Tom Jacobs

As we reported in February, students who are exposed to the idea that free will is an illusion are more likely to cheat on tests. Not surprisingly, the notion that our actions aren’t truly controlled by our conscious mind seems to undermine our sense of personal responsibility. Well, our ethical foundations eroded a bit more this week.

Barack Obama’s eloquent plea for a national dialogue on race may go unheeded for a simple psychological reason: The topic makes a whole lot of people uncomfortable, and our favorite way of dealing with anxiety-provoking subjects is to ignore them.

In the advertising world, “sex sells” is an accepted truism. In a new study of the male brain, Stanford University researchers have determined why.