Have you ever been talking to someone and no matter how much you tried, you just weren't clicking with them? They just didn't seem to understand what you were asking, or maybe they misunderstood everything you said. What can you do to get on the same page as someone, communication-wise?

If your work is connected to people, it's possible to encourage them (without their knowledge) to behave better. Generally, people always try to look their best in a mirror, and never want to appear to themselves as jerks. If there's a mirror behind you, people will see their reflections, and will smile and be nicer.

8. Put a mirror behind yourself at work.

When we're stressed, we have a tendency to breathe deeper, while our heart pounds ridiculously fast. When this happens, try to force yourself to breathe at a more regular pace and calm down your heartbeat. <a href="https://www.yourtango.com/health-wellness/18-quick-ways-relax-instantly-according-science">You have the power to relax </a>right out of the stress zone.

10. Control your stress.

Every time you meet someone, articulate a little more happiness than usual toward the person: smile sincerely or try to say their name kindly and warmly. Over time, you'll start relating much better with this person, and the enjoyment of meeting will be sincere.

7. Be happier than normal when meeting someone.

If you want to get the attention of someone you like, look at something directly behind their shoulders. Once you know that you've caught the other person's sight, quickly look into their eyes and smile.

9. Apply the one-two rule.

If you want to make a great first impression with a potential love interest or get someone's sympathy, focus on their eye color; intense eye-contact can be effective in building trust and connection with another person.

11. Don't underestimate the effectiveness of eye contact.

<a href="https://www.yourtango.com/experts/lisa-petsinis/how-interview-well-get-that-job">If you have a job interview </a>or have to take an important test, pretend that the interviewer or proctor is a close friend. You'll feel calmer and will be able to answer questions easier.

5. Imagine that the person you need to impress is a good friend.

If you know that a person is going to criticize, blame or make comments about you, face your fear and try to sit or stand beside them. If you're close, that person will be less negative about you than if you were at a distance.

3. Remain nearby.

If someone screams at you, don't do anything, as your reaction can lead them to anger. Once the anger dissipates, they'll probably feel guilty for their aggressive and unpleasant behavior, and will apologize.

2. Stay cool.

If a group of people begin laughing at the same time, everybody in that group will instinctively look at the person they like the most or the person with whom they want to get closer to. If you focus on people's eyes after comedy gold, you'll get some valuable information.

6. Look at people's eyes after telling a joke.

People are drawn to others with self-confidence in themselves and their actions. So even if you're not extremely self-assured, if you look like you are, people will believe it. Much of being a good communicator is in eye contact, smiling, acting confident, and tricking yourself into being relaxed. And these are skills you already have in your power.

13. Exhibit self-confidence.

When you're first making your terms known, make them exceedingly high, knowing that the person you're negotiating with will probably not agree to them. However, the person might agree on the actual terms you offer later. People tend to cave in on a smaller request or requirement when they've denied you on something larger beforehand.

12. Raise the bar.

If the person you're speaking with gives you an unsatisfactory answer — a lie, or a response that's confusing or unclear — don't ask the question again. Instead, <a href="https://www.yourtango.com/2021344128/types-eye-contact-what-they-say-about-someones-attraction-you">simply focus in on their eyes </a>and don't say anything. This technique will make him or her feel a bit trapped, and they'll feel compelled to continue their thoughts.

1. Wait it out.

Eating a meal is often associated with safety and feeling relaxed, so if you're worried about an encounter with someone, chew some gum. It will fool your brain into thinking that you're eating and that there's nothing to be alarmed about. You'll feel much more confident.

4. Chew gum.

13 Psychological Tricks To Gain Control Of Any Situation 

Communication With Strangers Isn't Easy, But Now It Can Be A Piece Of Cake.

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13 Psychological Tricks To Gain Control Of Any Situation

“The world makes much less sense than you think. The coherence comes mostly from the way your mind works.”–Daniel Kahneman

Psychology Quote #4

“We are what we are because we have been what we have been, and what is needed for solving the problems of human life and motives is not moral estimates but more knowledge.”–Sigmund Freud

Psychology Quote #2

Researchers in one Science study fed volunteers false information, then a week later revealed that the facts weren't actually true. Even though the volunteers knew the truth (now), fMRI scans showed that they still believed the misinformation about half the time. It's one of the psychology facts to know that could make you smarter.

