The subtitle of Susan Cain’s bestseller “Quiet” is “The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” The idea that introverts can still flourish despite the cultural message of the “extravert ideal” clearly resonated with a lot of people. However, until recently, the science of well-being really didn’t support this idea. Study after […]

This month at The Psychology Podcast we discussed the importance of viewpoint diversity with Jonathan Haidt, the key elements of positive relationships with Sarah Algoe, and whether we’ll ever be able to figure out the mysteries of consciousness, free will, and God with Michael Shermer and Philip Goff. Have a listen below! The Coddling of the […]

“I think the misunderstanding — or, at least, one of them — is that it’s only the perseverance part that matters. But I think that the passion piece is at least as important. I mean, if you are really, really tenacious and dogged about a goal that’s not meaningful to you, and not interesting to […]

“Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things. On my second or third night […]

I’ve been wondering something, and I’d love to genuinely hear some perspectives on this matter. It seems as though the ones who most vigorously defend the importance of IQ (outside the educational psychology realm) are those who study the genetic and biological foundations of IQ. But why is this the case? Certainly it’s possible to […]

On December 13, 1994, a group of fifty-two experts in the scientific study of intelligence and allied fields provided the following unified definition of intelligence in the Wall Street Journal: Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn […]

For the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of writing the Beautiful Minds blog, starting with Psychology Today in 2008 and moving the blog over to Scientific Americanin 2013. The blog has given me the opportunity to write about a wide range of topics that fascinate me– including intelligence, creativity, cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, narcissism, introversion, […]

A new paper by Izzy Gainsburg and Allison Earl at the University of Michican dives deeper into the trigger warning phenomenon increasingly prevalent on college campuses (see the new book The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt). The researchers define trigger warnings as “statements that warn of a negative emotional response […]

In recent years, the field of behavioral genetics has made some important strides in unearthing some of the thousands of genes that are likely associated with IQ. While the association of any particular gene with IQ is minuscule, the more we discover their combined influence on the development of brain networks that support cognition (such […]