From the earliest months of life, we rely on faces to help us navigate the world. They tell us who’s safe, who’s familiar, and whether they’re paying attention to us. But do our responses to faces develop gradually as our brains mature? Or are we born prewired to lock onto the hu ...Show more
The Cost of Efficiency: Exploring Doubling-Back Aversion
Why do we avoid retracing our steps—even when it helps us reach our goals faster? In this episode of Under the Cortex, host Özge Gürcanlı Fischer-Baum speaks with Kristine Cho and Clayton Critcher from the University of California, Berkeley about their latest research on doubling ...Show more
Loneliness is what results when a person is cut off from the living world. Ecological loneliness, in particular, is reciprocal - what we mete out always comes back to trouble us. However, as Laura Marris demonstrates, loneliness can entail the shadow work for understanding how a ...Show more
Loneliness - Fay Bound Alberti, Reader in History at the University of York, charts the emergence of loneliness as a contemporary emotional state. Also, Janne Flora, postdoctoral scholar at Aarhus University, explores the deep connections between loneliness and modernity in the A ...Show more
What can we learn about loneliness, and how to avoid it, from two countries in two different continents? As Sophia Smith Galer and Scaachi Koul continue their quest for true women’s wellbeing, this time they’re exploring social connections from a global perspective. They hear fro ...Show more
Half of Americans say they are lonely and the average person reports having only one close friend. Loneliness can also make us sick, contributing to heart disease, depression, suicide and cognitive decline. Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Br ...Show more