These talks examine where (and how) relationships and love factor into our technologically-driven world.

Insightful TED Talks to help guide you on your journey to healthier, stronger relationships with others — and yourself.

These talks can help guide you in nurturing close, meaningful bonds with a long-distance partner, family, a new acquaintance or anyone in between.

Emotional abuse can be incredibly damaging, increasing a person's chances of developing depression and anxiety. But these behaviors can be subtle and difficult to spot, both from within and outside a relationship. It also often makes people doubt their perceptions of their own mistreatment. How can we recognize these patterns in real life? Viann...

Our hyper-connected lives have been rewired for the digital age. These talks explore how the Internet and social media are shaping our relationships, personal lives and sense of self.

When personal relationships and ideological differences collide, the result can lead to strained relations -- or even years of silence and distance. Actor Betty Hart offers an alternative to cold shoulders and haughty hellos: compassion, and a chance for growth and change instead of losing important time with loved ones.

An idea permeates our modern view of relationships: that men and women have always paired off in sexually exclusive relationships. But before the dawn of agriculture, humans may actually have been quite promiscuous. Author Christopher Ryan walks us through the controversial evidence that human beings are sexual omnivores by nature, in hopes that...

Wendy Troxel looks at the cultural expectations that pressure couples into sharing a bed and why some relationships would benefit from sleeping separately. This talk was filmed at TEDxManhattanBeach. All TEDx events are organized independently by volunteers in the spirit of TED's mission of ideas worth spreading. To learn more about TEDxSHORTS, ...

How can an established company maintain a startup mentality? Intrapreneur Shoel Perelman argues that first it must retain its internal rebels. To do so, Perelman suggests a system inspired by online dating that matches rebels from big companies with small companies that need their skills and keeps the entrepreneurial spirit alive in the biggest ...

No matter how long you've been together, it never hurts to have a little refresher course on what really matters.

In a tech-obsessed culture, it can be difficult to build genuine relationships with people, especially in the workplace. Robert Reffkin shares his tips and tricks for establishing authentic connections on the job.

Hilary Cottam wants to redesign the welfare state using the power of relationships.

Through her podcasts "Where Should We Begin?" and "How's Work?," psychotherapist Esther Perel is changing the conversation on the way we communicate, connect and conflict in our relationships -- at home and at work.

Robots reflect their creators: Us. Counterintuitive and insightful, these robots show us glimmers into what it means to be human.

Related or not, living under the same roof can be tough.

Rejection hurts. It's incredibly painful to feel like you're not wanted — and we do mean painful. Researchers found that we relate rejection to being "hurt," using terms like "crushed" or "broken-hearted." So, why does rejection trigger such a strong response, and is there any way to cope with this unique kind of pain? Explore common strategies ...

Believe it or not, it's often difficult to get people to claim abandoned funds, whether from a forgotten savings account, an uncashed check or a long-ago refund. Why is this? Unclaimed funds manager Monica Johnson posits that, as a society, we have been sucked into a throwaway culture, where we'd rather toss aside what's ours rather than deal wi...

Who doesn't love love? A collection of talks for those who can't get enough of it.

A senior editor of science and technology reporting at TIME magazine, Jeffrey Kluger has written books on a wide range of science subjects, including the Polio vaccine, Apollo 13 and the effect of sibling relationships.

In long-term relationships, we often expect our beloved to be both best friend and erotic partner. But as Esther Perel argues, good and committed sex draws on two conflicting needs: our need for security and our need for surprise. So how do you sustain desire? With wit and eloquence, Perel lets us in on the mystery of erotic intelligence.

In our busy, technologically-driven world, we need empathy more than ever. It's, as social entrepreneur Gwen Yi Wong puts it, "the capacity to see parts of yourself in everybody else." And it all starts with showing up for the people in our lives and really listening to them.

"Being a psychologist studying empathy today is a little bit like being a climatologist studying the polar ice caps," says psychology professor Jamil Zaki. That's because according to research, our collective empathy is eroding. But there is good news: Empathy is a skill, it can be built, and he explains how he — and others — are doing just tha...

Rainn Wilson is an actor ("The Office"), comedian and film producer, a climate advocate and a member of the advisory board of Arctic Basecamp.

In a lyrical, unexpectedly funny talk about heavy topics such as frayed relationships and the death of a loved one, Elizabeth Lesser describes the healing process of putting aside pride and defensiveness to make way for soul-baring and truth-telling. "You don't have to wait for a life-or-death situation to clean up the relationships that matter ...

In our tech-driven, interconnected world, we've developed new ways and rules to court each other, but the fundamental principles of love have stayed the same, says anthropologist Helen Fisher. Our faster connections, she suggests, are actually leading to slower, more intimate relationships. At 12:20, couples therapist and relationship expert Est...

Formally or informally, human societies across place and time have made rules to bind and dissolve couples. The stakes of who can obtain a divorce, and why, have always been high. Divorce is a battlefield for some of society's most urgent issues, including the roles of church and state, individual rights, and women's rights. Rod Phillips digs in...

Stefana Broadbent watches us while we communicate, work and go about our daily lives. She is one of a new class of ethnographers who study the way our social habits and relationships function and mutate in the digital age.

When two people join a dating website they are matched according to shared interests and how they answer a number of personal questions. But how do sites calculate the likelihood of a successful relationship? Christian Rudder one of the founders of popular dating site OKCupid details the algorithm behind 'hitting it off.' [Directed by Franz Palo...

Thought-provoking talks on the ever-expanding definition of what it means to be family.

Love often feels inexplicable, the most unpredictable of forces. Using science, math and methodical observation, these speakers offer clues to understanding it.