Psychology
Discover facts about psychology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Psychology
Framing effect is a cognitive bias where people decide on options based strictly on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations, such as a loss or a…
Framing effect is a cognitive bias where people decide on options based strictly on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations,…
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Ostrich effect is the cognitive bias that causes people to completely avoid information they perceive as negative by physically or metaphorically ignoring it, much like the…
Ostrich effect is the cognitive bias that causes people to completely avoid information they perceive as negative by physically or metaphorically ignoring it,…
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Horn effect is a cognitive bias that causes one's perception of another person to be unduly influenced by a single negative trait, leading to an unfairly harsh assessment of…
Horn effect is a cognitive bias that causes one's perception of another person to be unduly influenced by a single negative trait, leading to an unfairly…
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Offering an external reward for an activity that a person already intrinsically enjoys will paradoxically decrease their overall motivation to continue doing it once the reward is removed.
Offering an external reward for an activity that a person already intrinsically enjoys will paradoxically decrease their overall motivation to continue doing…
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Othello error occurs when a suspicious observer discounts cues of truthfulness and falsely assumes that an anxious subject is lying.
Othello error occurs when a suspicious observer discounts cues of truthfulness and falsely assumes that an anxious subject is lying. Named after Shakespeare's…
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Individuals appear significantly more physically attractive when they are part of a group rather than when viewed in isolation, a perceptual illusion known as the cheerleader effect.
Individuals appear significantly more physically attractive when they are part of a group rather than when viewed in isolation, a perceptual illusion known as…
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Being excluded from a group chat actually registers in your brain as physical, bodily injury.
Being excluded from a group chat actually registers in your brain as physical, bodily injury. Neurological studies on social ostracism reveal that being…
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Staring at a totally normal word and repeating it out loud twenty times will cause your brain to suddenly reject it as a meaningless string of alien gibberish.
Staring at a totally normal word and repeating it out loud twenty times will cause your brain to suddenly reject it as a meaningless string of alien…
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Slapping a white lab coat on a complete stranger and giving them a clipboard is all it takes to convince most people to inflict lethal electrical shocks on their peers.
Slapping a white lab coat on a complete stranger and giving them a clipboard is all it takes to convince most people to inflict lethal electrical shocks on…
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Hostages sometimes develop psychological bonds with their captors as a survival strategy, which popular culture has romanticized as Stockholm syndrome despite it being a deeply…
Hostages sometimes develop psychological bonds with their captors as a survival strategy, which popular culture has romanticized as Stockholm syndrome despite…
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Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity results in an irrational or…
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Giving high accuracy ratings to personality descriptions that are supposedly tailored specifically to you, but are actually vague enough to apply to a wide range of people, is known as the Forer effect.
Giving high accuracy ratings to personality descriptions that are supposedly tailored specifically to you, but are actually vague enough to apply to a wide…
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Forgetting information that can easily be found online using internet search engines is a modern memory phenomenon known as the Google effect or digital amnesia.
Forgetting information that can easily be found online using internet search engines is a modern memory phenomenon known as the Google effect or digital…
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Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully visible, but unexpected object because your attention was engaged on another task.
Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully visible, but unexpected object because your attention was engaged on another task. If you are…
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Hindsight bias is the common tendency for people to perceive past events as having been more predictable than they actually were.
Hindsight bias is the common tendency for people to perceive past events as having been more predictable than they actually were. After a stock market crash…
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Scarcity principle dictates that humans place a higher value on an object that is scarce, and a lower value on those that are abundant, which directly overrides all rational…
Scarcity principle dictates that humans place a higher value on an object that is scarce, and a lower value on those that are abundant, which directly…
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Hot-cold empathy gap is a psychological dynamic in which people vastly underestimate the influence of visceral drives on their own attitudes, preferences, and behaviors.
Hot-cold empathy gap is a psychological dynamic in which people vastly underestimate the influence of visceral drives on their own attitudes, preferences, and…
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People tend to develop a strong preference for things or individuals merely because they are familiar with them.
People tend to develop a strong preference for things or individuals merely because they are familiar with them. That terribly annoying coworker you…
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Seeing an incredibly adorable puppy often triggers a bizarre psychological urge to aggressively squeeze bite or crush it, which is actually your brain's clumsy way of regulating…
Seeing an incredibly adorable puppy often triggers a bizarre psychological urge to aggressively squeeze bite or crush it, which is actually your brain's…
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Willpower is not a character trait but rather a finite mental resource that gets aggressively drained every single time you make a decision, eventually turning you into an…
Willpower is not a character trait but rather a finite mental resource that gets aggressively drained every single time you make a decision, eventually…
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Purchasing a shiny new possession often spirals into an endless chain reaction of buying even more things to match the upgraded aesthetic of the original item.
Purchasing a shiny new possession often spirals into an endless chain reaction of buying even more things to match the upgraded aesthetic of the original…
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Psychological reactance is the intense, almost childish urge to do the exact opposite of what someone tells you to do simply because you feel your freedom of choice is being…
Psychological reactance is the intense, almost childish urge to do the exact opposite of what someone tells you to do simply because you feel your freedom of…
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Parkinson's law of triviality argues that organizations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues while completely ignoring complex and profoundly important ones, a frustrating reality observed by C.
Parkinson's law of triviality argues that organizations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues while completely ignoring complex and profoundly…
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Humans are remarkably stupid when it comes to figuring out why their own hearts are beating faster, often confusing the adrenaline of mortal terror with being horny.
Humans are remarkably stupid when it comes to figuring out why their own hearts are beating faster, often confusing the adrenaline of mortal terror with being…
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