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The famous bystander effect was first noticed by two psychologists, Latane and Darley, after a murder occurred in New York’s Kew Gardens at 3:00 a.m. There was nothing extraordinary about the victim, the murderer, or even the method. What made headlines in the New York Times was the manner in which the murder took place – slowly, over half an hour, with the killer returning multiple times to finis...

First Published in India Today on on 6th July 2025 Vaccine hesitancy has a long history. Initially, vaccines were opposed on religious grounds, viewed as interference with divine will. Later, in liberal societies, they were resisted as infringements on personal freedom, especially when made mandatory. In modern times, the anti-vaccine movement gained steam from 1998 through a widely publ...

Last week, Trump Compared Bunker Busters to Atom Bombs. That’s like comparing: Firing your apprentice to decimating a civilization! The MOAB (Mother of All Bombs) may be America’s biggest non-nuclear bomb, but it doesn’t come with the generational radiation, surrender of nations, or the rewriting of world history. The illusion here is not just technical, it’s historical and moral. Hiroshi...

Amit Shah was not just defending his son’s English… The direction in which the BJP government has been moving – with its strong cultural and political assertion – had made it seem that, in time, while English might continue to be the language of the self-proclaimed elite, Hindi would increasingly become the language of the power elite. But this linguistic transition now faces headwinds. G...

The B-2 Bomber just flew a PR mission as much as a military one. Defence marketing has a long but largely undocumented history. Until the 17th century, colonial powers maintained a tacit agreement not to arm their subject states, lest the weapons spark rebellion. While arms were supplied covertly, the lack of formal records-other than the accounts of war enthusiasts-has left the field historica...

I came across this striking experiment by social psychologist Bibb Latané. Participants were placed in separate booths and asked to cheer as loudly as possible. In some cases, they were told they were shouting alone; in others, that their shouts would be combined with others in a group. In truth, they were always shouting alone. But when they believed they were part of a group, their effort...