The unavailability bias says what we don't see must not exist

Pareidolia: the cognitive bias of finding meaning in randomness

Many people equate "random" with "well-spaced," creating a cognitive bias that influences how people interpret events. This article explains how people tend to assume a generative force behind the patterns produced by randomness. This phenomenon, known as pareidolia, is seen in claims ranging from backward messages hidden in reversed audio recordings to tea leaf readings.

Americans think being informed is a priority for voting, but don't prioritize reading the news

Many Americans report feeling "news fatigue," finding much of the news they encounter irrelevant. Still, being informed is recognized as a major civic duty. Many Americans have stopped seeking out the news or are far more selective about where they receive it, and an increasing sense that its up to individuals to confirm the facts they're being told.

True crime fans can derail lives with misguided accusations

In the wake of four stabbing deaths at the University of Idaho in November 2023, online sleuths, without any supporting evidence, were quick to point accusatory fingers at potential perpetrators. Poring over news reports, social media pages, and internet interactions can reveal viable information that can help solve crimes. Such (sometimes monetizable) behavior can also easily give rise to rumors and threats while impeding official investigations.(Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Balancing free speech while curbing misinformation has destroyed content moderation

Accusations of censorship and bias have led social media companies like Meta and X to scale back or abandon moderation tools—just as foreign propaganda surges. Researchers say their ability to track manipulation online has become severely limited.

Many journalists are shying away from sharing mug shots when reporting crime

News outlets used to cover crime with mug shots of the accused. Some outlets even published mug shot photo galleries, collections of easily acquired content that drove clicks and, hopefully, advertising dollars. However, this practice has fallen out of favor as journalists question the lasting impact of immortalizing mug shots of accused perpetrators, at least some of whom are ultimately cleared of the alleged crime.

Understanding the causes, effects, and prevalence of algorithmic bias

Found in search engines, hiring and college admissions tools, facial recognition systems, and other software, algorithms act on the rules they are programmed with, which may be authored by individuals unaware of their own biases. Algorithms based on limited, incomplete, or inaccurate data are more likely to inherit and propagate existing biases.

False memories can form during recall when new information is incorporated

Often formed due to suggestion and misinformation, false memories can lead to serious consequences, such as wrongful convictions. The time between an event and recalling it affects one's susceptibility to false memories.

Limited transparency soon after Chernobyl made it a source of conspiracy theories

Some rumors about the event became perceived as more reliable than the Soviet mass media, which had omitted key information during the early days of uncertainty. The resulting theories included CIA involvement in the disaster, three-headed birds, aliens, and a weaponized earthquake.

Novels sometimes use unreliable narrators

When we read a book, we’re effectively forced to take the narrator’s word for what’s unfolding. But what if that narrator has a biased take on those events? What if, in a general sense, that narrator can’t be trusted? Enter the unreliable narrator, a strategic way of shaping a story that adds an additional layer to the narrative.

Statistically speaking, aliens likely exist, but we still haven't found any evidence of them

The Fermi paradox addresses this discrepancy between the lack of evidence of alien life despite the high likelihood of its existence. Physicist Brian Cox offers various theories, like the extinguished civilizations hypothesis, for why we have never found any extraterrestrial neighbors.

'Mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust.'

- Businessman Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919)

Evolution doesn't want you to see these animals

Invisibility is an oft-coveted superpower that many creatures throughout the animal kingdom have evolved to mimic through transparent camouflage. This article explores the science of this seemingly magical ability. The two critical ingredients in...

Common mistakes we make about the world map

Maps have long loosely approximated what the world actually looks like. Here's a few common errors that persist due to outdated conceptions of the world.

The 'dupe' economy is fueled by the youthful thrill of thrift

Historically, you don't want people to know you have a knock-off luxury item. But today's younger generations are embracing the "dupe" economy, an open celebration of luxury knock-off items where consumers are proud to pay less for something roughly equivalent to premium brand offerings.

We may never know if Americans are now lonelier than ever before due to limited data

Formal data collection on loneliness is recent, limiting historical comparisons from before the year 2000. That means statements about how people are more lonely than ever before are difficult to prove or disprove.

Aphantasia involves a lack of mental images—but doesn't affect behavior

The condition, generally known about for over a century, first received its name in 2015 by researcher Adam Zeman. An estimated 4% of people lack this ability to perceive mental images, and research suggests this deficiency does not have any practical impact on behavior.

Debunk common myths about Social Security

Myths include the pervasive ideas that undocumented immigrants drain Social Security, members of Congress don't pay into Social Security, the program itself is “going broke,” and more.

Most penicillin allergy diagnoses are wrong

A Freakonomics Radio episode investigates why so many people mistakenly believe they’re allergic to penicillin. This widespread misdiagnosis leads to costlier, less effective treatments and contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.

A prediction market was more accurate than most polls about the 2024 US presidential election

The idea that the median estimate of a group can be more accurate than individual expert estimates is called the "wisdom of the crowd," and dates back to the early 1900s. This theory can help explain the perceived value of prediction markets when it comes to polling and more.

Google only sorts and searches a fraction of the overall internet

The "surface web," consisting of billions of public webpages, excludes nonindexed digital content, such as corporate intranets and email inboxes. A deeper layer, called the dark web, is also hidden and requires special software to access.

In the 'block universe' model, the past, present, and future exist simultaneously

According to special relativity, observers do not experience the same events in the same order, but all perspectives are valid. This means what is considered one person's as yet unexperienced future may have already taken place in someone else's past.

'A Complete Unknown' misrepresented some aspects of Dylan's life

Dylan scholar and Princeton professor Sean Wilentz said the 2024 Dylan biopic had several inaccuracies. According to Wilentz, “The facts are all true … but none of it happened the way that the film depicts it.”

The security and privacy risks of augmented reality

One of the most serious perceived risks of augmented reality is the loss of privacy. Because AR technology can see what users are doing, user privacy is jeopardized. AR collects far more information about who users are and what they are doing than...

Why stories about helium 'running out' indicate market volatility rather than scarcity

Only a few locations on Earth contain natural gas reserves with sufficiently high helium concentrations to make their extraction commercially viable, and geopolitical conflicts in these areas significantly affect helium production. This makes cost a major impediment to helium availability, particularly for scientific research, amid growing demand and ongoing depletion of reserves that took billions of years to form.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Recessions are often called retroactively, rather than while they’re occurring

Because recessions are recognized when a wide array of economic factors like falling GDP and high unemployment converge, they are often officially recognized after the fact.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Poison ivy can cause rashes year-round since all parts of the plant contain urushiol, the oil that triggers our allergic response.