Breaking habitual behavior patterns requires self-awareness, courage, and a willingness to challenge our own beliefs and assumptions. It can be a difficult and sometimes painful process, but it is necessary if we want to live fulfilling and meaningful lives.

How long do you spend staring at a screen every day? According to one report, the average person spends about seven hours a day on screens connected to the internet.

Humans are an interesting mixture of altruism and competition. We work together well at times and at others we will fight to get our own way. To try to explain these conflicting tendencies, researchers have turned to the chimpanzees and the bonobos for insight.

The way a person speaks is an intrinsic part of their identity. It’s tribal, marking a speaker as being from one social group or another. Accents are a sign of belonging as much as something that separates communities.

Clearly, politicians of all stripes agree that stopping antisocial behaviour is important. But what exactly counts as antisocial?

In the middle of the fourth century BC, an ancient Greek woman named Phryne cast off her clothes and walked naked into the sea at the Festival of Poseidon. 

Stepping into the unknown and be­yond the constraints we have created for ourselves is no small feat, but it is a worthwhile effort.

As we amble along our chosen path, we encounter many distractions. One of the most insidious is the notion that to pursue a path is sufficient, that pursuit is an end in itself. 

While flamingos appear to live in a very different world to humans, they form cliques much like human ones. Like us, flamingos have a need to be social, are long lived (sometimes into their 80s) and form enduring friendships. 

We human beings are such incongruous creatures, saying one thing while thinking or feeling another. We flaunt and celebrate parts of ourselves, hide, repress, and deny others.

Australian humpback whales are singing less and fighting more. Should we be worried?

When you start to notice them, psychopaths seem to be everywhere. This is especially true of people in powerful places. By one estimate, as many as 20% of business leaders have “clinically relevant levels” of psychopathic tendencies

Soccer players compete for a professional club but also hail from different, sometimes rival, countries. This duality provides a natural laboratory to study a question that has preoccupied social scientists for decades

Kindness is one of the most civilized expressions of the human being. The well-known US writer George Saunders says that what he regrets most in life are failures of kindness. 

 Guilt is a double-edged sword. It can be a reminder to improve and a motivation to apologise. It can also lead to pathological perfectionism and stress and is also closely associated with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Studies have found a link between procrastination and poor health. It is associated with higher levels of stress, unhealthier lifestyles and delays in seeing a doctor about health problems.

Interventions designed to keep people safe can have hidden side effects. With an increased perception of safety, some people are more likely to take risks.

Each December, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, among others, take over our thoughts and our wallets as we participate in ceremonies our ancestors have practised for as long as we can remember. These are all example of traditions. And in most cases, traditions are accompanied by rituals.

Christmas itself is hard if not possible to escape from entirely. But there are things you can do to manage your experience if you plan to spend time by yourself over advent.

Procrastination is an interesting form of delay which is irrational in the sense that we do it despite knowing it can have negative consequences.

 What we emit into the world is picked up by others and it affects them as well.

Are we free or are our actions determined by the laws of physics? And how much free will do we actually want? These questions have troubled philosophers for millennia – and there are still no perfect answers.

Evidence shows that significant events in our personal lives which induce severe stress or trauma can be associated with more rapid changes in our personalities.