Max Chadwick-Waldford Walk into any gym and you’ll see people chasing an edge: some drinking protein shakes, others swearing by their pre-workout, a few entranced by the latest recovery gadget. But here’s something most of us don’t think about: what if some of your progress doesn’t come from any of that? What if part of your strength actually comes from what you believe? That might … Continue reading Mind over muscle: Can belief actually make you stronger?

William Bryceson Where the learning of sports, skills and knowledge are studied definitively, one type of learning remains in discussion, contested, and argued on how it happens: language learning. The process of general learning can be explained by behaviourism – a psychological approach focused on observable behaviour, viewing learning as a change in behaviour (mostly due to conditioning), repetition, and responding to stimuli from the … Continue reading ‌Unlocking the linguistic code: How Humans acquire language

Each November, millions of men grow mustaches for others. Movember began as a campaign to raise awareness for both prostate cancer and testicular cancer, while also raising awareness for men’s mental health. Research shows that men are less likely to express vulnerability, suppressing any emotions that can be perceived to be “weak”, or against the traditional, outdated form of masculinity that contains stoicism and a … Continue reading Psychology of Movember-Why men find it difficult to speak up.

Machines increasingly shape human lives in high-stakes psychological contexts. The COMPAS algorithm in the US, for instance, assesses reoffending risk and influences parole decisions, raising the question of whether such systems possess free will, a prerequisite for moral responsibility [1]. Large language models (LLMs), in particular, can appear to act without direct human guidance. This essay argues that current machines lack free will because their … Continue reading Can Machines Possess Free Will? A Psychological Perspective