Psychology

Reputation: why do we care so much about what other people think of us?

Human beings evolved to value being respected within our group – those seen as trustworthy were more likely to be able to stick around, and to breed

Are pre-performance rituals simply superstition, or something more?

Performers engage in all manner of rituals, like lucky clothing, physical routines, and even prayer. But how much benefit do they have?

A brief history of The Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit

After decades researching parapsychology and testing paranormal claims, the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmith's closed it's doors for the final time in 2024.

The Telepathy Tapes is wrong – autistic children don’t have supernatural powers

The Telepathy Tapes podcast claims non-verbal children have remarkable supernatural powers, based on flawed experiments and unconstrained belief

From the archive: Analysing handwriting analysis and graphology

From the archive in 1991, Barrie Whitaker looks at graphology's claims that handwriting analysis provides information on personality

HADD its day: there’s no evidence for an inherited hyperactive agency detection device

That our superstitious beliefs can be explained by an inherited trait for hyperactive agency detection is simple, elegant... and not remotely evidence-based

Comparing misinformation to a virus is both accurate and useful in preventing its spread

In response to a recent article in The Skeptic, Professor Sander van der Linden argues that there is value and validity to the misinformation-as-virus analogy

The Sullivanians, psychoanalysis, and the worst therapy in the world

Based on the now-discredited teachings of Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis quickly took on all the trappings of a cult, complete with infallible, abusive leaders
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