#cultural-fascination

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fromThe Atlantic
1 day ago

How Some People Became So Averse to Hype

Anna Holmes defines 'hype aversion' as a reflex against being told what to like, suggesting that popularity can create pressure rather than signal quality. This feeling can lead to a deliberate choice to resist mainstream culture.
Media industry
Design
fromDesign Milk
2 days ago

OUTSIDERS Investigates the Space Between Society and Solitude

Modern design challenges conventional public seating to enhance social interaction and presence in urban spaces.
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 days ago

The US is no longer the go-to place': How Korean culture is taking Latin America by storm

The Korean wave or hallyu that brought the country's culture to the world has now well and truly engulfed Latin America.
Madrid food
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 days ago

A moment that changed me: for the first time in my life, a stranger pronounced my name correctly

I would squirm in my chair as my new teacher worked their way through the class register, and my stomach would drop as they attempted to say my full name: Priti Ubhayakar.
Writing
Music production
fromPitchfork
6 days ago

Nobody's Chosen: An Interview With Sideshow

Sideshow's album TIGRAY FUNK addresses societal issues through personal experiences and a unique musical fusion of G-funk and Ethiopian influences.
fromThe Art Newspaper - International art news and events
1 week ago

Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution

Bregman claims, 'Today the whole of Europe risks turning into one big Venice, a beautiful open-air museum. A great destination for Chinese and American tourists. A place to admire what was once the centre of the world.' This statement encapsulates the concern that Europe is losing its cultural significance.
Arts
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
5 days ago

Why Creative People Struggle to Commit to One Path

Multipotentiality reflects cognitive flexibility and creativity, challenging the notion that pursuing multiple interests indicates a lack of focus.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

Readers reply: Travel broadens the mind what other sayings are patently false, or not always true?

Travel broadens the mind thing has been knocking around since long before time immemorial, but I'm pretty sure for Seneca, among others, travel meant pottering about with great effort, getting to know other peoples, their ways of speech, habits, and foibles.
Travel
Arts
fromHyperallergic
1 week ago

Social Malpractice in the Age of Cultural Compliance

Socially engaged art faces challenges in a world increasingly hostile to independent thought and public expression.
Relationships
fromPsychology Today
2 weeks ago

The Brief Life of Travel Friendships

Travel friendships are psychologically real relationships that form in liminal spaces where normal social roles temporarily dissolve, enabling rapid intimacy through shared novel experiences and vulnerability.
Mental health
fromHarvard Gazette
2 weeks ago

The things we carry - Harvard Gazette

Childhood adverse experiences cause long-term health damage through cellular-level biological changes that increase risks for cardiovascular disease, mental health problems, and other conditions decades later.
Berlin
fromPsychology Today
3 weeks ago

The Fear of Being Different When Traveling

Visiting Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini mausoleum revealed that being visibly different as an American tourist created unexpected anxiety despite Iranians' genuine friendliness.
Music
fromPsychology Today
3 weeks ago

Art as a Biological Bedrock of Shared Humanity

Humans are biologically wired for shared artistic experiences, which serve as essential connective tissue for our nervous systems and cultural identity, transcending the perceived obsolescence of performing arts in the digital age.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
3 weeks ago

What Defines a Civilization?

Civilization requires a writing system, government, food surplus, labor division, and urbanization, with Mesopotamia recognized as the birthplace of civilization due to its early city construction around 5400 BCE.
Women in technology
fromPsychology Today
3 weeks ago

Creative Potential Is Equal; Recognition Is Not

Research demonstrates no gender differences in creative thinking ability, yet women receive significantly less recognition and support for creativity across industries, creating unequal outcomes despite equal potential.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
2 weeks ago

The Sartorial Is Political in "The New York Sari"

The sari functions as a living art form, historical document, and political statement that reflects South Asian diaspora experiences and identity in New York.
Philosophy
Society exists as a real entity distinct from individuals, comparable to how organs form a brain; denying society's existence while acknowledging individuals is logically inconsistent.
fromThe Conversation
1 month ago

Today's obsession with authenticity isn't new - being true to yourself has troubled philosophers for centuries

All of us live in an age where we're bombarded by social media and artificial intelligence - when striving to be your authentic self becomes an increasingly difficult task. Yet, even if it has somehow become a common goal, it is unclear how many of us can truly define the "authenticity" that we say we are pursuing.
Philosophy
fromInsideHook
1 month ago

Are the Humanities Poised for an Academic Comeback?

