Post No.: 0471 Furrywisepuppy says: When you know what the lyrics to a muffled phrase in a song are, or the words of a messily handwritten letter are, then those words will seem more crystal clear to you. … Read More
Post No.: 0454 Furrywisepuppy says: Common tactics that people might use if they’re lying or want to conceal the truth include – wasting your time or trying to buy time (e.g. by questioning the question that’s just been … Read More
Post No.: 0448 Fluffystealthkitten says: Humans operate on some basic and reasonably predictable instincts that primarily evolved long before the species created this modern world. We can essentially break human behaviour down into a number of heuristics that … Read More
Post No.: 0437 Furrywisepuppy says: The ‘identifiable victim effect’ is the tendency to respond more strongly towards a single identifiable person at risk than towards a large group of unidentifiable people at risk. When we choose where … Read More
Post No.: 0431 Furrywisepuppy says: Especially in ambiguous or unfamiliar social settings, we tend to look for ‘social proofs’, follow the herd and copy the actions of others in an attempt to reflect the appropriate behaviour or social … Read More
Post No.: 0419 Furrywisepuppy says: Reality is an illusion constructed inside your own brain. Everything you perceive is down to a personal interpretation, based on your own genes combined with your own personal present and importantly past experiences … Read More
Post No.: 0414 Furrywisepuppy says: Education evidently isn’t enough sometimes to get people to do what’s good for them. For example, there are many health professionals who don’t even lead healthy lifestyles when they obviously know what they … Read More
Post No.: 0410 Furrywisepuppy says: Everybody’s got a personality or character unless they’re dead! So what most people (narrow-mindedly) mean when they think someone ‘lacks personality’ is that they lack an ‘outgoing’ character. It’s like everybody has a … Read More
Post No.: 0404 Furrywisepuppy says: Weirdly, if you ask people to list only 6 instances of when they behaved assertively then they will generally deem themselves as quite assertive people. But if you had asked them to list … Read More
Post No.: 0384 Furrywisepuppy says: Brands set up expectations in our minds as consumers, plus we remember past experiences with those brands, which shape how we feel with subsequent experiences with those brands. Brands imbue values and affect … Read More
Post No.: 0378 Furrywisepuppy says: Conformity to social norms as a result of social pressures, or feeling embarrassed if one is not following one’s group, is largely important because humans are social animals and need to socially coexist. … Read More
Post No.: 0365 Furrywisepuppy says: It’s not merely the case of ‘a few bad apples’ – most people cheat, but just a little bit each time. The size of the potential prize to be gained (e.g. the glory … Read More
Post No.: 0344 Furrywisepuppy says: We perceive reality as we see and remember it. The narrative we tell regarding the/our past is just a story – and an overly neat and coherent story at that. For example, ‘I’ve … Read More
Post No.: 0338 Furrywisepuppy says: Pluralistic ignorance was very briefly mentioned back in Post No.: 0237 as one of the reasons why the ‘bystander effect’ sometimes occurs when people are in crowd situations. ‘Pluralistic ignorance’ can be … Read More
Post No.: 0328 Furrywisepuppy says: Some people, in the face of authority and restrictions to their freedoms, automatically feel compelled to resist that authority, regardless of whether these restrictions are for their own benefit or not. Adolescents are … Read More
Post No.: 0321 Furrywisepuppy says: Consciousness is just the tiny tip of the iceberg. Most of the time, we’re completely unaware of the unconscious decisions made on our conscious self’s behalf. Examples include picking up the diluted pupils … Read More
Post No.: 0312 Fluffystealthkitten says: Conspiracy theories always involve the rejection of an official account – it’s the presumption of some nefarious intent or a cover-up behind official positions. Conspiracy theories tend to be linked to one’s … Read More
Post No.: 0303 Furrywisepuppy says: ‘Fluency’ or ‘cognitive ease’ is the ease with which something is cognitively processed, and results in heuristics such as ‘simple means true’ or ‘easy means best’. People prefer, and prefer to trust, things … Read More
Post No.: 0294 Furrywisepuppy says: We tend to overestimate our ability to accurately read other people’s emotions from their facial expressions. And because we don’t always receive feedback on whether we’re incorrect in our readings, we usually assume … Read More
Post No.: 0282 Furrywisepuppy says: The ‘hindsight bias’ or ‘I-knew-it-all-along effect’ is the tendency to see past events as being more predictable than they actually were at the time. It’s when something seems obvious… but only after we’re … Read More
