The Psych Files-logo

The Psych Files

Mental

The Psych Files is a podcast for anyone who wonders why we do what we do. Experienced educator Michael Britt, Ph.D., in an upbeat and friendly style, shows you how ideas from the field of psychology apply to everyday life. If you are a life-long learner, a student or a teacher, you will find his 20-30 minute episodes enjoyable and educational. Over 14 million episodes have been downloaded to date with over 100,000 people listening every month. See what all the talk is about!

Play Button

Location:

New York, NY

Description:

The Psych Files is a podcast for anyone who wonders why we do what we do. Experienced educator Michael Britt, Ph.D., in an upbeat and friendly style, shows you how ideas from the field of psychology apply to everyday life. If you are a life-long learner, a student or a teacher, you will find his 20-30 minute episodes enjoyable and educational. Over 14 million episodes have been downloaded to date with over 100,000 people listening every month. See what all the talk is about!

Twitter:

@mbritt

Language:

English

Episodes

Ep 337: Why Do We Think Women Aren't Funny?

11/7/2019
Have you ever heard someone say that they don’t think that women can be funny? I have to admit that I didn’t hear that until recently, so I looked at some of the research on gender and perceptions of humor. I think you’ll be surprised. In this episode I summarize some of that research and I give you four jokes and a handy way to remember jokes. --------------- Want to master the tricks to a great memory? As you know, I’m a huge fan of mnemonics and how useful they can be, so I’ve...

Duration:00:28:44

Ep 336: Why is it Usually Men Who Commit Violent Acts?

10/24/2019
Another violent act in America. Another man who committed it. Why Is it that men in our society are the ones who usually carry out violent acts? Is it how we bring up boys? Or is there another influence - genes. I was lucky enough to get professor Steve Stewart-Williams, author of the book The Ape That Understood the Universe, so come back to the show and share more about the evolutionary Psychology perspective on this complex issue. And by the way, you can use the promo code APE20 to...

Duration:00:34:19

Ep 335: Conspiracy Theories - Why So Easy To Believe?

10/17/2019
Why do some conspiracy theories seem to have so much evidence to support them? Well, that’s because if you look hard enough at any event, and you don’t have any particular theory before you start looking, you’re eventually going to find something. And you’ll probably think that thing is AMAZING. This is what careful thinkers and researchers have to learn: if you’re going to find something truly amazing, you have to make your predictions FIRST. In this episode I talk about how we can be...

Duration:00:21:12

Ep 334: The Psychology of the Fantasticks

10/1/2019
Have you seen the musical The Fantasticks? Not only does it have wonderful music but it also has pearls of wisdom. Oh yea, and gender issues. In this episode I talk about the psychology inside this great show. I also talk about how you know when something you read online is probably true (hint: if what you read is boring then it's probably true) and other ways to judge the value of psychological research. And finally, it looks like we might have been wrong in prior research: rich people are...

Duration:00:31:55

Ep 332: How the Brain Lost Its Mind

9/3/2019
Most of us have heard of Anton Mesmer and Jean Charcot. They were some of the first to dabble in the "mind cure" using hypnosis and the power of suggestion. But what role did syphilis play in the development of psychology? You'd be surprised. Join me and authors Dr. Allan Ropper and Brian David Burrell as we discuss their new book called "How the Brain Lost Its Mind". --------------- Want to master the tricks to a great memory? As you know, I’m a huge fan of mnemonics and how useful...

Duration:00:33:00

Ep 331: Hatred and Violence in America: It's Not About Mental Illness

8/21/2019
There are too many knee-jerk, brief (and incorrect) explanations for why the US is experiencing such a rise in hatred and violence. Claiming that violent perpetrators are "mentally ill" is wrong. We have research and we understand the dangerous path that some young men get involved in and which ultimately leads them to violence. The right answers are more subtle, but we do know them and we do know what to do about them. We take another look at Significance Quest...

Duration:00:26:40

New Podcast You're Going to Love

8/12/2019
I talk about tech many times here on The Psych Files so where do I learn about Phone Addiction, Voice Assistants, Smart Watches and so forth? By listening to tech podcasts. There's a new one out I really like. It's called Waveform with MKBHD and I've got a clip from the show to listen to. I'm already learning a lot so check it out! Click here (http://bit.ly/WaveformPF) to subscribe to Waveform with MKBHD

Duration:00:09:33

Ep 330: Trouble Sleeping? Psychologist Dr. Shelby Harris' Approach to Treating Insomnia

8/6/2019
I haven't talked about sleep problems yet here on the Psych Files so I brought in the perfect person to talk to us about sleep and insomnia. Dr. Shelby Harris has written the Woman's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia and I learned a lot about how Cognitive Behavioral therapy is applied to this specific problem. Dr. Harris also has some tips you'll want to hear to help you get a better night's sleep. --------------- Want to master the tricks to a great memory? As you know, I’m a huge fan...

Duration:00:41:18

Ep 329: Beauty and the Beast: Psychological Themes

7/17/2019
I'll bet you're like me and you enjoyed the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast. As wonderful a story it is, let's take a moment just to acknowledge that there are some themes in the show that are, well, not so nice. I’ll take a look at this show from an angle of toxic masculinity in the Gaston character and possibly co-dependency in the relationship between Belle and the Beast. I promise - it'll still be fun. --------------- Want to master the tricks to a great memory? As you know,...

