Help or Hinder

Adult ADHD is often framed as a childhood condition you outgrow or medicate away, but the evidence tells a more complicated story. Drawing on a large Swedish register study and research on how undiagnosed adults cope...

Wellness culture sells altruism as a dependable happiness hack, but the evidence tells a more conditional story. This episode weighs three studies on whether helping others actually lifts your own mood and meaning, and...

Manifestation is often sold as a harmless, empowering mindset, but new peer-reviewed research suggests it makes believers feel more successful without making them any more so — and tracks with riskier money decisions...

A large Italian longitudinal study makes an unusually strong causal case that opening a social media account before ninth grade drags down learning — and the earlier it starts, the worse it gets. While the mental-health...

The travel industry sells a year abroad as a full personal transformation, but a Durham-led study tracking 180 UK students tells a more measured story. The deepest personality traits barely moved; the real gains were...

A small brain-imaging study found that young adults who watch more short-form video have more tightly and efficiently connected brains at rest — but 'different' is not the same as 'damaged', and this study can't tell us...

<p>Stoicism is sold today as a resilience toolkit, but does it actually build strength or quietly teach people to stop pushing for change? We trace how an ancient philosophy became the ancestor of modern cognitive...

Stoicism is sold today as a resilience toolkit, but does it actually build strength or quietly teach people to stop pushing for change? We trace how an ancient philosophy became the ancestor of modern cognitive therapy...

New profiling research on hikikomori — prolonged social withdrawal lasting at least six months — challenges the common belief that it is mainly driven by fear of social judgment. A study of 400 Japanese adults found...

<p>New profiling research on hikikomori — prolonged social withdrawal lasting at least six months — challenges the common belief that it is mainly driven by fear of social judgment. A study of 400 Japanese adults found...

A widely shared headline says left-handedness is linked to higher neuroticism, drawing on a University of Vienna study published in Brain and Cognition. We look at what the study actually measured — and why a small...

<p>A widely shared headline says left-handedness is linked to higher neuroticism, drawing on a University of Vienna study published in Brain and Cognition. We look at what the study actually measured — and why a small...

"Never attribute to malice what stupidity explains" feels fair and calming — and there's a real cognitive bias behind our habit of over-blaming people. But the tidy version of that science barely holds up, and in close...

<p>"Never attribute to malice what stupidity explains" feels fair and calming — and there's a real cognitive bias behind our habit of over-blaming people. But the tidy version of that science barely holds up, and in...

Meet Naomi and Jules, the two synthetic hosts of Help or Hinder — a weekly show that takes one popular claim about health, relationships, career or mindset and checks it against the actual research. Each episode ends on...