28. We keep believing things, even when we know they're wrong.

Humans hate "cognitive dissonance": when a fact counters something we believe. That's why when, we hear that a loved one did something wrong or garbage, we undermine how bad it really was, or we tell ourselves that science exaggerates when a study tells us we really need to move more.

31. We'd rather skew the facts than change our beliefs about people.

When you see bright blue and red right next to each other, your brain thinks the red is closer than the blue, making you go practically cross-eyed. Same goes for other combinations, like red and green.

23. There's a reason that certain color combinations are hard on your eyes.

The music we like gives us a hit of dopamine and other feel-good chemicals, and that's even stronger when we're young because our brains are developing. From around age 12 to 22, everything feels more important, so we tend to emphasize those years the most and hang on to those musical memories.

21. You're programmed to love the music you listened to in high school the most.

Research shows that in terms of income, people have a "satiation point" where happiness peaks and earning more won't actually make you happier. Different studies have suggested various amounts (one 2010 study said $75,000, but a 2018 survey said $105,000), but the point is the same: Constantly aiming for more, more, more won't necessarily do you any good.

39. Money can buy happiness, but only up to a certain point.

Our brains have something called a "negativity bias" that makes us remember bad news more than good, which is why you quickly forget that your coworker complimented your presentation but keep dwelling on the fact that a kid at the bus stop insulted your shoes. To feel balanced, we need at least a five to one ration of good to bad in our lives.

6. It takes five positive things to outweigh a single negative thing.

Psychologists have found that the brain is sensitive to scarcity—the feeling that you're missing something you need. When farmers have a good cash flow, for instance, they tend to be better planners than when they're tight for money, one study found. When you're feeling cash-strapped, you might need more reminders to pay bills or do chores because your mind is too busy to remember.

27. When you feel like you're low on something (like money), you obsess over it.

In another University of Pennsylvania study, one group learned about a little girl who was starving to death, another learned about millions dying of hunger, and a third learned about both situations. People donated more than twice as much money when hearing about the little girl than when hearing the statistics—and even the group who'd heard her story in the context of the bigger tragedy donated less. Psychologists think that we're wired to help the person in front of us, but when the problem feels too big, we figure our little part isn't doing much.

4. We care more about a single person than about massive tragedies.

Ever wonder why that sandwich from the takeout place down the street tastes better than the ones you make at home, even if you use the same ingredients? One study published in the journal Science found that when you make yourself a meal, you're around it so long that it feels less exciting by the time you actually dig in—and that, subsequently, decreases your enjoyment.

7. Food tastes better when someone else makes it.

In a famous 1950s experiment, college students were asked to point out which of three lines was the same length as a fourth. When they heard others (who were in on the experiment) choose an answer that was clearly wrong, the participants followed their lead and gave that same wrong answer.

15. We automatically second-guess ourselves when other people disagree.

Doesn't matter if you like where you're at right now or not—most of us have an "optimism bias" that convinces us the future will be better than the present, according to research in Current Biology. We assume we'll rise up in our careers, never get divorced, raise little angels of children, and live to a ripe old age. Those might not all be realistic for everyone, but there's no harm in dreaming.

17. We're convinced that the future is bright.

Pretty much everyone has procrastinated at one time or another, even though we know logically that it would make more sense to get a jump on our taxes than to turn on Netflix. We prefer urgent, unimportant tasks because we know we'll be able to complete them. There's also evidence that when we see the deadline looming in terms of days, rather than months or years, because we feel more connected to a day-by-day passing of time.

37. Our brain doesn't think long-term deadlines are so important.

Not everyone loves scary movies, but for the people who do, there are a few theories as to why—the main one coming down to hormones. When you're watching a scary movie or walking through a haunted house, you get all the adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine from a fight-or-flight response, but no matter how scared you feel, your brain recognizes that you're not really in danger—so you get that natural high without the risk.