Many colleges and universities have made cuts in these programs, often bolstering STEM programs at their expense. It's a situation that has sparked no small amount of impassioned editorials. The headline of a recent article at The Guardian by Alice Speri referenced an 'existential crisis at U.S. universities,' and Speri's reporting features numerous examples of undergraduate and graduate programs facing cuts or outright elimination.
Higher education
Travel
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The one change that worked: I stopped planning holidays and found the joy in travel

Excessive travel planning and online research eliminate spontaneity and joy from experiences, transforming vacations into administrative tasks rather than adventures.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

What Fetishists Can Teach Us About Consumerism and Desire

Fetish cultures transform ordinary objects into sources of transcendent meaning and sustained erotic power that resist the disappointment of conventional consumerism.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Ways to Traverse a Territory review documenting an ancient and disappearing way of life

Here dwells the indigenous Tzotzil community which has kept a pastoral way of life against the march of time. Apart from the odd forest ranger and passerby, Ruvalcaba's film focuses almost entirely on the Tzotzil women. Together, they tend herds of sheep which they still shear by hand, and use traditional tools for spinning yarns and natural dye for fabrics.
Film
Music
fromNature
1 month ago

Music is not a universal language - but it can bring us together when words fail

Music continues to unite people globally and remains central to debates about universality, human uniqueness, and responses to AI-driven inhumanity.
#creativity
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Reimaging Psychology or Revitalizing the Humanities?

The psychological humanities integrates psychological science with art and literature to create a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior and improved mental health care practices.
fromBuzzFeed
1 month ago

50 Historical Photos That Are So Shocking, They're Changing My Perception Of The Entire World

I recently gained a new obsession, and I'm ready to share it with the world: finding and analyzing rare vintage images. A picture speaks a thousand words, and these photographs tell us more about history than a textbook chapter ever could. So even if you think history is boring, I'm well-equipped to change your mind, and give you some delicious food for your brain to chew on today.
History
fromPrx
1 month ago

The World

The US Supreme Court has struck down much of the Trump administration's tariffs on foreign goods, which have been a cornerstone of its trade and foreign policies. Also, Iran prepares for a possible US military strike. And, the International Energy Agency has removed climate change from its list of priorities for the next two years, following threats from the US
World news
Philosophy
fromApaonline
1 month ago

The Humanities Challenge: Expanding the Circle of Philosophy

Philosophy offers transformative insights and vision into human life, and public humanities must evolve beyond traditional academic formats to make philosophy accessible to broader audiences through innovative, engaging methods.
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

The Politics of Looking Away

Like us, you may feel paralyzed in the face of the relentless images of violence we see every day. Suffering children, military occupations, the devastated neighborhoods, the cries of parents mourning their dead-these scenes haunt us. Whether it is happening in Palestine or Minneapolis, we are witnesses to suffering, and that witnessing takes a heavy toll. Clearly, the devastating situations in the West Bank and Gaza and in Minneapolis differ
Social justice
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

The Irish Do It Best

The Irish government will give 2,000 artists unrestricted weekly stipends in a program officials described as a "recognition, at government level, of the important role of the arts in Irish society." After a successful three-year pilot, the Irish government made its basic income program for artists permanent. Similar pilots have been launched here in the United States, but they're supported primarily by the nonprofit sector.
Arts
World news
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Photographers documented the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Ramadan in Gaza, Russian airstrikes in Odesa, and severe flooding in France.
Business
fromFast Company
2 months ago

Navigating the ghosts of cultures past

Organizational culture constantly changes; leaders must discern which legacy cultural elements to retain and which to remove while balancing enduring beliefs with adaptive practices.
Philosophy
fromBig Think
1 month ago

