Mars Research
The evidence behind each core capability: peer-reviewed psychology and sociology research on why Mars is designed the way it is, and why it works.
- 2026
- Social psychology · Social networks01
Why relationships fade, and why timely follow-ups work
Most relationships do not end in conflict; they fade for lack of contact.
- Pragmatics · Computer-mediated communication · Emotion recognition02
Why text messages are misread, and what reading the subtext takes
A text message can be read in a way its writer never meant.
- Close relationships · Social support · Computer-mediated communication03
Why responsiveness shapes relationships, and where feeling understood comes from
Whether a relationship deepens depends less on what one person says than on how the other responds.
- Relationship science · Social perception · Trust in automation04
Can opportunities and risks in a relationship be seen early?
Where a relationship is heading often shows in how people interact before it shows in outcomes.
- Psycholinguistics · Negotiation psychology05
Why preparing before a meeting works: common ground and perspective-taking
A conversation goes well when both people build on what they already share.
- Organizational psychology · Memory · Note-taking06
Why meetings are forgotten: minutes, action items and who said what
Much of a meeting’s value lies in what happens after it, yet what was said, who said it and who agreed to do what fade quickly.
- Goal setting · Self-monitoring · Cognitive offloading07
Why goals need to be remembered and tracked
Setting a goal is only the first step: the goal has to stay in mind among competing demands, be checked against progress, and wait somewhere reliable when it cannot be acted on yet.
- Procrastination research · Prospective memory · Behavioural economics08
Why starting is the hardest part: procrastination, reminders and start-up cost
People do not always do what they intend to do (Sheeran & Webb, 2016).
- Source monitoring · Information literacy · Hallucination in language models09
Why sources must be checked: source memory, credibility and model-made citations
A claim that cannot be traced to its source is hard to check, and both people and language models lose track of sources.
- Cognitive psychology · Multimedia learning · Graphical perception10
Why a diagram is sometimes worth more than a paragraph
The same information can be easy or hard to use depending on how it is laid out.
- Privacy psychology · Information systems11
Why people dare to record their relationships: privacy, control and trust
A record of one’s relationships holds information about the person who keeps it and about everyone they know.