Psychology Today

Candy Crush is a lot like life. I don’t mean to say life is just a grid of colorful confections waiting to be destroyed by your pointer finger; I mean to say they both rely on the same set of cognitive processes. Here’s a rundown.

Uri Gneezy and John List are known for their field experiments, testing hypotheses in the real world.

Expressions of positive thinking about the future—in inaugural addresses from 1933 to 2009 and newspaper articles from 2007 to 2009—reliably predicted economic decline.

An analysis of astronauts’ reports reveals that for many, the awesomeness of spaceflight increased their belief in God. New research may explain why.

In recent years, psychologists have come to understand religion and paranormal belief as resulting from simple errors in reasoning. What has not been clarified is exactly how the various cognitive biases interact to produce specific ideas about the supernatural—until now.

New research suggests even scientists intuitively believe in divine intervention and intelligent design.

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? Your answer to this question will help me guess whether you believe in God.

Wednesday night I attended a panel discussion at the New York Academy of Sciences titled “The Thinking Ape: The Enigma of Human Consciousness,” featuring Daniel Kahneman, David Chalmers, and others.

New research indicates that when we want something from the universe, we’ll invest in karma by doing a good deed.

In most religions, and arguably anything worth being called a religion, God is not just an impersonal force or creator. He has a mind that humans can relate to.

It’s often said that there are no atheists in foxholes. While this isn’t technically true—a group called The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers even keeps a roster of them—new research suggests that inducing fear of death at least makes atheists a little less entrenched in their beliefs.

In the early 1990s, Trent Reznor (the man behind Nine Inch Nails) purchased the house at 10050 Cielo Drive, in Los Angeles. Before moving in, he learned of its dark past. This is the house where members of Charles Manson’s “family” murdered Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. Reznor moved in despite (or perhaps because of) these events.

Around the world, everyone looks up at the same stars, trying to divine occult truths. But the kind of information they're looking for depends on their personality and on their culture, according to new research.

I must say I am disappointed with what the New York Times has placed front and center on their home page. We have no way of knowing whether the Oval Office shortens life spans.