The 3 colors: What folktales teach about how to grow wise

European folktales use red, black, and white colors to represent three modes of being that map human maturation: red as ambition and life force, black as introspection and shadow, and white as wisdom and transcendence.
#photography
Science
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

We've got rhythm but why? What science can explain about dance

Dancing activates complex, coordinated bodily systems, engaging dozens of muscles and sensory inputs, and yields profound physical and mental benefits across cultures.
Digital life
fromBuzzFeed
2 months ago

People Are Pointing Out The Parts Of American Culture That Are Changing Before Our Eyes

Widespread convenience technologies let people avoid leaving home, reducing everyday face-to-face interaction and increasing social isolation, division, and hostility.
fromExchangewire
1 month ago

Timmy Bankole, CultureSync Media Q&A

We meet CultureSync Media founder Timmy Bankole, formerly of SCMP, discusses why cultural insight and audience understanding are fast becoming the most valuable currencies in modern advertising... Timmy Bankole has a wide range of experience across the ad tech spectrum, counting roles at Blis, PHD and South China Morning Post, and has recently founded agency CultureSync Media. In this Q&A, Timmy shares how agencies can move beyond generic targeting to uncover the deeper cultural codes shaping consumer behaviour.
Marketing
Renovation
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

Rooms as Heritage: How Interior Typologies Carry Cultural Memory

Cultural memory often survives in domestic interiors and everyday practices rather than visible architectural facades.
#virtual-museums
Books
fromSlate Magazine
2 months ago

Are We Just Recycling Old Stories, Ideas, and Styles?

21st-century culture is abundant and accessible but suffers an innovation deficit, leaving a "blank space" where original cultural creation should emerge.
Science
fromNature
2 months ago

Daily briefing: Scientists delve into the smells of history

Researchers recreate historical smells and use imaging, AI, and biomedical advances to probe heritage, ancient human timelines, medical rescue devices, and rare-disease genetics.
fromBuzzFeed
1 month ago

15 Adults Reveal The Bizarre Family Traditions That Left Other People Completely Stunned

Letting our dogs lick the dishes before we put them in the dishwasher!
Relationships
Photography
fromAnOther
2 months ago

Photos Capturing the Culture, Landscapes and People of Asia

Asia is presented through multiple native, migrant, and passerby gazes, revealing overlapping pasts, presents, and imagined futures via photographic perspectives.
fromwww.aljazeera.com
2 months ago

The Unknown: A Filmmaker's Search for Lost Connections

Filmmaker Simplice Ganou, from Burkina Faso, spends his time documenting people and relationships, but when he travels to Winterthur, Switzerland, he faces a new challenge: nobody wants to talk to him.
Film
Social justice
fromThe Nation
1 month ago

The Truth About Interracial Intimacy

Racialized desire can make race itself the object of erotic attraction, producing unease and complex social and power dynamics within interracial interactions.
World news
fromPrx
1 month ago

The World

Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years; Milan Cortina bans PFAS ski wax; Sanae Takaichi won snap election; Albania reviews 45 years of Hoxha films.
fromInside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
2 months ago

We Need to Revitalize Area Studies (opinion)

Just before winter break, news broke that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plans to close its centers for African, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Slavic, Eurasian and East European studies. Though UNC administrators said in a statement that decisions on closures are not finalized, they confirmed they are evaluating centers and institutes as part of a budget-cutting effort in response to state and federal funding changes.
Higher education
fromMail Online
1 month ago

Mysterious symbols spanning the globe hint at a lost civilization

His investigation began after identifying recurring giant T-shapes, three-level indents, and step pyramids carved into ancient stones worldwide. 'These specific symbols that are built in different size proportions, and the symbols are found in ancient stones around the world, are not supposed to exist; no cultures are supposed to have any cross-platform,' LaCroix explained. The symbols appear in locations ranging from Turkey's Van region to South America and Cambodia.
History
Relationships
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Addressing Identity and Belonging in Cross-Cultural Marriages