2. Fear can feel good—if we're not really in danger.

When people are asked to recall items from a list, they're most likely to think of things from the very end, or from the very beginning, found one study published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. The middle gets muddled, which could also play into why you remember your boss wrapping up her presentation, but not so much about the middle.

5. Beginnings and ends are easier to remember than middles.

In one University of Michigan study, people with high testosterone remembered information better when it was paired with an angry face than a neutral one or no face, indicating they found the angry glare rewarding. The researchers said it could mean that certain people enjoy making someone else glare at them—as long the flash of anger doesn't last long enough to be a threat—which could be why that guy in the office won't let go of that stupid joke at your expense.

14. Some people enjoy seeing anger in others.

Researchers who published their work in the journal Nature have found that it's less stressful to know something negative is about to happen (e.g., there's no chance we'll get to a meeting on time) than when we don't know how things will work out (e.g., we might be on time after all). That's because the part of our brain that predicts consequences—whether good or bad—is most active when it doesn't know what to expect. If stepping on the gas will help us beat traffic, we'll go through that stress instead of just accepting that we'll have to come up with a decent excuse when (not if) we're late.

8. We'd rather know something bad is coming than not know what to expect.

Why, oh why, does cake have to taste better than vegetables? Well, because that's how we were primed for millions of years. For our ancestors, getting a quick hit of energy from sugar and then storing it as fat, or eating plenty of fat to keep our bodies and brains fueled meant more energy in the long run. But now that sugary, fatty foods are easy (a little too easy) to eat and overeat, our bodies are still primed to store that fat—even though we don't need it.

36. To our ancestors, sugar and fat were good things.

Here's another great example of cognitive dissonance: Volunteers in one Psychology of Learning and Motivation study did a boring task, then were paid either $1 or $20 to convince someone that it was actually pretty interesting. The ones who were paid $20 knew why they'd lied (they got a decent reward) and still thought it was boring, but the ones who'd only gotten a buck actually convinced themselves it really was fun, because their brains didn't have a good reason to think they'd been lying.

34. We can convince ourselves a boring task was fun if we weren't rewarded.

Told yourself you'd just quickly check your Facebook notifications, and 15 minutes later you're still scrolling? You're not alone. Part of that has to do with infinite scroll: When you can stay on the site without actually interacting and clicking, your brain doesn't get that "stop" cue.

33. Social media is psychologically designed to be addictive.

You've probably heard about the famous Stanford prison experiment. (Refresher: College students were randomly assigned to be either a prisoner or guard in a fake prison, and the "guards" started harassing the "prisoners." It got so bad that the two-week experiment was canceled after six days.). That's pretty extreme, but later studies have found that when people feel like they're in a power position, they become worse at judging a person's feelings based on their facial expressions, indicating a loss of empathy.

35. Power makes people care less about others.

It's not just good manners—the "rule of reciprocity" suggests that we're programmed to want to help someone who's helped us. It probably developed because, to keep society working smoothly, people need to help each other out. Stores (and some frenemies) like to use this against you, offering freebies in hopes that you'll spend some cash.

9. We always try to return a favor.

“Probably the biggest insight… is that happiness is not just a place, but also a process. Happiness is an ongoing process of fresh challenges, and it takes the right attitudes and activities to continue to be happy.”–Ed Diener

Psychology Quote #3

Research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology shows that even when you think you're doing two things at once, what you're actually doing is switching quickly between the two tasks—you're still focusing on one at a time. No wonder it's so hard to listen to your partner while scrolling through Instagram.

16. We aren't as good at multitasking as we think we are.

Ever wonder why when one problem resolves, another one takes its place? It's not that the world is against you—but your brain might be, in a sense. Researchers asked volunteers to pick out threatening-looking people from computer-generated faces. "As we showed people fewer and fewer threatening faces over time, we found that they expanded their definition of 'threatening' to include a wider range of faces," writes researcher David Levari, PhD. "In other words, when they ran out of threatening faces to find, they started calling faces threatening that they used to call harmless."

