Human nature

Vintage photo of two women in Victorian attire, one in a patterned dress looks at the other who wears a fur-trimmed coat.
HUMAN NATURE

You don’t need perfect features to be physically beautiful

New research reveals that physical attractiveness is more about personal compatibility than meeting universal standards

by Annett Schirmer

A cheerful picnic by a river with adults and children relaxing on blankets under a blue sky with scattered clouds.
HUMAN NATURE

For a happier life, we must balance two old psychological needs

Personal autonomy is abundant in the modern world. As a result, many of us get what we want but not what we need

by William von Hippel

A painting of a pregnant woman with wide, dark eyes and scared face, holding a lit match. She wears a red dress with white polka dots.
POETRY

The unseen lives of others take centre stage in this surreal poetry adaptation

Directed by Michelle Kranot and Uri Kranot

Photo of two people on a rocky hilltop under a vast sky, one pointing. Snow-dusted landscape and clouds in the background.
NATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

How to rewild yourself

You didn’t evolve to live in this techno-industrialised world. Find health and happiness by embracing your wild nature

by Jessica Carew Kraft

Illustration of a person with curly hair, wearing large glasses and a sleeveless top, looking back over their shoulder.
LOVE

Surreal vignettes form a meditation on love in this Oscar-winning short

Directed by Alberto Mielgo

Photo of two people on a beach cooling off under a shower, with tall buildings and umbrellas in the background.
GENDER

What sex-difference science misses about the messy reality of sex

Men aren’t from Mars, women aren’t from Venus, and other persistent myths derived from debunked sex-difference science

by Jeffrey W Lockhart

Close-up image of a NASA parachute with alternating orange and white panels against a clear blue sky.
TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCE

We soar, we plunge, we labour: here is all peak human experience

Directed by Dylan Werkman

A blonde woman in a white robe smiles in a bathroom with two people filming in the background, bathed in soft lighting.
SEX AND SEXUALITY

The filmmakers who transform fantasies into videos with an audience of one

Directed by Chung Nguyen

Marble bust of a bearded man with curly hair on a black background, sculpture artwork.
HUMAN NATURE

Our innate ideas prevent us seeing what is innate in human nature

We have a great deal of trouble telling what is innate and what is learned in human nature, whether ideas or emotions

by Iris Berent

A painting of a woman with brown hair in a white blouse with a large green bow against a dark blue background.
EMOTIONS

Are you sure you know what emotions are?

It’s tricky to define what an emotion is: is surprise one, or something else? Here are a few simple rules to get started

by Andrew Ortony

Illustration of a courtroom with animals as participants, a lion as the judge, and various creatures in the jury box.
ANIMALS

What our use of animal-based slurs and endearments says about us

The image of the adorable kitten and the insult of calling someone a ‘pussy’ have more in common than you might realise

by David Egan

Black and white photo of people scrubbing a street while a large crowd of onlookers stands watching.
SOCIAL HISTORY

The rise of the bystander as a complicit historical actor

‘The appalling silence of the good people’: how the bystander rose to prominence as a morally complicit actor in history

by Dennis Klein

Black-and-white photo of photographers taking pictures of a meerkat at a zoo, with onlookers in the background.
ANIMALS

The zoo is a funhouse mirror that reflects and refracts the peculiarities of being human

Directed by Bert Haanstra

Historic photo of a group gathered near ruins of a building after destruction. A leafless tree stands in foreground.
HUMAN NATURE

The radical aristocrat who put kindness on a scientific footing

Peter Kropotkin took on social Darwinism, casting evolution in a cooperative light and laying the groundwork for mutual aid

by Lydia Syson

Painting of early hominids using tools in a rocky landscape with scattered animal skulls and a distant horizon.
HUMAN NATURE

Do humans really have a killer instinct or is that just manly fancy?

The killer-instinct idea achieved such cultural power because it came embedded in gripping stories about human nature

by Nadine Weidman

Photo of an office building’s facade with illuminated windows revealing people working inside at desks and meeting spaces.
PERSONALITY

Introverts are excluded unfairly in an extraverts’ world

One in three people are introverts, physically present, but culturally absent. We shouldn’t have to change to be heard

by Noa Herz