Duration:00:27:03

Ep 328: Authenticity - Is There a Hidden You?

7/4/2019
Have you ever wondered if you're really being true to some inner person of yours? Wondered if there isn't someone else inside that you that you're supposed to be actualizing? Guess what? Maybe not. What is authenticity anyway? That's what we'll explore in this episode, along with a discussion of some of the doubts being cast on the famous Stanford Prison Study by Philip Zimbardo. Maybe it's actually not time to updater the textbooks after all. --------------- Want to master the tricks...

Duration:00:25:06

Ep 327: The Team Behind Q - World's First Genderless Digital Voice

6/19/2019
In the last episode I talked about the potential downside to having most of our digital assistants speak to us using a female voice. "Q" - will give us an option. Here's my interview with Emil Rasmussen, who will give you some of the background behind Q and his hopes for the future of Q. --------------- Want to master the tricks to a great memory? As you know, I’m a huge fan of mnemonics and how useful they can be, so I’ve brought all of my episodes on this topic together, as well...

Duration:00:18:44

Ep 326: Giving Voice To Our Digital Assistants

6/5/2019
Why do our digital assistants such as Alexa, Google Home, Siri and Cortana have "feminized" voices and what are the effects of this trend? That's what I explore in this episode. Are there negative effects of using female voices in the devices we talk to and who talk to us? Are there alternatives? Turns out there is an alternative - a "genderless" voice. What does that sound like? Tune in to find out as we explore gender roles, expectations and equality. I’d Blush If I CouldWe tested...

Duration:00:24:11

Ep 324: Put Your Love Life on Automatic

5/2/2019
In this episode I cover a few interesting topics. First, have you ever "blanked out" in front of an audience? I recently did and I was determined to find out why this happened. I found some answers in a great book called Stop Talking, Start Influencing. Also I'll tell you about the memorization strategies I used in a recent play I was in, and we'll finish up with a snippet from an interview with Clive Thompson, author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World and...

Duration:00:31:11

Ep 323: Computer Programmers: Obsessed With Efficiency

4/17/2019
Do you have your own little “tricks”? That is, ways of doing things that are faster than how you used to do them? Well, congratulations, you’re something of an efficiency expert. And if you can picture an assembly line of people putting products together, then you’ve seen one way of increasing productivity. But some of us are really, really obsessed with efficiency and often those people are computer programmers. Some of them, as you’ll hear from Clive Thompson (author of “Coders: The Making...

Duration:00:38:07

Ep 322: An Introduction to Cross Cultural Psychology

4/3/2019
Why is it okay - in some cultures - to jaywalk, while in others you could get arrested for jaywalking? Why was marijuana was sold - legally - for years in the streets of Amsterdam when it is only now become legal in the US? The reason: some cultures are what author Michele Gelfand calls "loose" and others are "tight". Here's my first episode on cross-cultural psychology and I think you're going to really enjoy listening to professor Gelfand to find out how our culture's norms shape our...

Duration:00:38:30

Ep 321: OCD - What is it Really Like?

3/18/2019
Would you like to get into the mind of someone who not only has OCD, but who also wrote a novel in which the main character deals with it as well? That's the premise behind the book, Waiting For Fitz. In this episode I interview the author, Spencer Hyde. He talks about the novel, the other characters (one of whom suffers from schizophrenia) and his own experiences dealing with OCD. --------------- Want to master the tricks to a great memory? As you know, I’m a huge fan of mnemonics...

Duration:00:34:00

Introducing One Plus One

2/19/2019
Every great collaboration is a love story. It’s intense. Passionate. Along the way, there are flashes of love, hate, pride, ego, ambition, and brilliance. This is One Plus One, the show about the spark that drives two original thinkers to ultimate success. We’ll unearth the stories of Paul McCartney & John Lennon, Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera, Beyonce & Jay-Z, Shaq & Kobe, and many more, and learn what it is about their chemistry that led them to greatness. Subscribe to One Plus One today at...

Duration:00:10:38

Ep 319: Forensic Psychology - An Interview with Dr. Susan Lewis

1/31/2019
It seems like there’s no end to TV shows about criminals who have various psychiatric disorders. It’s understandable that we find them fascinating, but how accurate are they? What is it really like to work with individuals who are convicted of serious crimes but who are unquestionably suffering from a mental illness? If you’re interested in these questions or are thinking of going into the field of forensic psychology then you need to listen to Dr. Susan Lewis as she tells us about two of...

Duration:00:30:44

Ep 318: What is Academic Shame?

1/15/2019
Recently we've learned that many students learn best not when things are well explained to them, but rather when they're just a little bit confused. Professor Jeremiah Sullins (interviewed in episode 267) talked about his work on Productive Confusion. Now he's on to a related topic: what if instead of being motivated by confusion, students who are prone to shame wind up feeling so frustrated that they feel ashamed of their confusion and lose the motivation to learn? That's what we'll address...

Duration:00:34:06

Ep317: It's So Fluffy! Cuteness Makes Us Aggressive

12/12/2018
Have you ever seen something so cute you just want to squeeze it to death? Or a child so cute you want to pinch it's cheeks really hard? Why do we have these odd, powerful, opposite feelings? It's called "cute aggression" and we'll try to explain it in this episode. We'll also look at the bullying in Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, sexual coercion in the song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and yet another nail in the coffin for our non-existent "learning styles". --------------- Want to...

Duration:00:30:07

See More