30. We will always, always, always find a problem.

Evolutionarily speaking, conserving energy is a good thing—when food was scarce, our ancestors still had to be ready for anything. Unfortunately for anyone watching their weight, that still holds true today. A small study published in Current Biology found that when walking on a treadmill, volunteers would automatically adjust their gait to burn fewer calories.

19. Our brains want us to be lazy.

“Once you start making the effort to ‘wake yourself up’—that is, be more mindful in your activities—you suddenly start appreciating life a lot more.”–Robert Biswas-Diener

Psychology Quote #1

Even people with the best memories in the world can have "false memories." The brain generally remembers the gist of what happens, then fills in the rest—sometimes inaccurately—which explains why you insist your wife was with you at a party six years ago, even though she's adamant she wasn't.

22. Memories are more like pieced-together pictures than accurate snapshots.

Even if you haven't topped out to your happiest income, your money can still determine your happiness. You've probably already heard about research that shows we're more satisfied when we spend money on experiences (a nice meal out or theater tickets) than on possessions because it helps us socialize and feel more alive. But another study published in Science found another strategy for using money the most satisfying way: spending on other people instead of ourselves.

40. It's not just how much money we make, it's how we spend it.

Sorry, kids! One of the most useful psychology facts is that testing really does work. One study published in the journal Psychological Science found that people are more likely to store information in their long-term memory if they've been tested on the information (the more, the better) than if they just study and don't need to remember it right away.

25. You remember things better if you've been tested on them.

You may have heard of the Pygmalion effect before—basically, we do well when other people think we will, and we don't do well when people expect us to fail. The idea came from a famous 1960s study in which researchers told teachers that certain students (chosen at random) had high potential based on IQ tests. Those students did indeed go on to be high achievers, thanks to their teachers' expectations in them.

32. People rise to our high expectations (and don't rise if we have low ones).

"It's so cute, I just was to smoosh it until it pops!" That's called cuteness aggression, and people who feel it don't really want to crush that adorable puppy. Research published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience found that when we're feeling overwhelmed by positive emotions—like we do when looking at an impossibly cute baby animal—a little bit of aggression helps us balance out that high.

12. There's a reason we want to squeeze cute things.

University of Glasgow researchers found that in the same way that we hear voices in our heads when we read aloud, our brains also "talk" over boring speeches. If someone is speaking monotonously, we'll subconsciously make it more vivid in our heads.

13. Our brains try to make boring speeches more interesting.

Why do you yawn when someone else does, even if you aren't tired? There are a few theories about why yawning is contagious, but one of the leading ones is that it shows empathy. People who are less likely to show empathy—such as toddlers who haven't learned it yet or young people with autism—are also less likely to yawn in reaction to someone else's.

3. "Catching" a yawn could help us bond.

It's one of the oldest psychology facts in the books: In the 1960s, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram infamously conducted an experiment that he thought would prove Americans wouldn't accept immoral orders like the Nazis had. For a "learning task," volunteers were told to deliver shocks to a "learner" (an actor, little known to the real volunteers) if they got an answer wrong. To Milgram's horror, the participants continued delivering shocks, even when the learner screamed in pain.

38. We loosen our morals when an authority tells us to.

Don't blame your self-absorbed brother for talking about himself—it's just the way his brain is wired. The reward centers of our brains light up more when we're talking about ourselves than when we're talking about other people, according to a Harvard study.

11. Our favorite subject is ourselves.

Psychologists have studied a phenomenon called reactance: When people perceive certain freedoms being taken away, they not only break that rule, but they break even more than they otherwise would have in an effort to regain their freedom. This could be one of the best psychology facts to explain why a teenager who can't use his phone in class will chew gum while stealthily sending a text.

10. When one rule seems too strict, we want to break more.

Researchers found that the fewer friends a person has, the higher levels of the blood-clotting protein fibrinogen. The effect was so strong that having 15 friends instead of 25 was just as bad as smoking.