Cross-cultural marriages reshape personal and joint identities, producing expansion, conflict, or marginalization while requiring co-created belonging across family, culture, and society.
Travel
fromCN Traveller
1 month ago

From Cornwall to the Amazon: how a cross-cultural love story expanded my sense of home

A cross-cultural relationship between an English woman and a Brazilian partner expands her world through shared food, places and sensory experiences.
fromForbes
2 months ago

Brooklyn Museum's Latest Exhibition Blends Art, Fashion And Science

On May 16, 2026,Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senseswill make its North American debut at the museum, showcasing more than 140 haute couture creations alongside contemporary art from artists such as Philip Beesley, Rogan Brown, Casey Curran, Kim Keever, and Nick Knight, in addition to unique design and scientific artifacts. The much-anticipated exhibit, which will run through December 6, 2026, will explore how renowned Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen fuses various mediums of expression.
Music
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

How Diversity Informs the Conversation

Shared attention and inclusive listening, not uniformity, enable social cohesion and allow diverse perspectives to form a coherent, exploratory collective voice.
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

How Culture Shapes What We Feel-and What We Think We Should Feel

A large global study across 69 countries found something unexpected: the more individualistic a society is, the more similar people are in how they feel-and in how they want to feel. Across 59 out of 60 emotions, emotional experiences showed greater uniformity in individualistic cultures. This challenges the common assumption that collectivistic cultures are emotionally restrictive because they suppress individuality. In fact, emotional life in individualistic societies appears to be shaped by strong shared norms that dictate which emotions are acceptable, desirable, or problematic-especially regarding negative emotions.
Psychology
fromBig Think
2 months ago

Why the real revolution isn't AI - it's meaning

Peter Drucker saw this symbiosis first. He realized that the new industrial order would depend on a worker who produced ideas instead of widgets. The knowledge worker became the engine of prosperity, and management became the social technology that synchronized millions of minds. The modern firm was as much an invention as the transistor it depended on. Three decades later, Tom Peters caught the next wave.
Business
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

What a Fantasy Can Reveal About Real Life

Fictional lies and imagined worlds can reveal deeper human truths through protagonists who fabricate realities, exposing inner desires, vulnerabilities, and psychological unraveling.
World news
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Global photojournalists documented ICE operations, Russian airstrikes, protests in Greenland and Sakhnin, and the Africa Cup of Nations final in Rabat last week.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

We Must Do More Than Simply Depict Our Lives

The Bronx Museum biennial spotlights representational works that center urban youth and marginalized identities, challenging mainstream narratives through sincere, everyday portrayals.
Higher education
fromwww.mercurynews.com
1 month ago

Opinion: Sociology is taking it on the chin. Here's how we can preserve this critical field of study.

Sociology faces politicized attacks, curricular exclusion, and erosion of departmental standing despite teaching critical thinking, inequality analysis, interdisciplinary synthesis, and scrutiny of power.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

When Two Brains Meet

Human brains are wired to seek and reward social connection; even brief moments of joint attention and acknowledgment produce meaningful neural and psychological benefits.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

The week around the world in 20 pictures

The brutal crackdown in Iran, ICE in Minneapolis, Russian aistrikes in Kyiv and heavy rain in Gaza the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists
World news
Philosophy
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Can Accepting Our Biological Heritage Improve the World?

Biological imperative centers on protecting, promoting, and propagating genetic code, shaping behavior, sex-specific roles, physiology, and intergenerational wellbeing.
Psychology
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Upside of Not Fitting In

Feeling like an outsider often signals growth potential and builds resilience, creativity, and original thinking through discomfort rather than indicating failure.
fromWIRED
2 months ago

Why Everyone Is Suddenly in a 'Very Chinese Time' in Their Lives

In case you didn't get the memo, everyone is feeling very Chinese these days. Across social media, people are proclaiming that "You met me at a very Chinese time of my life," while performing stereotypically Chinese-coded activities like eating dim sum or wearing the viral Adidas Chinese jacket. The trend blew up so much in recent weeks that celebrities like comedian Jimmy O Yang and influencer Hasan Piker even got in on it. It has now evolved into variations like " Chinamaxxing" (acting increasingly more Chinese) and " u will turn Chinese tomorrow " (a kind of affirmation or blessing).
World news
Arts
fromHyperallergic
2 months ago

