Our brain has a very complex relationship with money. From a purely economic perspective it really should be simple – money is a tool that’s used to get something done, no different to a shovel or a hammer. But while the mathematics of economics may be coldly rational, our brain is not. The human brain [...]

Every casino game is a game of odds, but not always in the way you think. Work published this month in the journal Neuron shows that almost winning actually increases the odds – that we’ll keep playing. The house always wins Gambling is a widespread cultural phenomena that has spanned thousands of years and almost [...]

Panic on the stockroom floor and giddy excitement watching the lottery. Emotions are intimately tied up with moneymaking decisions. But why does money have such a magical influence on how our brain makes decisions? And when it comes to money, are our brains hard wired to judge how risky something is? This is your brain [...]

You want to be happier. But what does that actually mean? How can a strong biological drive that can dominate our lives, still remain such an ambiguous and variable concept? Before we begin to examine ways to increase our happiness we’d better start by trying to nail down some sort of definition. On the surface [...]

Why do we feel strong emotional attachments to inanimate objects? Simple, you can blame your biology. But by understanding the way the brain works, can this help us get what we want? Some of you looking at the Lotus Elise (pictured above) will see something ugly and wildly impractical. But that’s not what I see. [...]