This blog is about the intersection of storytelling and psychological science. I became interested in psychology because, as a literary scholar, I wanted to understand why humans are so hopelessly ...

Why would you envy a man who doesn’t know the names of all the planets, is a “high functioning” sociopath, and has no friends? Because Sherlock Holmes thinks in all the ways we wish we could. And we ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Sometimes, the impossible takes place: ...