Milgram Experiment Revisited

Staff / Truthdig Dec 19, 2008 A new study mirroring the infamous 1963 Milgram experiment has suggested that humans will still follow authority's beckon, even to the point of killing another person. The new report, timely considering the current debate around torture in the U.S., argues that it's not that humans are bad, but that "a massive social influence [is] going on." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Easter Bunny

Mr. Fish / Truthdig Oct 16, 2008 Dig deeper

A Torture Debate Among Healers

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Apr 10, 2008 The American Psychological Association is in the midst of its own heated presidential campaign. The central issue is whether APA members should be banned from participating in "harsh interrogations." Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Reverse Psychology

Mr. Fish / Truthdig Feb 19, 2008 Dig deeper

Psychologists in Denial About Torture

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Aug 22, 2007 Last weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers at places like Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA "black sites" around the world. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Why We ‘Do It’

Staff / Truthdig Jul 19, 2007 Granted, social science must always be consumed with caution. Still, papers about people's sex lives are entertaining if not always illuminating. Here, we've taken the 10 most frequent reasons cited by participants of a sex study conducted by the University of Texas psych department in which people were asked to select motivations for having sex from a list of 237 choices. The choices ranged from "I realized I was in love" to "I was slumming." Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Hypocritical Oath: Psychologists and Torture

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Jun 6, 2007 First, do no harm. This tenet of medicine applies equally to psychologists, yet they are increasingly implicated in abusive interrogations, dare we say torture, at U.S. military detention facilities like Guantanamo. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

‘Mentally F’ed Up’ in Baghdad

Staff / Truthdig Apr 14, 2007 In this episode of the outstanding Web documentary series "Hometown Baghdad," Adel interviews his young brother and cousin, both of whom had just witnessed a gruesome killing. He is convinced the two young Iraqis already show signs of the psychological trauma that comes from growing up in a war zone. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Misguided Pursuit of Happiness

Staff / Truthdig Jan 16, 2007 In this TED conference speech, Harvard super-psychologist Dan Gilbert explains why we humans are so notoriously bad at predicting what will make us happy. Fascinating stuff. Also: The TED page has a wealth of other great talks. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )