Comparison is the thief of joy.

Relative deprivation, the belief that your situation is worse than others, or that others are doing better than you, can trigger anger and resentment, and is associated with risk taking behaviour like gambling. Having hope for the future is protective against this. Read More

Birds vs Income

Biological diversity evokes happiness in people – More bird species in the vicinity increase life satisfaction of Europeans as much as higher income. 14 additional bird species raise the level of life satisfaction at least as much as an extra 124 Euros per month. (n=26,000) Read More

The view that humans are morally more important than animals appears later and may be socially acquired.

Is the tendency to morally prioritize humans over animals weaker in children than adults? In two preregistered studies (total N = 622), 5- to 9-year-old children and adults were presented with moral dilemmas pitting varying numbers of humans against varying numbers of either dogs or pigs and were asked who should be saved. In both […]

Self is a Victim

A new personality construct has been defined that describes people who persistently see themselves as victims within interpersonal conflicts. The research was published in Personality and Individual Differences. Study authors Rahav Gabay and team describe how the social world is satiated with interpersonal transgressions that are often unpleasant and seemingly unwarranted, such as being interrupted […]

Jungian Cognitive Functions

Immersion in fictional worlds allows us to own our dark side

Do you have a dark side? If so, do you feel comfortable exploring it? Some research suggests that the answer might be a resounding ‘no’. We strive to see ourselves as ‘good’ – indeed, people generally feel that, deep down, they are fundamentally honest and moral. In line with this, we tend to avoid the […]

Feeling chills?

The sensation of feeling chills while listening to music was associated with the power of theta waves in the brain’s orbitofrontal cortex. The work builds on other studies suggesting that music can also trigger the brain’s reward system, even though it doesn’t provide a tangible survival benefit. Read More