psychology

What’s happening in Japan is written all over our faces — our blank, expressionless, masked faces. Never before, it seems safe to say, have so many people gone about masked. Thus we confront the microbes that assault us. Are the microbes disconcerted? It seems not. “As self-protection, ...

It's a scene that's become familiar around the world: from the U.S. to France to Australia, rows of empty supermarket shelves where toilet paper used to be, the result of coronavirus-induced panic buying. What exactly is it about the rolls of tissue that has caused ...

Fears over the pandemic can be managed and experts are calling for policymakers to be more transparent to help the public cope with distress.

Japan's three leading newspapers, disagreeing on much, agree on this: Japan's democracy is in crisis. "Democratic politics in Japan has become frayed," the Mainichi Shimbun said in an editorial on Jan. 1. "The recent deterioration of Diet deliberations is intolerable," the Yomiuri Shimbun said on Jan. ...

Marie Antoinette's hair turned white overnight, according to folklore, before she was executed by guillotine in 1793 during the French Revolution. The ill-fated queen embodied an extreme example of the phenomenon of stress-induced graying of the hair. The biological mechanism behind such graying had long ...

Acting selflessly to help others in need was long thought to be a trait confined to mammals, in particular humans and great apes. But a new study has found that African gray parrots volunteer assistance to both their good friends and mere acquaintances — even ...

Nearly 1 in 3 adults in Hong Kong reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder during months of often violent social unrest in the city, according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal Friday. And around 1 in 10 had symptoms of probable depression, ...

A lack of economic ambition is increasing the trend of 'hikikomori.'

What makes some music so enjoyable, and can science help us engineer the perfect pop song? A group of researchers who statistically analyzed tens of thousands of chord progressions in classic U.S. Billboard hits say they have found the answer, and it lies in the ...

From browsing social media to watching videos and chatting with friends, Indonesian university student Tyas Sisianindita spends about eight hours a day on her phone. "I realize that I am addicted," the university student admitted, saying she checks her phone continuously from the time she ...