Episode 52: Losing Face

Some people are good at putting themselves in another person's shoes. Others may struggle to relate. But psychologist Jamil Zaki argues that empathy isn't a fixed trait. This week, we revisit a favorite episode about how to exercise our empathy muscles. Then, Leslie John answers ...  Show more

In 2009, an old man died in a California nursing home. His obituary included not just his given name, but a long list of the pseudonyms he’d been known to use. In this classic 2019 episode, we trace the life of Riley Shepard, a hillbilly musician, writer, small-time con man and, ...  Show more

Science—and experience—show that we most definitely see faces in inanimate objects. But new research finds that, more often than not, we perceive those illusory faces as male. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Super-recognizers have an extraordinary ability to recognize faces – they can pick faces they’ve seen only briefly out of a crowd and can recognize childhood acquaintances they haven’t seen in decades. Dr. Josh Davis, a professor of applied psychology at the University of Greenwi ...  Show more

Lorsque vous regardez des photographies ou une image dans le miroir, vous arrivez, normalement, sans grande difficulté à reconnaître votre visage parmi ceux des autres. Mais que se passe-t-il au niveau cérébral ? Sans que nous en ayons conscience, notre cerveau traite-t-il différ ...  Show more

La capacité de dire si l’individu en face de nous est une personne que nous avons déjà croisée ou un total inconnu apparaît comme un élément essentiel dans le contact avec les autres. Si de nombreuses études se sont intéressées à la manière dont le cerveau décode et traite spécif ...  Show more