Articles by Dr. Barrett

The brain's primary job is to reduce uncertainty in an ever-changing world.

Training algorithms on stereotypical facial expressions is bound to mislead.

It's easy to get sick of a 24-hour news cycle of war, climate crises and economic turmoil. Here's how a break will help your mental health – and gut.

There are surprising perks for your brain if you embrace the spirit of the holidays and reach out to others.

If you live with an animal (the non-human kind) you might think the answer is obvious, but the scientific question of animal emotions remains tantalisingly open.

Signals from the environment, such as those detected by your sense organs, have no inherent psychological meaning. Your brain creates the meaning.

The emotion AI industry, courts and child educators are unknowingly relying on a misunderstanding of Darwin’s ideas

The latest science shows that genes and environment are ​too deeply entwined to pit them against one another.

Cognition, emotion, perception, action, and other mental functions do not represent firm boundaries in the brain

It's a hotly debated topic, but the way our brains work can give us some insight.

Your brain constantly changes itself (usually without your awareness) as you interact with other people. An excerpt from lesson #5 of "Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain."

How do you feel? Are you anxious about something? Or scared? Why do you feel this way and where do these sensations come from?

Your mind is an ongoing construction of your brain, your body, and the surrounding world. (Subscription required.)

It’s easy to equate brains and computers, but the comparison doesn’t stand up to closer inspection.

We’re able to perceive the world in ways that go beyond sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.

Can we still have faith in psychology in the face of the ‘replication crisis’? Perhaps, but the field has a much larger problem to tackle.

Your brain keeps you alive and well by running a metabolic “budget” for your body. Learn how these budgetary activities, and the bodily sensations they create, suggest surprising connections between brain, mind, body, and world.

A short tour of Dr. Barrett's favorite myths about the brain. If you find them amusing, your feeling wasn’t created by a shower of serotonin. If they annoy you to the point of lighting this article on fire, you don’t have an inner lizard to blame.

Everything you experience is a carefully controlled hallucination. An excerpt from Lesson no. 4 of Dr. Barrett's book "Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain."

What a Monty Python sketch teaches us about your brain and how it constructs your reality

When it comes to minds, variation is the norm. Lesson no. 6 from Dr. Barrett's book, "Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain."

Embracing difference is vital for our success as a species, but it places extra demands on the brain. Here’s how to get better at it.

Forget these scientific myths to better understand your brain and yourself.

Human connection in the time of Covid-19.

Humans are the only animals who can simply make things up, agree on them as a group, and they become real.

A child’s brain is not a miniature adult brain. It is a brain born under construction. (Note: The article's actual title calls Dr. Barrett a "Harvard psychologist" which is incorrect.)

In stressful times, this surprising lesson from neuroscience may help to lessen your anxieties.

As a social species, we regulate one another’s nervous systems... for better or worse.

There is a real biological benefit when people treat one another with basic human dignity.

A proposal to make online learning more effective in the time of COVID-19.

Book review of "The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains," by the neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux.

Is premenstrual syndrome real? The evidence may surprise you.

Dr. Barrett reviews three recent books about the human brain.

By more clearly identifying our feelings or by recategorizing them, you can reduce suffering and increase well-being. (An excerpt from "How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.")

Lovers crave intensity, Buddhists say craving causes suffering. Is it possible to be deeply in love yet truly detached?

When you feel emotional, what’s actually happening in your body and brain?

The human brain is wired so that people see what they believe.

Emotions might not be what you think they are.

Why aren't more people scared of climate change? Blame the brain.

Think you can read people’s emotions? Think again.

Debating ideas, even offensive ones, is vital: it's the lifeblood of democracy. Debate opens minds. When you choose to invite a controversial speaker, choose one who fosters debate, not one who merely slings hate. In large quantities, hateful speech can harm the body and even shorten life.

An infant brain is not a miniature adult brain. It's a brain that's awaiting a wiring plan. (Reprinted from Dr. Barrett's blog.)

Advances in psychology and neuroscience have produced some surprising discoveries about what, how and why we feel.

A new study shows how strenuous mental and physical exercise keeps your brain firing on all cylinders.

Hundreds of news stories each month propagate these mistakes about the brain.

If a criminal experiences remorse for his actions, how can we know? An excerpt from "How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain."

Tech companies are trying to build emotion-reading devices based on dubious scientific results.

A excerpt from the introduction to Dr. Barrett's book, "How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain."

Judges and juries can't accurately detect remorse.

Dr. Barrett explains where your feelings come from, in an excerpt from "How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain."

A simple-looking mystery leads to the discovery of a half-century of lost knowledge.

Stereotypes about women and emotion, and eight ways to navigate them at work.

Why do some older people remain mentally nimble while others decline?

Dr. Barrett's answer to edge.org's annual question for 2017, "What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?"

Lisa Feldman Barrett decodes the country’s angry feelings about the 2016 election.

Lisa Feldman Barrett on how people perceive men’s vs. women’s facial movements, in relation to the first presidential debate of 2016.

Lisa Feldman Barrett explains how finely-tuned emotions are tools for better living.

Dr. Barrett's response to the 2016 Edge question: "What do you consider the most interesting recent [scientific] news? What makes it important?"

Lisa Feldman Barrett offers another take on the so-called replication crisis in psychology.

Lisa Feldman Barrett takes on essentialism in psychology.

It's a sweet movie, but some scientists take this cartoon view of the brain too seriously.

Lisa Feldman Barrett and Jolie Wormwood reveal a little-known contributing factor for police shootings of unarmed civilians.

Does your face really broadcast emotion?

Dr. Barrett's response to the 2014 Edge question: "What scientific idea is ready for retirement?"