Shankar Vedantam

Only about 10 percent of nurses in the U.S. are men. Research indicates that ideas of masculinity prevent men from pursuing a career in nursing.

Researchers studied nearly 2 million art auction sales and found paintings by women fetched less money than paintings by men. Disparities that plague parts of the economy also affect the art world.

Schadenfreude is an emotion most people try to hide. But research shows people are more likely to exhibit this feeling if they are die-hard fans of a particular sports team.

This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we explore why people often avoid telling the truth — to others, and to themselves.

Our circle of friends may shrink as we age, and researchers say this is especially grave news for men's physical and mental health. (This piece originally aired on May 20, 2018 on Morning Edition).

Decades ago, a group of women accused a prominent playwright of sexual misconduct. For the most part, the complaints went nowhere. In 2017, more women came forward. This time, people listened.

A recent study finds companies whose CEOs committed a personal indiscretion — such as infidelity, substance abuse and dishonesty — experienced a decline in shareholder value.

The world is full of complex religious beliefs. This week, we'll explore how religions have evolved, almost like living organisms, to help human societies survive and flourish.

This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we explore how the constantly evolving nature of languages can give us different ways of understanding ourselves as well as the world we live in.

Unpredictable things happen to us all the time. On this week's radio episode, we bring you two stories of loss and the change it brings.

We find comfort in the familiar, but do we find creativity? New research supports the claim that diverse teams are more innovative.

This week on Hidden Brain's radio show, we tackle a big topic: power. From our conflicted feelings toward the powerful, to the ways we gain and lose power ourselves, and how power can corrupt.

Researchers find that during extra innings, baseball umpires make calls in a way that tends to end games sooner. This seems to be because umpires aren't given additional money to work extra innings.

Fake news in the U.S. is as old as American journalism itself. We explore the trade-offs journalists have long faced between elitism and populism, and integrity and profit.

As many as 40 percent of students who intend to go to college don't show up in the fall. Education researchers call this phenomenon "summer melt," and it has long been a puzzling problem.

So often we get stuck in the past, rehashing what we should have done, and what we no longer have. But researchers say our obsession with the past can tell us something important about our future.

The clicker became a popular tool for dog training in the 1980s. It has also caught on with humans — helping people to become better dancers, fishermen, golfers, and now, surgeons.

Food fills many of our needs. Hunger is just one. Paul Rozin explains the profound role that food plays in our lives.

Revelations keep rolling in about how Facebook shares its users' data without their consent. These scandals and others do not seem to be hurting Facebook's bottom line much, so how much do we actually know or care about our privacy on Facebook and other platforms?

There can be a lot of psychological noise involved in learning. And mental chit chat can make learning hard. One solution, silence it with a click.