Posts by Neil Petersen

We all know not to text and drive. But is multitasking behind the wheel always a bad idea? Recently, researchers from the Department of Psychology and Department of Artificial Intelligence at University of Groningen collaborated on an experiment looking at how different kinds of multitasking affected people’s driving performance in different situations. To avoid unleashing…

What’s your favorite color? It’s such a simple question, but we still aren’t sure why people answer the way they do. That said, psychologists have made some interesting discoveries while researching what drives people’s color preferences. Here are 3 things you might not know about why people like some colors more than others.  Color preferences…

The idea that parenting can contribute to narcissism is one that goes back to Freud. While our understanding of narcissism has evolved since then, the basic theory that certain parenting styles can produce more narcissistic adults has stuck around. There’s an intuitive sense to this way of undertanding narcissism: it’s not so far-fetched to think…

Gone are the days when a phone was just a phone. A phone is now so much more. It’s a web browser, a camera, a music player … and maybe even a window into who you are as a person. So what does the brand of smartphone you use indicate about you anyway? That’s the…

Having trouble getting into the Thanksgiving spirit? No problem, science has some good excuses for why you aren’t feeling very grateful. One of them comes from research published this month in the journal Cognition & Emotion. It turns out that if you’re not grateful, you might be more independent. A team of psychologists from American…

They’re just words, right? Not so fast! According to new research, what you say could predict how long you’re going to live. In the study, psychologists analyzed 197 books and speeches, paying special attention to words that indicated a “failure mindset” – that is, words associated with attitudes like helplessness, fatalism and pessimism. When the…

Let me first admit that I am indeed a hypocrite. I have no plans of deleting my Facebook account. I mean, c’mon, it’s Facebook. But if I were a little wiser, I might act differently. According to a new study from University of Copenhagen, signing off of Facebook and not signing back on might be…

In my last post, I talked about how research has linked having a greater sense of purpose in life to better cognitive functioning and mental health. I also promised to reveal the meaning of life in an upcoming post. OK, so that last part might have been overstating the case a little. But the basic…

What’s the meaning of life? It’s a tough question, but your mental health might depend on answering it! Psychologists have found repeatedly that people with a strong sense of purpose in life tend to fare better on several different measures of mental health, well-being and even cognitive functioning. Most recently, a team of researchers from…

A study from researchers in New Zealand has added weight to the idea that people with ADHD are significantly more likely to have other mental health conditions that people without it. ADHD is a disorder marked by inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, but people with ADHD often have additional, “comorbid” conditions like depression and anxiety that…