Psychology

Researchers and ethicists are once again pushing back against AI-enabled sex robots marketed as a replacement for human relationships.

Sex Objects

The machines may enable pedophilia and sexual violence rather than preventing them.

Researcher Warns That Sex Robots May Cause Psychological Damage

Shawn Rosenberg, a prominent psychologist at the University of California, Irvine told the crowd at a recent meeting of the International Society of Political Psychologists that "democracy is devouring itself," Politico reports.

Hail Hydra

"In sum, the majority of Americans are generally unable to understand or value democratic culture, institutions, practices or citizenship in the manner required."

Prominent Researcher Predicts That Democracy Is Going to Collapse

Scientists claim to have linked smartphone geotagging data with personality traits in a bid to create better targeted advertisements.

Step Tracking

Your phone's accelerometer data is more revealing than you might think.

Researchers Can Predict Your Personality by Tracking Your Phone

A new experiment used VR to trick people's brains into thinking they inhabited spider or bat bodies. People reported feeling like the body was theirs.

Eight Legs, Imagine

VR makes it easy to trick the brain into thinking it has a non-human body.

Bizarre New VR Makes People Feel Like They're Spiders

Lawmakers in the US have proposed a bill that would regulate in-game purchases for children's video games, signaling new efforts to protect gamers.

Pay to Play

In-game purchases like loot boxes can mirror the affects of gambling on the brain.

Lawmakers Want to Regulate Video Games Targeted at Children

In a virtual recreation of the infamous Milgram Shock Experiment, participants were just as reluctant to continue, even though no one was hurt.

Simulated Shocks

Even in a VR simulation, the Milgram Shock Experiment continues to traumatize.

People Are Horrified When They Have to Torture a Virtual Person

In order to better understand how smartphone use correlates with mental health in adolescents, scientists want to access Google and Apple's data stashes.

Teen Studies

Scientists have questions, tech giants have data.

Google and Apple Can Help Learn How Phones Affect Kids' Brains

Some pills float in a blue tinted cup of coffee

Let's Be Lonely Together

Where there's an ill, there's a pill.

Feeling Lonely? Scientists Are Developing a Pill to Fight Loneliness

People across the world are brutally assaulting robots — a trend that could indicate a deep compulsion to lash out against automatons.

What does it say about a person if they beat and dismember a robot?

People Are Brutally Assaulting Robots. Experts Want to Know Why

A global, four-year research project just found that 14 of the 28 classic psychology studies it examined couldn't be replicated.

Replication Crisis

What happens when science is wrong?

New Research Just Debunked 14 Classic Psychology Experiments

RT Me, Baby

Partners and close friends top the list of who we ignore while checking our feeds.

Phubbing: How Phones Pull You Away From Your Loved Ones

The Royal Society pledged to publish studies that attempt to replicate any research that it's published. Other journals should do the same.