October may be the month that our fascination with all things ghoulish and grisly reaches its peak, but for many people, a fascination with the darker side of life isn’t limited to Halloween. Coltan Scrivner, PhD, talks about why people are drawn to horror, true crime and other scary genres; and whether terrifying entertainment can actually be good for some ... Show More
Yesterday
Multisensory perception: How sight, sound and touch shape what we taste, with Charles Spence, PhD
Why does seafood taste better at the beach? Why are so many snacks crunchy? Can the color of a room or the music in the background change the way we experience what we eat and drink? Charles Spence, PhD, head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford, disc ... Show More
41m 17s
Jun 10
Why midlife may be your prime time, with Margie Lachman, PhD
For many adults, midlife is a time of competing responsibilities: raising children, helping parents and managing careers, all while confronting their own aging. Yet psychologists increasingly see these years not as a period of crisis or decline but one of growth and opportunity. ... Show More
31m 10s
Jun 3
How children learn culture — and create it, with Dorsa Amir, PhD
Which aspects of human cognition are universal and which are shaped by the culture we grow up in? Dorsa Amir, PhD, director of the Mind & Culture Lab at Duke University, talks about how children learn cultural norms around things like sharing, risk-taking and cooperation; what sh ... Show More
42m 47s
Oct 2015
Episode 6: The Science of Fear
<p>This week, for Halloween, the Hidden Brain podcast gets spooky. We explore the science of fear — traveling to a haunted house curated by a scientist to investigate what scares us, and why some people enjoy this sensation more than others.</p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an A ... Show More
20m 27s
Oct 2023
Ep 35: Why do we enjoy playing with fear?
This is Episode 35 of PsychCrunch, the podcast of the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology. From haunted houses to scary movies, many of us find a thrill in a good scare. But… isn't that a bit counter-intuitive? In this episode, we as ... Show More
19m 40s
Jul 2023
Serial Killers and Schizophrenia: Facts vs. Fiction
True crime TV shows, podcasts, and books love to explore the minds of serial killers. To perform such heinous acts a person must be “insane,” “crazy,” and “mentally unstable.” Over time, the “schizophrenic serial killer” became the monster behind many of these crimes. But is it t ... Show More
46m 12s