I remember as a young teen when I first heard the words, “Think for yourself and question authority.” It was a soundbite of Timothy Leary being sampled in the Tool song Third Eye – I was probably 13 or 14 at the time. The swirling guitars and synthesized chaos of the song along with the [...]

Everyone is influenced by society. We can’t help it. We like to believe that we are free and autonomous individuals, but the truth is parents, teachers, bosses, politicians, and religious figures play a huge role in the decisions we make and how we choose to live our lives. At an early age, we need guidance [...]

As someone who keeps a very watchful eye toward the personal development blogosophere, I can tell you first-hand that there are a lot of really great (and often underappreciated) sites out there which offer incredible amounts of information, wisdom, and perspective. I feel I’d be doing my readers a big disservice by not mentioning these [...]

A recent study in Cognition and Emotion found that anger can sometimes make us more critical thinkers by inhibiting our confirmation bias. Instead of only searching for information that supports our beliefs, anger can create a “moving against” tendency that motivates us to seek alternative information that opposes our assumptions. The study had participants do [...]