psychology

Positive psychologist, Alexis Rockley, provides a quick rundown on the true state of disorientation that our brains are in right now due to this historically difficult time. 

If you've ever felt like the struggle is painfully real for you when it comes to identifying flirting, this quick Tumblr thread is here to reassure you that you are not alone. No, it turns out that studies have been conducted showing that humans are generally challenged when it comes to being able to identify actual flirting signals. Yeah, we're not out here reading minds. Facial expressions, underlying social habits of different individuals in different situations make for a disorienting melting pot, where it's pretty much impossible to tell what's going on. 

Check out some more gold from Tumblr with this Tumblr post about humans' willful ignorance. We're terribly forgetful creatures. 

While Chuck E. Cheese has gotten attention for filing bankruptcy and for their sneaky Pasqually's Pizza debacle, we think this Twitter thread involving the chain is far more interesting. Twitter user @Professor_Palmer took to the social media site to announce that for the past few weeks he's been conducting secret behavioral studies on unsuspecting Chuck E. Cheese game players. The experiments are rather simple, and involve adjusting the use of lights and sound in an attempt to better understand what draws people to - or away from - arcade games. The results? Human beings are really, really, easily manipulated. While this isn't the most shocking insight on our kind, seeing Cary Palmer spell it out in such a fun (and thorough) way has been incredibly informative. And very entertaining. 

Human beings are peculiar creatures with a strange set of rules. We catch onto trends quickly, but can be easily swayed by minor changes in our environment, especially when it has to do with getting tickets we could trade in for cheap, horrible prizes. Here's a teacher who underestimated their students during a social experiment.

Now more than ever the world is grieving. Lauren Herschel does a beautiful job at breaking down what the grieving process actually looks like.