Contrary to popular belief, the people who become truly famous, stay famous for decades.
Freedom and personal autonomy are more important to people's well-being than money, according to a meta-analysis of data from 63 countries.
Whether it's sports, poker or the high-stakes world of business, there are those who always find a way to win when there's money on the table.
People who work hard at improving a skill or ability may experience stress in the moment, but experience greater happiness on a daily basis and longer term. Here's why.
A high sense of control all but wipes out educational differences when it comes to mortality.
Psychological scientists have found that the size of different parts of people's brains correspond to their personalities; for example, conscientious people tend to have a bigger lateral prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain involved in planning and controlling behavior.
Do peoples’ personalities change after 30?
When dreaming is believing: Dreams affect people's judgment, behavior
It seems really simple: If you want to achieve something, set a goal and then make specific plans to implement it.
Whether it's for money, marbles or chalk, the brains of reward-driven people keep their game faces on, helping them win at every step of the way. Surprisingly, they win most often when there is no reward.
We all know that getting a good night's sleep is good for our general health and well-being. But new research is highlighting a more surprising benefit of good sleep: more feelings of gratitude for relationships.
Whether you are a habitual list maker, or you prefer to keep your tasks in your head, everyone pursues their goals in this ever-changing, chaotic environment.
Whether bloggers are writing to change the world, or just discussing a bad break-up, they may get an extra boost of motivation from traffic-measuring and interactive tools that help them feel more connected to and more influential in their communities.
Students, athletes and performing artists are often advised to imagine themselves performing successfully. But is that motivation influenced by what perspective they take when imagining their performance?
Find out how very realistic human-looking robots or computer avatars tend to elicit negative feelings in human observers.
Why do "Aha!" moments sometimes come easily - and sometimes not at all?
Use these steps to help draw a blueprint for your business’s advertising plan. 1. Design the framework What is the...
When faced with a difficult decision, we try to come up with the best choice by carefully considering all of the options, maybe even resorting to lists and lots of sleepless nights.
Want to quickly improve your happiness and satisfaction with life? Then the pen may be a mighty weapon.
People have an easier time starting toward a goal than finishing it, but a shift in attention can make all the difference in reaching the finish line.
In the not-too-distant past, young people aspired to become lawyers and doctors. Now they yearn to achieve the celebrity of a Mark Zuckerberg or Oprah Winfrey -- and these goals extend to adults as well.
But when a task is presented as fun, researchers report in a new study, the same individuals often do worse than those who are less motivated to achieve.
If you think having loads of money, fetching looks, or the admiration of many will improve your life -- think again.
Some argue that happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
A team of researchers led by a Michigan State University neuroscientist has created a quick but reliable test that can measure...
Researchers had students think up solutions to problems while acting out various metaphors about creative thinking - and found that the instructions actually worked.
In contrast to "every man for himself" interpretations of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, social scientists are building the case that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our nurturing, altruistic and compassionate traits.
When we're waiting in line or sitting in a boring meeting, time seems to slow down to a trickle. And when we get caught up in something completely engrossing - a gripping thriller, for example - we may lose sense of time altogether.
Happy individuals are predisposed to seek out and undertake new goals in life and this reinforces positive emotions, say researchers who examined the connections between desirable characteristics, life successes and well-being of over 275,000 people.
While some psychologists still argue that people perform better when they do something because they want to, research suggests we shouldn't even make that distinction.