Not long ago, most people would probably judge how trustworthy you were based entirely on your physical appearance. Today, we know that kind of thinking is a dangerous pseudoscience.

Optimistic people tend to live longer than pessimistic people. That's true whether you're rich or poor, young or old, and no matter your race, says sociologist William Magee.

What does Robert Sapolsky—an "utter, complete, atheist"—think about the persistence of magical thinking in our modern world?

Once we discover alien life out there, humanity will never be the same.

Fake news used to be called propaganda, and being politically correct once meant being eloquent. Words change meaning, but there's still no replacement for good taste, says Garlin.

The psychopath gene can be expressed in one of two ways. Here's what stopped James Fallon's psychopathy from becoming destructive.

Everyone loves Europa, says Neil deGrasse Tyson. Why? It's a strong bet for finding life in our solar system, and it's even more amazing because it breaks all the rules.

Physics finds no trace of God so far—but does it matter?

Your mind is built to process contradictory, irrational ideas. Use that to reach new intellectual heights.

Our implicit biases are rooted in biology, but they can be easily manipulated. That's both really good and really bad.

From Abraham Lincoln's founding of the National Academy of Sciences in 1863, to the US currently leading the world in the Nobel Prize count (a third of which we owe to immigrants), America was built on science. What happens when we doubt and defund it?

Our consciousness distinguishes us from other animals. From an evolutionary perspective, consciousness gives humans a powerful advantage by allowing us to plan far into the future.

Ideology doesn’t bend to reason, says Professor Barbara Oakley. Here's why we can't really change what other people believe, and why that brand of "helping" others can backfire.

Ever heard a story that made you sick to your stomach? There is neurological wizardry at work that makes our sense of morality so visceral—and flawed.

What information can we trust? Truth isn't black and white, so here are three requirements every fact should meet.

Humans worship at the altar of excellence, but is our complete obsession with this "quality controlled" mode of intellect holding us back?

Many people will try to give you hope or sell it to you, says Richard M. Cohen, who was diagnosed with MS at 25, and has battled two bouts of cancer, but hope is an internal discovery.

There's a hidden hypocrisy within bathroom laws based on biological sex.

Our brains didn't evolve to see the world accurately, we only perceive what is useful and apply meaning to it. Neuroscientist Beau Lotto shows us how the sausage of reality is made.

When it comes to time, and what the heck it actually is, there's a clash of ideas between physics and neuroscience.