Just Imagining a Workout Can Make You Stronger(nautil.us)
45 points by prmph | 21 comments
A 2016 Nautilus article by Jim Davies on research showing that motor imagery and mental practice can improve motor skills and even muscle strength.
#psychology on Hacker News
28 stories tagged psychology, newest first.
Dogs seem to agree with humans that 'bouba' is round and 'kiki' is spiky(sciencealert.com)
322 points by gmays | 193 comments
ScienceAlert article reporting research suggesting dogs, like humans, associate the word 'bouba' with round shapes and 'kiki' with spiky ones.
Show HN: How random are you?(lab.specr.net)
205 points by vunderba | 108 comments
Interactive web game where you say or type numbers as randomly as you can while the page predicts each next number before you reveal it.
Neuroscience can make decluttering easier(nytimes.com)
21 points by gumby | 6 comments
New York Times opinion piece on how neuroscience and psychology insights can make decluttering easier; the capture shows a bot-block page.
Intellectuals Are Fucking Idiots(markmanson.substack.com)
15 points by speckx | 5 comments
Mark Manson Substack essay arguing that highly intelligent people get trapped by their own ideas, opening with the story of professor Malcolm Caldwell's 1978 trip to Cambodia.
There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of scurvy(experimental-history.com)
59 points by luu | 31 comments
An Experimental History Substack essay by Adam Mastroianni arguing there is no loneliness epidemic but there is an epidemic of scurvy.
Attention is all you have(alicegg.tech)
996 points by zer0tonin | 298 comments
A personal blog essay by Alice GG titled "Attention is all you have", opening with the Tetris effect to discuss how what we focus on shapes perception.
I have a theory that software drives people insane(graybeard.ing)
362 points by rglover | 137 comments
A blog essay arguing that the conditions of software work—speed, money, complexity, abstraction, and freedom to change—make normal people lose their sense of proportion.
The brain was not designed for this much bad news(sciencedaily.com)
351 points by colinprince | 294 comments
ScienceDaily article, sourced from The Conversation, on how humans' evolved attention to danger is overwhelmed by the constant supply of bad news worldwide.
Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)(apa.org)
550 points by bilsbie | 216 comments
Archived 2014 American Psychological Association press release on a study finding that walking boosts creative thinking compared with sitting.
Is my blue your blue? (2024)(ismy.blue)
661 points by theogravity | 442 comments
Interactive web quiz that shows color swatches and asks you to label each as green or blue to find where your personal blue-green boundary lies.
How to be anti-social – a guide to incoherent and isolating social experiences(nate.leaflet.pub)
336 points by calcifer | 311 comments
A satirical blog post listing ironic tips on how to be anti-social, such as assuming malice, avoiding challenges to assumptions, and digging in against dissent.
Workers who love ‘synergizing paradigms’ might be bad at their jobs(news.cornell.edu)
559 points by Anon84 | 313 comments
Cornell Chronicle article on a study finding employees impressed by vague corporate buzzwords tend to be worse at practical decision-making.
Maybe you’re not trying(usefulfictions.substack.com)
338 points by eatitraw | 145 comments
Cate Hall's Useful Fictions essay "Maybe you're not Actually Trying," on selective agency in capable people.
Why aren't smart people happier?(theseedsofscience.pub)
460 points by zdw | 538 comments
A Seeds of Science post by psychologist Adam Mastroianni exploring why higher intelligence doesn't seem to make people happier.
Why We Spiral(behavioralscientist.org)
335 points by gmays | 96 comments
Behavioral Scientist article by Gregory M. Walton, published August 18, 2025, examining why people fall into negative psychological spirals.
We may not like what we become if A.I. solves loneliness(newyorker.com)
474 points by defo10 | 952 comments
New Yorker magazine essay arguing that AI companions may soon ease loneliness and examining what people might lose if they do.
Face it: you're a crazy person(experimental-history.com)
633 points by surprisetalk | 338 comments
Adam Mastroianni's Experimental History essay "Face it: you're a crazy person," subtitled "why your brain needs a boxcutter."
What happens when clergy take psilocybin(nautil.us)
333 points by bookofjoe | 493 comments
Nautilus article on a decade-old study, now published, in which clergy members took psilocybin and reported profound religious experiences.
School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study(york.ac.uk)
919 points by jonatron | 603 comments
University of York news release on a study for a Channel 4 documentary finding a school smartphone ban improved children's sleep and mood.
Is My Blue Your Blue?(ismy.blue)
1308 points by bpierre | 506 comments
An interactive web quiz that shows colored screens and asks whether each is blue or green to map where your personal blue–green boundary lies.
Daniel Kahneman has died(washingtonpost.com)
931 points by mrjaeger | 285 comments
Washington Post obituary reporting the death of Daniel Kahneman, Nobel-winning psychologist and pioneer of behavioral economics.
Procrastination is connected to perfectionism(solvingprocrastination.com)
581 points by EndXA | 189 comments
An article on the Solving Procrastination site explaining how perfectionism and procrastination are connected and how to address them.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is autocorrelation(economicsfromthetopdown.com)
540 points by ljosifov | 187 comments
Blog post on Economics from the Top Down arguing that the Dunning-Kruger effect is a statistical artifact caused by autocorrelation.
Akiyoshi’s Illusion Pages(ritsumei.ac.jp)
354 points by robin_reala | 56 comments
Personal website of Ritsumeikan University psychology professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka showcasing his optical and anomalous motion illusion artworks and research.
Have attention spans been declining?(slimemoldtimemold.com)
595 points by janandonly | 435 comments
A Slime Mold Time Mold blog post, a reader-submitted finalist in its Mysteries Contest, examining whether human attention spans have actually been declining.
Loneliness is stronger when not alone(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
452 points by hirundo | 381 comments
PubMed abstract page for a 2023 Journal of Happiness Studies paper examining whether social contact is associated with less loneliness in everyday life.
How to do hard things(every.to)
364 points by tacon | 119 comments
Essay on Every's No Small Plans column in which a founder describes his experience using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to do hard things.