Quotes from Robin Marantz Henig

If you're satisfied with your social life, according to psychologists, you tend to be satisfied with life in general.

As people construct a life narrative, researchers have found, they tend to remember more events from the teens and twenties than from any other time. It's called the 'reminiscence bump.'

The tenuousness of modern life can make anyone feel overwrought.

Kids don't shuffle along in unison on the road to maturity. They slouch toward adulthood at an uneven, highly individual pace.

When a trait is universal, evolutionary biologists look for a genetic explanation and wonder how that gene or genes might enhance survival or reproductive success.

Scientists who study play, in animals and humans alike, are developing a consensus view that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories; more than a frivolous luxury.

The 20s are like the stem cell of human development: the pluripotent moment when any of several outcomes is possible. Decisions and actions during this time have lasting ramifications.

Biology sets the context, and that is critical, but obesity still boils down to whether a person eats too much or exercises enough.

Anxiety is not fear, exactly, because fear is focused on something right in front of you - a real and objective danger.

It's almost a rite of passage for the middle-aged, it seems, to invent generational stereotypes for dumping on the young.

Some people, no matter how robust their stock portfolios or how healthy their children, are always mentally preparing for doom. They are just born worriers, their brains forever anticipating the dropping of some dreaded other shoe.

Regret is a bitter emotion, so painful that the urge to avoid it often drives decision-making strategies.

I'm a freelance writer, and I work alone at a big desk in the living room of my apartment. There are many days when I don't utter a single word to anyone but my husband.

Many of us are tethered to bodies that sabotage us in our struggle to keep from getting fat, or to slim down when we do.

Lies can be verbal or nonverbal, kindhearted or self-serving, devious or bald-faced; they can be lies of omission or lies of commission; they can be lies that undermine national security or lies that make a child feel better. And each type might involve a unique neural pathway.

For humans and animals alike, truly vigorous, wholehearted, spontaneous play is something of a biological frill.