The contemporary obsession with feeling good might mean we’re losing sight of what makes life genuinely meaningful ...

Formality: roughly, how formal and public a relationship is vs informal and private; Exchange: how much it involves trading ...

Two puny words shoulder a substantial, if diffuse, philosophical outlook: as if. Epicurus was perhaps the first to put this unexceptional construction to good use. He felt that life was about ...

Ecstatic moves, magic moments – this animated short documentary details one basketball fan’s love of the arena’s big screen ...

We think of tears as an overflow of emotion, but an evolutionary lens shows they’re a rational form of social signalling ...

Intrusive thoughts about doing bad things are common, but for people with OCD they provoke deep fears about the self ...

Something curious happens in two people’s brains during supportive interactions. It could help explain their emotional power ...

Some people tune into bodily sensations while daydreaming, others don’t – with implications for anxiety, depression and ADHD ...

After fleeing war-torn Liberia, an outsider artist creates haunting portraits while seeking asylum in the Netherlands ...

Far more than an evolutionary imperative, caregiving is a gateway to our deepest humanity, and may explain our intelligence ...

I was 11 the first time I saw her. It was September – at least, I think it was. The trees were shedding. The mountains, ripening from green to red. Mom remembers it as September, too, but Dad says it ...