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The Usual Suspects
Short essays on the predictable ways the mind trips itself up — the patterns that show up in all of us, and what the research says about why.
The version of pregnancy nobody announces
You can want this baby completely and still grieve the life you have right now. Psychiatrists call the upheaval matrescence, and it explains why pregnancy feels nothing like the announcement.
Read this postEverything takes longer than you think
You said two weeks, and it's been five. A famous study found that reality outruns even our worst-case estimates. Psychologists call it the planning fallacy.
PsychologyTimeThe bronze medalist is happier than the silver medalist
Messi has now lost two World Cup finals and won one. Why those nights felt so different was worked out thirty years ago, with footage of Olympic podiums.
PsychologyComparisonWhy you keep replaying that conversation in your head
Rumination feels like working on the problem. The psychologist who spent her career studying it found it does something closer to the opposite.
PsychologyOverthinkingEveryone else's vulnerability looks like courage
Admitting a struggle feels like exposing weakness — until someone else does it, and you catch yourself admiring them. Researchers call the gap the beautiful mess effect.
PsychologyVulnerabilityYou think you've finally become yourself. You haven't.
At every age, people feel like they've just now arrived at the real version of themselves. A study of 19,000 people shows we make the same mistake every time.
PsychologyIdentityWhatever you're fixated on matters less than it feels like
The raise, the move, the thing you're sure will change everything. Daniel Kahneman had a one-line warning for exactly this moment.
PsychologyHappinessSaying what you feel out loud does something to your brain
“I'm anxious” sounds too simple to help. A neuroscience study suggests the plain act of naming a feeling is doing more than it looks like.
PsychologyEmotionsThe conversation you keep talking yourself out of
We sit in silence next to strangers, sure that reaching out would go badly. A study of train commuters suggests we have the whole thing backwards.
ConnectionEveryday lifeThe better you get, the more you suspect you're faking it
Promotions, glowing reviews, a hard-won seat at the table — and a quiet certainty you have fooled everyone. Imposter syndrome gets stranger the more competent you are, and two well-known studies explain why.
High-pressure workImposter syndromeNobody is watching you as closely as you think
We walk around convinced everyone clocked the awkward thing we said. There is a name for that feeling, and a study involving a deeply embarrassing t-shirt.
PsychologySelf-consciousnessYou can leave the office and still never leave work
You shut the laptop, but the laptop does not really shut. The research on why “off” has gotten so hard — and why it matters more than the number of hours you put in.
High-pressure workBurnoutWhy one bad moment can outweigh five good ones
A day full of small kindnesses and one rude remark, and guess which one you take to bed. There is a reason the bad stuff sticks, and a name for it.
EmotionsEveryday lifeYour memory keeps editing the story without telling you
Two people can live through the same week and remember completely different things. Daniel Kahneman's peak-end rule explains part of why.
PsychologyMemoryWhy getting what you wanted rarely feels the way you pictured
The promotion, the move, the relationship you waited years for. You brace for the wave, and it is strangely quiet. Here is what is going on.
PsychologyHappinessThe tasks you never finished are the ones you cannot forget
An email half written, a conversation left hanging. Why does the unfinished stuff nag while the things you actually completed go quiet?
PsychologyAttention