Do people in individualistic cultures feel lonelier than in collectivistic cultures? Surprisingly, they don’t: Although people in individualistic cultures often have less stable relationships and spend more time alone, average loneliness seems to be lower than in more collectivistic cultures. In my dissertation, I provide an explanation for this “cultural paradox of loneliness”.
Inspiration can be difficult to find, and even more difficult to hold on to. But is it even what we think it is? Eric Rietzschel explores the meaning of inspiration and its relation with creativity.
Every quarter, we share articles published in the BCN Newsletter and we are happy today to share an interview with Merel Keijzer on language learning. The interview was conducted and written by Kavya Prasad, a PhD candidate in molecular imaging and neuroscience at the UMCG. Merel Keijzer is a professor of English linguistics and […]
Honours College student Teresa Jungbluth describes aphantasia: the inability to voluntarily paint mental pictures in one’s own head. She also discusses how this affects one’s life, as well as variations in human experience and the power of visualization.
Dr Burman writes about recent efforts to make it possible to read thousands of articles at one glance. It turns out to be quite complicated, especially if you want to be able to trust that what you’ve understood is consistent with what your sources actually said.
Self-expansiveness suggests that the lines between “me” and “other” are perceived as fluid for some people. A vague concept? Maybe, but with very real consequences. Lasse Lorenz describes what self-expansiveness can do for people, their compassion for others and the world around them.
This blog post is about the dire effects of loss aversion in decision-making and serves as a quick guide on how to overcome this by preparing yourself to get out of your comfort zone to take on the challenges of entrepreneurship.
The Jerusalem Syndrome describes a controversial, yet fascinating condition in which affected individuals exhibit psychosis-like symptoms elicited by a visit to the holy city of Jerusalem.
Neuropsychological research suggests that people do not all experience and memorize colors in the same way. One person’s ‘red’ could be another person’s entirely different color. In this post, Diana Wagner explores the implications of recent research on visual perception.
The Great Question of human existence is how to be happy and create meaning. In this indifferent universe we have nothing to rely on but ourselves. Today, we turn to Sisyphus to teach us the importance of existential therapy and show that awareness can be the path to meaning.