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Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash by Daniel Andrade During this time of social distancing, one thing I’ve been trying to focus on is staying active and working out. Whether it’s a run around the neighborhood or high-intensity interval training in my room, I’ve been trying my best to exercise throughout the week. One of the major things that has helped me get through some of these tougher workouts is my playlist, which mostly consists of hard rock anthems. I was curious to see if my playlist was unique, so I asked a few other friends what they exercise to. What kept them going through a workout? Photo by Patrik Michalicka on Unsplash The results were interesting. While I’m sweating to Linkin Park and Disturbed, some of my other friends were getting pumped up by Dua Lipa and Justin Timberlake. Were there musical selections any more effective than mine? Is there a reason why we gravitate toward certain songs when we’re in a good mood, or why we pick certain tunes to h...

by Daniel Andrade Photo by Tom Podmore on Unsplash As a student of psychology, I d iscovered an interesting paradox: the brain is an incredibly complex machine, and yet it’s so easy to fool it. Because the brain is working on literally millions of things all at once, it’s understandable that shortcuts would be taken from time to time. One such shortcut is with color. When we see color, it tends to evoke certain emotions without us even always realizing it. This has been studied for years now in a field known simply as Color Psychology . It’s important to note here before moving on that, while many studies have been done on the psychology of color, it’s unfortunately not something that is so black and white (pun intended). Because color often depends on context, and people interpret things differently based on culture and past experiences, what one color means or brings up for you might not be the same for someone else. Regardless, it’s still something fascinating t...