If … Continued
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Tech NewsGiz AsksWhy Does Spending Money Feel So Good?
Assuming that you don’t have an infinite supply of money—assuming your supply of money is, like most personal money-supplies, limited, and closely-hoarded, and essential to your survival—then diminishing what you have in any way should be a painful undertaking. And yet blowing tons of cash on stuff you don’t need tends generally to feel great, … Continued
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Tech NewsGiz AsksWhy Do Cute Things Make Me Mad?
A couple years back, a team of research psychologists ID’d a phenomenon called “cute aggression,” wherein the sight of something cute (an infant, a puppy) paradoxically yields statements like ‘I just want to kill it!!’ The term pinpointed something universal and more or less instantly went viral, and a couple of years later a team … Continued
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Tech NewsFeuds WeekWhy Your Brain Can’t Let Go of a Grudge
We humans are masters of resentment—a characteristic that can be traced back the beginnings of recorded history. Feuds seem to be an indelible aspect of the human condition, but why should this be? We spoke to the experts to find out why we love to hold a grudge, and the importance of letting go. Like … Continued
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ScienceBiologyGoats Do Not Like Your Grumpy Face
It turns out goats really do know that you’re trouble when you walk in. These domestic animals can distinguish human facial expressions, and prefer a pleasant smile to a disgruntled frown, according to new research. “This is the first evidence that shows goats are capable of visually discriminating facial expressions of a very different species, … Continued
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ScienceBiology
You Can Probably Tell if Other Animals Are Emotionally Aroused
It is likely that you, a human, can tell when your fellow humans are upset based on the sound of their voice. You might even be able to tell when your non-human pet is upset. But what about non-mammals, like frogs? What about birds? As far back as Darwin, folks have thought that the way … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebook
Facebook Adds Reactions to Comments, Panic Attacks to Me
Facebook made another bad decision today, adding an unnecessary amount of nuance to your interactions on its social platform. You can now “sad” and “wow” not just posts and messages, but also comments. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want this level of comprehensive feedback. Why would you do this? “We’ve heard … Continued
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Tech NewsAnother Psychological Study Fails the Reproducibility Test
The field of psychology is currently in the midst of a kind of civil war, with one side claiming a widespread reproducibility crisis, and the other just as loudly proclaiming that concerns are greatly exaggerated. There’s certainly evidence for the former. Last year, a University of Virginia initiative called the Reproducibility Project repeated 100 experiments … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Wi-Fi Can Tell If You’re Sad
Our modern environment is saturated with wireless signals, a consequence of our insatiable desire to transmit data seamlessly and efficiently. A new device developed by scientists at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) can use these ubiquitous signals to detect our inner emotional states. The “EQ-Radio” device bounces wireless signals off a person’s … Continued
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Tech News
Visualize Your Emotions Based on Psychology and the Dalai Lama’s Insight
Ever wondered how your emotions interact or what they give rise to? This visualization, called The Atlas of Emotions, combines experimental psychology and insight from the Dalai Lama to try and explain. Emotions aren’t very well understood: They’re a complex phenomenon that stem from neuronal activity and body chemistry, among other things. But the guys … Continued
