Why Do We Feel the Need to Collect So Many Things? — Here’s How the Urge to Accumulate May Have Helped Our Ancestors Survive

Why Do We Feel the Need to Collect So Many Things — Here's How the Urge to Accumulate May Have Helped Our Ancestors Survive

A lot of people love to collect things, whether it is books, toys, or even expensive items like luxury cars and watches. There are also others who don’t even categorize themselves as collectors, but still subconsciously keep extra food, tools, and cash. This strong urge to accumulate resources is common for a reason. It is … Read more

Why Do We Remember Rare and Dramatic Events More Than Common Ones? — Here’s How the Availability Heuristic Once Kept Our Ancestors Alive

Why Do We Remember Rare and Dramatic Events More Than Common Ones — Here’s What Scientists Learned About the Availability Heuristic

Think about a recent event that you have lived or heard about. Chances are, dramatic and rare events may have popped up faster in your head than the common ones that we experience every single day. For most people, this would be the case too. Our minds just could easily remember the rare phenomenon better … Read more

Why the First Piece of Information We Hear Influences All Our Future Decisions? — Here’s What Researchers Discovered About the Anchoring Effect in Early Humans

Why the First Piece of Information We Hear Influences All Our Future Decisions — Here's What Researchers Discovered About the Anchoring Effect

Have you ever heard the price of an item for the first time, and then compared the prices of other items to it, even though they may not be the same products? Or have you ever heard from a friend that a specific movie was bad, and while watching it, you notice more of the … Read more

Why Do We Believe Information That Confirms What We Already Think? — Here’s How Evolution Shaped Confirmation Bias for Survival

Why Do We Believe Information That Confirms What We Already Think — Here’s What Scientists Found About Confirmation Bias

Have you ever caught yourself agreeing with certain information, and then noticing more of that in your life? For example, if you heard that drivers of a specific car brand are bad drivers and you agree with it, you might find yourself noticing more of those behaviors that support this belief. Like if one cuts … Read more

How Much Did Homo sapiens Contribute to the Extinction of the Neanderthals Around 40,000 Years Ago? — Here’s What Scientists Suggest

How Much Did Homo sapiens Contribute to the Extinction of the Neanderthals Around 40,000 Years Ago — Here’s What Scientists Suggest

Neanderthals are an archaic human that is part of the genus Homo, like Homo sapiens. They inhabited Europe and some parts of Asia, even before the modern human species migrated there. They are believed to have physically stronger bodies and a larger brain than us. However, around 40,000 years ago, their species completely disappeared. It … Read more

Why Did Homo erectus, After Surviving for Nearly 2 Million Years, Finally Go Extinct Around 110,000 Years Ago? — Here’s What Experts Suggest

Why Did Homo erectus, After Surviving for Nearly 2 Million Years, Finally Go Extinct Around 110,000 Years Ago — Here’s What Experts Suggest

Homo erectus is one of modern humans’ ancient relatives who first existed around 2 million years ago. They are the longest-lived human species, but around 110,000 years ago, they finally vanished. But, if they have survived for an extraordinarily long period, what could possibly be the reasons for their disappearance? Fossil evidence found in Java, … Read more

Why Did Homo sapiens Interbreed With Neanderthals Around 50,000 Years Ago? — Here’s What DNA Reveals About Their Union

Why Did Homo sapiens Interbreed With Neanderthals Around 50,000 Years Ago — Here’s What DNA Reveals About Their Union

Around 70,000 to 50,000 years ago, the modern human species, Homo sapiens, was finally able to successfully migrate out of Africa into other continents like Asia and Europe. In these new environments, they met an already established population of different human species, such as the Neanderthals. Today, about 1 to 4% of the DNA of … Read more

How Did Early Humans Survive the Ice Age That Began Around 2.6 Million Years Ago? — Here’s What Experts Discovered

How Did Early Humans Survive the Ice Age That Began Around 2.6 Million Years Ago — Here’s What Experts Discovered

When people talk about the ice age, they usually refer to the glacial period that ended around 11,700 years ago and peaked around 20,000 years ago. By this time, the modern human species, Homo sapiens, has been developing for over 200,000 years, and the genus Homo has been around for nearly 2.5 million years. So, … Read more

Why Did Early Humans Begin to Develop Larger Brains Nearly 2.5 Million Years Ago? — Here’s What Scientists Suggest

Why Did Early Humans Begin to Develop Larger Brains Nearly 2.5 Million Years Ago — Here’s What Scientists Suggest

Before, the brain size of our ancestral lineage was no bigger than that of modern-day Chimpanzees, but around 2.5 million years ago, it began to develop. During this period, our brains saw a significant increase in size and gradually grew beyond the normal hominid or ape-like proportions. Along with this change was the appearance of … Read more