Uman's Diasporic Abstraction

Uman's work evokes floating, mutable memories that bridge a lost homeland and the imagined labor of dreaming it back into existence.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

The Psychology of the Collective Unconscious

A shared, inherited collective unconscious shapes human emotions, recurring archetypal imagery, and convergent dream themes across cultures, especially during times of stress.
fromApaonline
2 months ago

Philosophy at the Threshold of Belonging

I grew up in West Baltimore where I experienced homelessness for almost the entirety of high school. For me, philosophy emerged in situations of precarity and uncertainty. Those formative years, spent not so much in a single home as in a patchwork of many, shaped what are now some of my central philosophical concerns: belonging, exclusion, and the status of those at the margins of society, those at the threshold of belonging.
Philosophy
World news
fromPrx
2 months ago

The World

US efforts to control Greenland spark protests; Julio Iglesias faces abuse allegations; Martin Luther King Jr.'s global anti-oppression legacy and an African independence leader's story
Arts
fromHyperallergic
2 months ago

Giving and Receiving: Memoirs of an Immigrant Curator and Philanthropist

Marica Vilcek, an immigrant art historian, built a 30-year curatorial career at The Met and co-founded the Vilcek Foundation to support immigrant artists and scientists.
fromCraftBeer.com
2 months ago

Ink & Drink: Uncovering the Historical Bonds of Tattoos and Fermentation Across Cultures

Tattoos and fermentation rarely appear in the same conversation, yet across the world, they share a quiet kinship. Both are practices of transformation, crafts that reshape raw material over time through care and relationships to the land, the spiritual, and the community. Tattooing inscribes identity and ancestry onto skin, while fermentation preserves, nourishes, and binds communities through shared taste and ritual. Both create change, brewing something more than themselves through embodied knowledge passed between generations.
Arts
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 month ago

Behavioral scientists confirm fast walkers share the same personality pattern across cultures - Silicon Canals

Walking speed correlates with consistent personality traits worldwide; fast walkers tend to be future-focused, ambitious planners with internal momentum.
Arts
fromSilicon Canals
1 month ago

8 signs you appreciate art, music, and culture on a deeper level than most people - Silicon Canals

Some people experience art deeply, reacting emotionally and perceiving subtle artistic cues that reveal heightened sensitivity and meaningful connections to creative expression.
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

How White Elites Drained Ancient Art of Its Color

In the autumn of 2022, Max and I walked up the iconic steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to visit Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color. As the young son of a professional classicist, and a burgeoning one himself, my museum partner already knew about the ancient history of painted statues when we began to explore the galleries. Max's knowledge seemed the exception rather than the rule.
Arts
Arts
from48 hills
2 months ago

His suburban idylls teem with the 'uncanny magic of the exceptionally unexceptional' - 48 hills

Jonathan Crow’s American Realist paintings prioritize mood, composition, and color to evoke intuitive, music-like emotional responses that resist simple verbal definition.
Arts
fromColossal
2 months ago

'The Atlas of World Embroidery' Traces the Global History of the Art Form

Embroidery is a global, diverse needlework practice used for functional, ceremonial, and aesthetic purposes across cultures, often incorporating beads, shells, and found objects.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

How Liminalism Became the Defining Aesthetic of Our Time

Crowd-curated liminal photography captures eerie, nostalgic unease in abandoned commercial spaces, reflecting a collective artistic response to late-capitalist decline.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
2 months ago

Nicola L.'s Soft Power

Nicola L.'s playful functional sculptures blend second-wave feminist motifs with collaborative, wearable works that enact resistance and solidarity.
Arts
fromwww.aljazeera.com
1 month ago

Is globalisation killing craftsmanship?

The rise of fast, cheap mass production erodes handmade crafts, threatening sustainability, cultural identity, and artisanal skills in a profit-driven global economy.
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