Matthew Hutson, author of the new book, The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking, contends that everyone assigns magical powers to feelings or inanimate objects. Hutson states that this type of thinking is probably an evolutionary advantage.

Eleanor Roosevelt continues to be a positive role model for many. At the age of 76, she wrote the book, YOU LEARN BY LIVING, which is essentially her philosophy on the meaning of life. In one chapter, “Learning to be Useful," she shares her personal ideas on the secret of happiness.

David Brooks, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, recently published an email from a British father of three adult children. In the email, the father castigates his offspring for being unsuccessful non-achievers in spite of their rather privileged upbringing and education.

There has always been a great rift between science and religion. However, there are certain similarities within religions that are worth evaluating on a scientific level for validity. One of those similarities is the idea of compassion.

Our sense of sound exists as a protection system, with our brains automatically ranking information from needs immediate attention to background noise. Too often, we classify auditory information lower than we should, the result being our profound lack of listening skills.

In his newly released book, How Music Works, David Byrne discusses music and the changes it has undergone in a different light than what is conventionally held. For example, he suggests a backwards model for how creation works.

Researchers from Egypt to Cambridge are working on “affective programming” for computers. They are basically teaching computers how to interpret human emotions by sensing changes in facial structure. Computers have had problems differentiating between subtle changes in the past,…

In 1944, John Cage wrote “Four Walls.” The piece is written using only the white keys and is about the disturbed mind. Cage himself almost went into the field of psychology, but instead continued to write music and pursued eastern religions and the concept of Zen.

Steve Wozniak, aka Woz, fully believes in, and stresses, the importance of separation to help creativity flourish. He says “[Inventors are] almost like artists, and artists work best alone.” Even Stephen King advised new writers to “write with the door closed.”

Conventional wisdom purports that the path to success is in the “power of positive thinking.” Recent research has found that there is a place in success for “strategic negative thinking.” For example, we are told to picture our perfect future and then wait for it to manifest.

Graduates today are leaving school and struggling to find work. At the very same time, many hiring managers and CEOs complain that they cannot find qualified people to fill open job positions. This gap is because companies are less likely than ever to hire a person…

Alex Cornell, author, musician, and designer, found himself at a loss for words when he was commissioned to write an article about creativity. Undeterred by his own creative block, Cornell set about to find out how other inventive and imaginative people overcome their own inspirational vacuums.

For more than 30 years, experts have been studying the psychological effects of natural disasters on individuals who have, literally, weathered the storm. While those who already suffer from a mental-health issue are the most affected,…

For those of us who prefer to work alone, who create our best products in relative quiet, and who enjoy our own company, there is a reason to rejoice. A new book by Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,…

In 1938, a group of researchers began a study of 268 students atHarvardUniversity. The Grant Study focused on physical characteristics of the men selected for the research and ignored the relationships and emotional elements. As the study progressed,…

Psychologist James Pennebaker is a well-known advocate for expressive writing. Pennebaker contends that people who wrote about their feelings and emotions, regarding stressful incidents in their lives, experienced decreased heart rate and lower systolic blood pressure.

The RSA Animate series has produced an illustrated version of behavioral economist Dan Ariely’s new book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: …

Actor and comedian Rainn Wilson believes that creative blocks happen to everyone and that you need to completely change your life in some extraordinary way in order to surmount the block. Wison, best known for his Emmy-nominated role of Dwight Schrute on the television comedy,

Author Jana Richman admits that she is addicted to fear. According to a therapist she once consulted, she suffers from Armageddon Syndrome, in which she imagines the worst case possible scenarios of her decisions.

According to John Cleese, keeping a list and checking it twice is not a good way to encourage creative thinking. Cleese is a well-known actor and purveyor of strange and wondrous funny bits. He advises people to create a stress-free area where they can shed their everyday worries and let their creativity soar.