Empathy, the ability to actively understand and share the feelings of others, is the hot new thing. As if each of us doesn’t have enough discomfort in our lives, it’s now incumbent on us to take on others’ in order to make us better -…

Empathy seems to be in short supply, but scientists may have an answer — sandpaper.Understanding or appreciating the pain or plight of someone else isn’t always easy. There’s an easy way to step into another person’s shoes: touch sandpaper.Researchers…

The first step in solving this problem is to think about what cognitive systems might increase the amount of altruism directed towards others, and then examine the adaptive function of each to determine whether they will solve the problem particularly …

The relationship between religion and science has been a subject of study since the beginnings of the human kind. According to recent studies the belief in a superior entity is directly related to the suppression of analytical thinking in the brain&rsq…

Make others empathise more with this really strange method. Having people touch rough sandpaper makes them more empathetic, a new study finds. Being in a small amount of discomfort helps people empathise with others in pain. Other ways o…

Certain behaviors — like laughing and yawning — can be easier to catch than the cold that’s going around your office, according to psychologists. “Behavioral contagion” is a well-documented phenomenon in psychology. O…

Ever since Galileo Galilei was punished by the Inquisition for claiming that the Earth revolves around the sun, the scientific community has not been very keen on religion, or its adepts, for that matter. But the latest studies have shown that spi…