For most of the last century, psychology has told us a comforting story: your personality is the steady backbone of who you are, predictable from early adulthood and largely resistant to change. But a quiet revolution in research is undermining that assumption, suggesting that our traits may be far more flexible than we thought, ...
We like to tell ourselves we’re adaptable, adventurous, open to new possibilities. Yet when a promising job offer appears, a healthy habit beckons, or a relationship needs a hard but honest conversation, many of us feel something closer to dread than excitement. Change, even the kind that looks objectively positive, can land in the ...
On paper, humans should be terrible at survival. We are slow, soft-skinned, and born helpless for far longer than most other animals. Yet we have built cities, spacecraft, and global cultures – not because we are the strongest, but because we are wired to turn to one another. Still, for all our talk about ...
We like to think of ourselves as creatures of words, but much of what we really say never passes through our mouths at all. A raised eyebrow, a turned shoulder, a half-second pause before a handshake can shift the entire meaning of an interaction without anyone quite knowing why. In courtrooms, offices, dating apps ...
