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Why The Color Red Revs You Up (But Lowers Your IQ)
When people look at the color red, their blood pressure rises. They blink more. Compared to other colors, red triggers measurably more physiological arousal and neural activity. In the area of the...
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Why You Love Cute Things
It's safe to say that most of the cutest things ever to happen have involved babies, or animals, or preferably baby animals. Tiny living beings, in other words. Or sometimes the tiny hats and knit...
View ArticleWhy You're Bad At Understanding Irony
Last summer, a spoof of Alanis Morissette's song Ironicwent viral after doing what the original did not: describing events that were actually ironic. Morissette famouslyflubbed the concept in her hit,...
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It Pays To Be Bored
Life has always had distractions, from the Black Plague to television, but these days distraction feels like a way of life. "It's hard to be bored almost anywhere," cultural anthropologist Genevieve...
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The New Subtle Sexism Toward Women in the Workplace
The firing of Jill Abramson from the New York Times brought renewedattention to the topic of gender workplace bias, at least for a fleeting cultural moment.Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. insists...
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Science Explains The Enduring Appeal Of Bland, Symmetrical Layouts
From a literary standpoint, the New Yorker is one of the most engaging publications out there. From a design standpoint, the print magazine seems to embrace the idea that less is more. It's common for...
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The Science Of Comic Sans
Happy Fourth! We're taking time off to celebrate with friends and family. Back at you Monday, July 7. Until then, enjoy this story from our archives.One of the funniest McSweeney's pieces you'll ever...
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The Psychology Of Anthropomorphic Robots
By now we've all seen the prototype for Google's self-driving car: a teeny little road bopper shaped like a gumdrop. What's immediately striking is that the car seems to have a smiley face designed...
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How Flexible Hours Can Harm Employees As Much As It Helps Them
President Obama, nice boss that he is, wants you to stroll into work whenever you please.All right, that's not entirely true. But at the White House Summit on Working Families this week, Obama did...
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The Mad-Genius Paradox: Creativity Could Be Tied To Both Sanity And Madness
You can probably recite, off the top of your head, at least a few creative geniuses who seemed out of their mind. We used Sylvia Plath, Vincent Van Gogh, and Michael Jackson as examples in our piece on...
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Can Better Acoustics Make Open Offices Suck Less?
If you're not familiar with the problems of open offices by now, you probably have a door to close at work. Open offices are supposed to promote employee interaction, and to some extent they do, but...
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The Next Big Thing In Urban Planning? Backyard Cottages
As the days of suburban sprawl give way to those of urban density in U.S. metros--"smart growth," most call it--providing sufficient housing remains a challenge. Decades of planning regulations and...
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The Science Of Cool
Take a look at the two water bottles below. The one on the left is pretty much your standard water bottle design: tall, clear, probably crinkly. The one on the right feels a bit less conventional, with...
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6 Scientific Reasons You Can't Stop Looking At Ruin Porn
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said of pornography, "I know it when I see it," but ruin porn--the name for photos of abandonedbuildingsandravagedlandscapes--feels tougher to discern. Is...
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How To Keep Our Buildings From Making Us Fat
It's tough to find time in a busy schedule for a full workout, but there's a pretty easy opportunity for exercise that many of us pass up every day. That would be the decision to take stairs instead of...
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The Neuroscience Of Emoticons
It's hard to say for sure when the first emoticon appeared--some see one as far back as 1862, in the transcript of a speech by Abraham Lincoln--but its digital birth is typically dated to September 19,...
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Workers In Windowless Offices Lose 46 Minutes Of Sleep A Night
Nothing tops an office with a door on the universal workplace wish list, but a desk near a window that lets in natural light probably ranks a close second. Outside views are often badges of seniority...
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The Hidden Ways Urban Design Segregates The Poor
A few weeks ago, news emerged that a New York building was planning a separate entrance for residents of its low-income units--"poor doors."Outrage ensued, but the truth is, urban design that tries to...
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How You Get Hooked On Coffee
About a decade ago, a pair of researchers taught a computer to make a cup of coffee. Over a series of lessons, the machine learned to execute specific coffee-related actions in response to certain...
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If Cops Understood Crowd Psychology, They'd Tone Down The Riot Gear
One of the clearest lessons from Ferguson is that the militarization of local police has become a major problem across the United States. Images of grotesquely armed forces staring down peaceful...
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