Meaning doesn’t stay inside individual brains. Shared attention and language allow meaning to become symbolic, social, and ...

Symbols. Who gets to decide what they really mean? Is perception truly reality? Should one person’s or a small group of people’s use of a symbol, such as a flag, in one way cloud the use of that same ...

Respected Reader, There is rarely (probably never) only one meaning for a symbol. I’ve recently learned a lot about the Confederacy and about the intended symbolism of 3 consecutive national flags of ...

Everyday symbols like &?!#@$ are highly memorable, according to new research. The new study led by the University of Waterloo aimed to investigate how well symbols are remembered compared to words ...

Symbols used by communities often serve as a visual representation of a group's identity, values, and shared beliefs. Representation is important, and the language and symbols used to represent an ...

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. It’s Earth Day 1990, and Meryl Streep walks into a bar. She’s distraught about the state of the environment.

Last week in this space, I mused about how quick we can be to over interpret events and ascribe tenuous meaning to actions that so often defy explanation. Less than 48 hours after I posted that column ...