Why do male beetles try to mate with beer bottles, and why did two young girls attempt to sacrifice a classmate to a fictional internet character named Slender Man? The answer may lie in a biological concept known as supernormal stimuli, which are exaggerated versions of things that would normally elicit a response in a…
How does a completely unrelated item at a crime scene derail a real world homicide investigation? The answer lies in how our minds interpret evidence. In the investigative world, we often joke about the Weird Homicide Fairy, an imaginary character who throws irrelevant clues in all directions. Though it is a joke, the underlying cognitive…
When Christopher Columbus sailed the Caribbean, he reported seeing mermaids, though he noted they were far less beautiful than the legends suggested. In reality, he was looking at West Indian manatees, creatures he had never seen before. Because his mind lacked a category for manatees, his prior mental frameworks substituted mermaids. This is not merely…
When faced with extraordinary danger, how does the human nervous system respond, and how can we manage that response after the crisis has passed? For those in high stress professions like law enforcement, emergency services, and military combat, chronic stress and posttraumatic stress disorder are increasingly critical challenges. In my latest article, I explore how…
Is human goodness an innate quality, or is it a conscious decision shaped by our surroundings? While modern forensic cognitive science often links violent behavior to neurobiological anomalies, such as prefrontal cortex impairment, these physical explanations do not account for all acts of aggression; to truly understand calculated violence, we must look beyond biological deficits…
Have you ever been absolutely certain you witnessed an action, only to discover it never actually occurred? In my laboratory, we have found that the second most common eyewitness error, behind only the physical appearance of a perpetrator, is rooted in pure imagination. For instance, when shown a static photograph of a crime in progress,…
Why did the release of Dirty Harry in the 1970s lead to a surge of private citizens purchasing heavy weaponry they could barely handle? Why would individuals commit heinous acts to appease the “Slender Man,” a character they know to be a fictional internet creation? The answer lies in the psychological phenomenon of modeling. As…
For my September 2nd Psychology Today post. In a classic television scene, a psychologist asks a thief why he steals. The answer is simple: “Because I want them.” This encapsulates crimes for gain, but what about the behaviors that seem to make no sense? Why would an individual engage in a bar fight or an…
Did you know that ancient historians once believed the mongoose would dive down a crocodile’s throat and gnaw its way out? It sounds like an epic battle, but it never actually happened. Yet, people swore they saw it. Why? Because the human brain prefers a compelling narrative over boring reality. In this new post, we…
Strange lights streaked across New Jersey skies, newsrooms erupted, and even the White House took notice, but every “drone” turned out to be something far more ordinary. Dive into how mass suggestion, media frenzy, and the quirks of eyewitness memory fueled a full-blown phantom invasion, and learn what this psychological puzzle means for spotting real…