Harvard professor and author Steven Pinker writes about why people get stuck as pessimists and how to get out of that mindset ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Steven Pinker has sold more than two million books and has twice been nominated for a Pulitzer - Geoff Pugh When Steven Pinker ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Getty Images CBS News editor Bari Weiss has hosted an event featuring Steven Pinker, the famed Harvard psychologist who has been ...

Pinker's essay and the many reactions it spawned resulted in many different accusations and claims and it is easy for readers to get confused about what the issues are. Indeed, I am in general ...

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Reader’s Digest, we are looking back at some of our best moments from the past ten decades. Head here for more on our milestone anniversary. When we look beyond ...

In a sense, human beings are constantly playing games with one another. Whether finding one’s place in the pecking order, testing another’s mettle, angling for scarce resources or more desirable ...

In Hans Christian Andersen's folktale, The Emperor's New Clothes, when a child cries out that the emperor is naked, he isn't revealing a secret. Everyone already knows it. What changes in that instant ...

Steven Pinker’s characterization of my op-ed “Can Science Reckon With the Human Soul?” makes little contact with its text (Letters, Oct. 30). My piece outlined the evidence for terminal lucidity among ...

We laugh at the same jokes (usually for the same reasons), blush at innuendo, bow to dictators (at least temporarily), all because of a sense of implicit understanding: ie, common knowledge. We ...

Common knowledge is the secret engine of social life, letting us coordinate everything from meet-ups to markets to international diplomacy. In this fascinating talk, experimental cognitive scientist ...