All posts filed under: Myths

An apple didn’t fall on Newton’s head, lemmings do not commit mass suicide, and a duck’s quack actually does echo. Sorry.

The perils of seeking happiness: why our fixation on happiness might be bad for us

28 October 2022
by Jen Martin
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Health / Myths / Psychology

It’s easy to imagine that if you live in one of the world’s happiest countries, your life is probably pretty good. But it turns out that the relationship between social expectations around happiness and our mental health is not so simple. Share the love: this post was written by University of Melbourne Science Communication student Spencer Clark. Do we overvalue happiness? Every March, in the lead-up to the International Day of Happiness, the Sustainable Development […]

Taking the plunge into cold water immersion

7 October 2022
by Jen Martin
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Health / Myths / Psychology

Can 30-seconds of cold water change your life? Let’s dive into the age-old topic of whether being immersed in cold water can bring you better health and wellbeing. Share the love: this post was written by University of Melbourne Science Communication student Talia Oates. What is cold water immersion? Have you ever heard of ‘The Iceman’? He’s a famous Dutch motivational speaker and founder of the ‘Wim Hof Method’. His method aims to achieve an […]

The art of climate change conversations

13 March 2020
by Jen Martin
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Environment / Myths / Psychology

With recent reports of the hottest day ever recorded in Antarctica and Australia’s summer of extreme bushfires, it’s hard not to feel anxious and overwhelmed by the climate crisis.  If you’re anything like me, you’re wondering what personal action you can take that will actually make a difference. There are many things we can all do, and research shows simply having conversations about climate change is one of them. How we feel about climate change […]

The sound and the fury in misophonia

28 February 2020
by Tara Bautista
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Health / Myths / Psychology

Does the sound of eating, a pen clicking or finger tapping grate on your nerves? We dig into the unusual phenomenon of why some people are enraged by everyday sounds. Picture this: the person sitting across from you at a communal table is enjoying their meal – really enjoying it by the sound of it. You try to ignore it but you can’t stop your eyes zeroing in on their mouth. Every smack and slurp […]

Rethinking daydreaming

20 November 2019
by Tara Bautista
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Health / Myths / Psychology

Your mind often escapes when you’re in a boring meeting or washing the dishes. Previously considered undesirable and unhealthy, science has come around to the silver linings of letting our thoughts drift. Driven to distraction (in a good way) Daydreaming, otherwise called mind-wandering or self-generated thought, often gets a bad rap as something indulgent, unwanted and unproductive. It distracts us from the task immediately at hand and can result in errors. In extreme cases, called […]

Time flies, but why?

15 November 2019
by Jen Martin
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Health / Myths / Psychology

Time is meant to be one of the few completely reliable and objective things in life. But it seems to slow down when we are afraid — think of a slow-motion car crash. And time flies when we’re having fun. Why is it that time seem to pass more quickly the older we get? Does our ability to assess the passing of time change as we age? I remember vividly as a child the last […]

Blame it on the full moon

30 October 2019
by Jen Martin
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Astronomy / Health / Myths / Psychology

Tomorrow is Halloween, which leads to thoughts of ghosts, witches, vampires and scary pumpkin faces. But year round, many people believe a full moon is linked with other spooky stuff. Crime rates, psychiatric hospital admissions, emergency room visits, dog bites, sporting injuries and hyperactivity in kids are all said to increase during a full moon. Is there any truth to the rumours? Bad moon rising Also known as the Transylvania Effect, the idea that people […]

Is it just me, or is it the Barnum Effect?

23 October 2019
by Tara Bautista
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Anthropology / Myths / Psychology

Let me tell you about yourself: You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. Neither they, nor I, can really read your mind. Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash.   Did you read the above statements and […]

Why you (probably) can’t multitask

9 October 2019
by Jen Martin
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Myths / Psychology

How many different things are you trying to do right now? Reading this blog post while listening to a podcast, posting on Instagram and checking email? It’s easy to think you’ll be more productive by doing lots of things at once. But it turns out for almost all of us, effective multitasking is an illusion. You’re not really multitasking With the possible exception of texting while driving, you probably think multitasking is something to aspire […]