December 2024
- Dec 31, 2024ConceptsThe Affect Heuristic: How Feelings Become Facts About RiskPaul Slovic found that people who feel positively about nuclear power judge its risks as low and its benefits as high.
- Dec 30, 2024ConceptsUnderstanding Social Comparison Theory and Its EffectsOlympic silver medalists look less happy than bronze medalists at the moment of winning. The silver medalist compares upward, to gold, which they...
- Dec 29, 2024ConceptsPsychological Reactance: Why Bans BackfireIn 1975, Stephen Worchel put two cookies in one jar and ten in another, then told subjects the scarce jar was limited due to demand.
- Dec 27, 2024ConceptsThe IKEA Effect: Why We Overvalue What We Build OurselvesNorton, Mochon, and Ariely asked subjects to assemble IKEA boxes, then bid on them in an auction alongside identical expert-assembled boxes.
- Dec 26, 2024ConceptsEgo Depletion: Is Willpower a Limited Resource?The radish-and-cookies study launched a willpower theory that now faces a replication crisis.
- Dec 25, 2024ConceptsThe Decoy Effect: How Choices Influence Your DecisionsThe Economist offered three subscription options: digital-only for $59, print-only for $125, and print-plus-digital for $125.
- Dec 24, 2024ConceptsThe Psychology of Motivation Explained: How It Drives BehaviorMotivation is the psychological force that initiates, directs, and sustains behavior toward goals, driven by a combination of intrinsic and...
- Dec 24, 2024ConceptsMinority Influence: How Small Groups Shift MajoritiesMinority Influence research shows how consistent, committed minorities can change the attitudes of majorities, often through deeper, more lasting...
- Dec 23, 2024ConceptsCognitive Load Theory: The Limits of MemoryGeorge Miller's 1956 paper established that working memory holds 7 ± 2 items. John Sweller's 1988 cognitive load theory asked: if working memory is...
- Dec 22, 2024ConceptsChoice Architecture: Designing Decisions for ImpactWhen Brian Wansink rearranged a school cafeteria (putting fruit at eye level and making desserts harder to reach), fruit consumption increased by...
- Dec 21, 2024ConceptsAttribution Theory: Misunderstanding ActionsIn 1967, Jones and Harris had subjects read essays supporting Fidel Castro's Cuba. Even when subjects were explicitly told the writers had been...
- Dec 20, 2024ConceptsWhat Is Social Proof and How It Drives BehaviorWhat is social proof? Cialdini's influence principle, the Asch conformity experiments, how online reviews work, pluralistic ignorance, when social proof backfires, and dark patterns.
- Dec 19, 2024ConceptsThe Pygmalion Effect in Psychology: Expectations and Their ImpactIn 1968, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson told teachers at a San Francisco elementary school that certain students, randomly selected, had...
- Dec 18, 2024ConceptsWhat Is the Peak-End Rule: Why Endings Define ExperiencesThe peak-end rule shows that people judge experiences by their peak moment and ending, not their average. Learn the research and how to design better experiences.
- Dec 17, 2024ConceptsThe Mere Exposure Effect: Why Familiarity Breeds LikingIn 1968, Robert Zajonc exposed subjects to nonsense words, Chinese characters, and photographs of faces at varying frequencies.
- Dec 16, 2024ConceptsThe Just-World Hypothesis: Understanding Victim BlameIn the mid-1960s, Melvin Lerner showed subjects an innocent woman receiving electric shocks. Unable to stop the shocks, observers began to derogate her,...
- Dec 15, 2024ConceptsThe False Consensus Effect: Misjudging Social NormsIn 1977, Lee Ross asked Stanford students whether they would walk around campus wearing a sandwich board reading 'Eat at Joe's.' Those who agreed...
- Dec 13, 2024ConceptsThe Zeigarnik Effect: Why Unfinished Tasks Haunt the MindIn a Vienna café in the 1920s, Kurt Lewin noticed that waiters remembered unpaid tabs in perfect detail but forgot settled ones immediately.
- Dec 12, 2024ConceptsUnderstanding Cognitive Bias: Irrational JudgmentsCognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking that cause people to make irrational judgments, often without realizing it, affecting decisions...
- Dec 12, 2024ConceptsLocus of Control: Rotter's Framework on Who Controls Your LifeLocus of Control measures whether people believe outcomes are controlled by their own actions (internal) or by external forces like fate, luck, or...
- Dec 11, 2024ConceptsThe Self-Serving Bias: Taking Credit, Avoiding BlameIn 1964, Johnson, Feigenbaum, and Weiby gave teachers feedback on a student's performance. When the student improved, teachers attributed it to...
- Dec 10, 2024ConceptsThe Placebo Effect: How Expectation Becomes PhysiologyIn 1955, Henry Beecher analyzed 15 clinical trials and found that 35.2% of patients responded to inert treatments.
- Dec 9, 2024ConceptsMoral Licensing: How Good Deeds Allow Bad BehaviorIn 2001, Benoît Monin and Dale Miller at Stanford showed that subjects who had the opportunity to establish moral credentials, by disagreeing...
- Dec 7, 2024ConceptsHyperbolic Discounting: Why the Present Always WinsRichard Thaler found that people prefer $15 now over $20 in a month, but are indifferent between $15 in a year and $20 in 13 months.
- Dec 6, 2024TechnologyCloud Computing Basics: Understanding Key Concepts and OperationsCloud computing delivers on-demand IT resources over the internet. Learn how IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS differ, how virtualization works, and which...
- Dec 5, 2024ConceptsIllusory Correlation: Patterns that Mislead Our MindsIn 1967, Loren Chapman showed clinical psychologists Draw-a-Person test responses and patient diagnoses.
- Dec 4, 2024ConceptsHindsight Bias ExplainedHindsight bias is the tendency to believe after an event that you predicted it all along. Learn the psychology, research, and real-world consequences.
- Dec 3, 2024ConceptsThe Representativeness Heuristic: Judging by AppearancesLinda is 31, outspoken, a philosophy major, passionate about social justice. Is she more likely to be a bank teller, or a bank teller active in the...
- Dec 2, 2024ConceptsThe Negativity Bias: Why Bad Is Stronger Than GoodJohn Gottman's lab found that marriages headed for divorce had a ratio of positive to negative interactions of about 0.8:1.
- Dec 1, 2024ConceptsWhat Is the Status Quo BiasStatus quo bias is our tendency to prefer the current state of affairs over change. Learn about Samuelson and Zeckhauser's research, loss aversion, and how to overcome it.
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