Psychology

Even when we know they’re “fake,” placebos can tame our emotional distress.

Play and art engage all of our senses and enhance attention.

A positive spin on our past can help inure us against pain.

One question for Matt Killingsworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

A recently identified stage of sleep common to narcoleptics is a fertile source of creativity.

Kindness lives in the future-present.

A new therapy promises to take the sting out of traumatic memories.

The mysterious connection between psychedelic use and eco-activism.

One question for Iris Berent, an Israeli-American cognitive psychologist at Northeastern University.

One question for Christopher Barnes, a professor of organizational behavior at the University of Washington.

One question for Donald Green, a political scientist at Columbia University.

One question for Péter Simor, a psychologist at Eötvös Loránd University.