psychology
A Shortcut to Childhood: Why Smell Takes Us Back More Powerfully Than an Image
From Proust’s madeleine to brain scans: smell doesn’t necessarily bring memories back faster than a photograph does, but it brings them back differently. Here is what science actually knows about it.
Ten Colours, Ten Moments We Carry in Our Minds
Ask someone to think of red, and they will rarely think of red itself. They will think of something specific: a little light, a particular sound, an afternoon in November. We do not store colours in our memory as colours, but as scenes in which we once encountered them. And behind almost every such scene there is a real, verifiable story: about physics, coincidence, or a glue that would not hold.
Why We Keep Things We No Longer Need: The Psychology of Collecting
At the bottom of a drawer, in a box in the attic, or on a shelf we haven't really looked at in years, almost all of us keep something that no longer serves any purpose. An old postcard no one will ever read again. A childhood toy. A ticket stub from a concert we went to fifteen years ago. The rational part of the brain knows these things should be thrown out or given away. And yet, for some reason we rarely manage to explain, they stay put, for years, sometimes for decades.
Psychologist for HEDONIST: We Are All Hedonists - The Question Is Whether We Know It
While some people feel happy only when speeding down the highway in a sports car, for others, pleasure is a glass of wine and a cigar in the quiet of nature, and for yet others, it is a generous meal, favorite music, or simply a sunny day. And each of them is right.
