Adolf Hitler was a monster. The revolution he spawned changed the world landscape forever. But have you ever wondered how he did it? How did Hitler convince 70 million rational people to engage in horrible atrocities and wage war against the world? Although his agenda was decidedly negative, Hitler was a master of the science of coercion. Through the use of his speeches and propaganda, he was able to bend the will of ordinary people into submission and create an obedient army ready to carry out his orders, no matter how absurd they might be. Hitler’s formula for coercion of a group of people was very simple. Read more →

Intelligence has been discussed throughout much of human history. Socrates gave one definition of intelligence: “I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.” Intelligence over the years has been defined as such diverse things as understanding others, knowledge gained, who you surround yourself by, what you accomplish, and the ability to reason. Before the 19th century, intelligence was solely in the realm of philosophy. Franz Joseph Gall, who started the phrenology movement, sought to localize intelligence (among other things) in the brain, which was in turn measured on the skull. While many of the ideas of phrenology were inaccurate, the idea of quantifying individual differences and localizing those differences onto the brain was an important one. Over the years, researchers started using better methods of research and understanding individual differences. Read more →

Teaching students with ADHD was always challenging for me. My usual methods of managing behavior, explaining assignments, and reviewing routines weren’t very effective for many of these kids. I’ve been lucky enough to know a handful of teachers who were knowledgeable about techniques that helped their ADHD students achieve. And although I often picked their brains in an attempt to beef up my arsenal of teaching wonders, the techniques weren’t always easy to execute amid a classroom of children needing various modifications. Read more →

These days, sleep is often seen as an expendable resource. With so much work to do and limited time to accomplish tasks, going to sleep later and waking up earlier seems so natural. For some people, lack of sleep was used to prove toughness and stamina. It was common for physician trainees to boast (in some cases complain) about getting little sleep. However, studies showing suboptimal patient care when residents are sleep-deprived have resulted in shorter working hours and mandatory time off after a number of hours at work. Read more →

If you knew that your husband was twice as likely to be unfaithful in your marriage than another man, would you still marry him? Scientists have discovered a gene that may be able to tell just that. The question is: would you want to know if he had the gene?

We know strong emotional relationships are essential to mental health. We do not know, however, how the brain functions in establishing and maintaining such complex interactions. Read more →

Empathy is the ability and quality that allows humans to feel and understand what others are experiencing. It literally means “with [em-] suffering [-pathos]” as in suffering along with someone else. Empathy is not just emotionally suffering; it is also cognitively understanding what another person is going through; walking in their shoes, per se. Empathy connects people with each other and helps bind societies together.

In one recent study in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society the authors found that 31% of normal adults exhibited low emotional empathy scores on the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES). Read more →