The Psychology of Polite Words

For decades, a social psychologist named John Bargh has conducted studies on the way words affect behavior. In one such study, undergraduate students ...

Preachers and Surgeons Need Specific Definitions

If you’re on the operating table, you don’t want your surgeon to say to a nurse, “Hand me one of them sharp thingamajigs.” You ...

Voicemail from Stranger Goes Viral

One can never truly predict the ways in which an act of kindness can reverberate.

When Emelia Epstein heard that her sister Helena was nervous as she prepared ...

Don’t Do the Silent Treatment

Life for a 19th-century sailor was hard: Months at sea were accompanied by constant danger and deprivation. To make matters worse, mariners saw the same ...

13% of Chatbot Users Just Want to Talk

Most people continue to use AI programs such as ChatGPT, Bing, and Google Bard for mundane tasks like internet searches and text editing. But of the roughly ...

Huge Spike in Curse Words on TV Shows

These days, just turning on the television seems to trigger a blitzkrieg of F-bombs.

“We’re seeing a big spike in the use of crude and profane ...

Our Language Is Growing Pessimistic

The Financial Times had a story on a fascinating study showing that our language has been growing more pessimistic. Whereas at the time of the scientific ...

Favre's Hall of Fame Tribute to Dad

In his Hall of Fame speech, Brett Favre told a story that he had never shared publicly:

One more thing about my father, and this is something I've ...

Internet Jokers Regret Royal Rumors

Because the British royal family lives under constant media scrutiny, it’s usual for any member of the family to stay out of the limelight for an ...

Don't Be Rude to Your Chatbot

A nine-year-old boy asked ChatGPT, “Is yo' mama so dumb that when she went to sleep, she put a ruler behind her pillow to see how long she slept?” ...