The Psychology of Genres, Formats, and Screen Culture

Why we laugh and what makes something funny: incongruity, relief, and benign violation, and how humor builds connection.

Why we seek out fear on purpose: safe threat, arousal, catharsis, and the mastery of dread.

Why we watch: social comparison, parasocial bonds, and the reality that is carefully constructed.

Flow, mastery, and the basic needs games meet: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Why characters break into song: heightened emotion, and the moments when feeling outgrows speech.

Power, myth, and the mask: why superhero stories endure and what they say about identity.

Intimacy, companionship, and the voice in your ear: the parasocial pull of audio.

Why we root for the morally compromised protagonist: identification, moral licensing, and the shadow.

Memory, meaning, and the uses of the past: why nostalgia comforts and steadies identity.

The shadow, cultural fear, and why we are drawn to the wicked.

Arousal, social currency, and why some things spread: the psychology of sharing.

A psychologist on fantasy football: the needs it meets, the community it builds, why it is hard to put down, and the costs it can quietly take, including the line into gambling.

A psychologist on soda: why a handful of logos are known worldwide, the drink's strange origins, why sugar and fizz hook us, why some drink four a day, and why the culture is changing.

A psychologist on coffee: how caffeine actually works, why the morning cup is really a ritual, the cafe as a third place, and the honest line between habit and dependence.