What draws people to communal rituals has long been a topic of interest to sociologists and anthropologists.  What draws people to a communal ritual like walking on hot coals is a topic of…

In 2008, when concerns about the birth place of future nominee and then campaign winner Barack Obama first surfaced, most felt like he should just show a birth certificate.   He didn't want to '…

As everyone in the autism community knows all too well, April is Autism Awareness month and a good time to release autism documentaries.One, Wretches and Jabberers, is getting heavy promotion…

Dieting is hard work.  While ingesting the calories to gain weight is simple, the loss of those calories and the mental 'hunger' and the exercise it requires is no small thing. Given that, it's…

Children eat fewer Easter eggs during the Easter holidays if parents let them decide how many they can have, according to Saima Ehsan and colleagues from the University of Surrey, who will present…

When we are 'up', we are happy, 'down' not so much.  'Right' is trustworthy while 'in left field' not so much, according to language and culture. But we don't all think right is right. Take…

I'll bet that headline made you read the rest, right? It incorporates all the language tricks used by advertisers in the little side ads that compete for your attention on the internet. Let's analyze…

In the autism world, feel-good stories really don't come along all that long often, and heartwarming stories about severely impaired individuals all of a sudden speaking out in perfect English…

Some days I wonder if we were set up from the get-go to expect less, to hope for less, to dream of less. My son's prognosis was grim and bitter to the heart when he was a tender five. And yet…

Depression erodes intimate relationships not just by making one person withdrawn, needy, or hostile, but also because it impairs a depressed person's ability to perceive the others' thoughts and…