social psychology

Why Do Certain Things Feel Morally Wrong?

Many of our moral judgments are based on gut feelings rather than a rational analysis of the situation. What drives these gut feelings?

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Social and Personality Psychologists Converge on New Orleans: Here’s Some of What They’re Talking About

Explore some of the fascinating new research coming out of the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

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How the Political Primary Season Creates Psychological Tribes

Illustration of two groups of people engaged in a tug of war

What the number of dots on a screen, your taste in abstract art, and a boys’ summer camp can tell us about party division and unity.

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Would You Lie for Me?

By Dave Nussbaum

Think it would be tough to convince someone to lie for you or to vandalize public property? Think again.

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Though you may not know it, when you watch the Super Bowl on Sunday—especially if you actually watch the game and not just the commercials— you’ll likely be engaging in a lot of what psychological scientists call counterfactual thinking: thoughts about “what might have been,” “at least,” and “if only.”

Research on counterfactual thought explains all kinds of surprising reactions to sporting events, and a couple of ways in which your judgment about the big game may not be as clear as you think.

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