20. Being lonely is bad for our health.

Your short-term memory can only hold on to so much information at a time (unless you try one of the simple ways to improve your memory), which is why you use "chunking" to remember long numbers. For instance, if you try to memorize this number: 90655372, you probably naturally thought something like 906-553-72.

24. Putting information in bite-sized pieces helps us remember.

The whole "paradox of choice" theory has been criticized by researchers who say it hasn't been shown in studies, but there is some evidence that our brains prefer a few options to a ton. When singles at speed-dating events met more people and those people had more diversity in factors like age and occupation, the participants chose fewer potential dates.

26. Too much choice can become paralyzing.

Humans are victim to something called confirmation bias: the tendency to interpret facts in a way that confirms what we already believe. So no matter how many facts you throw at your uncle trying to sway his political opinions, there's a good chance he isn't going to budge. It's one of the psychology facts you'll just have to accept that you can't change.

18. We (unintentionally) believe what we want to believe.

Every now and then, it hurts to be prepared. In a series of experiments from the University of Pennsylvania, researchers found that when volunteers thought about a backup plan before starting a task, they did worse than those who hadn't thought about a plan B. What's more, when they realized they had options, their motivation for succeeding the first time around dropped. The researchers stress that thinking ahead is a good idea, but you might be more successful if you keep those plans vague.

1. If we have a plan B, our plan A is less likely to work.

Most of us haven't seen Jesus in a piece of toast, but we've all noticed cartoonish faces seemingly staring back at us from inanimate objects. That's called pareidolia, and scientists think it comes from the fact that recognizing faces is so important to social life that our brains would rather find one where there isn't one than miss a real-life face.

29. We look for human faces, even in inanimate objects.

The human psyche is infinitely complex, which means new research comes out every day that helps illuminate why were are the way we are.Herein, we've rounded up the psychology facts that explain human nature—and just might shed some light on a few of the patterns you notice in yourself and others. From why you think food tastes better when someone else makes it to why you always see human faces in inanimate objects, these are the mind-blowing psychology facts that explain everything.

40 Mind-Blowing Psychology Facts that Seriously Explain Everything

40 Mind Blowing Psychology Facts that Seriously Explain Everything

40 Mind-Blowing Psychology Facts that Seriously Explain Everything. SO THAT'S WHY FOOD TASTES BETTER WHEN SOMEONE ELSE MAKES IT.

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40 Mind-Blowing Psychology Facts That Seriously Explain Everything

Present events are weighted more heavily than future ones; for example, many people prefer to receive £100 now over £110 in a month’s time. Discounting is non-linear, and its rate is not constant over time. People’s preference for receiving £100 a week from now versus £110 a month and one week from now will not be the same as their preference for receiving £100 a year from now versus £110 a year and one month from now. Although the gap is one month in both cases, the value of events that are farther in the future falls more slowly than those closer to the present.

Time Discounting and Present Bias

Information avoidance in behavioral economics refers to situations in which people choose not to obtain knowledge that is freely available. Active information avoidance includes physical avoidance, inattention, the biased interpretation of information (see also confirmation bias) and even some forms of forgetting. In behavioral finance, for example, research has shown that investors are less likely to check their portfolio online when the stock market is down than when it is up, which has been termed the ostrich effect.

Information Avoidance

Time inconsistency also occurs when our present self fails to predict accurately the preferences of our future self, a point illustrated well by diversification bias. When shopping for multiple future consumption episodes, I may choose the variety pack of cereal, only to realize two weeks later that I would have enjoyed my breakfasts more if I had just stuck to my favorite kind. This inability to appreciate fully the effect of emotional and physiological states on decision-making is known as the (hot-cold) empathy gap.

Diversification Bias and the Empathy Gap

Bounded rationality is a term associated with Herbert Simon’s work of the 1950s. According to this view, our minds must be understood relative to the environment in which they evolved. There are restrictions to human information processing, due to limits in knowledge and computational capacities.While the idea of human limits to rationality was not a radically new thought in economics, Tversky and Kahneman’s ‘heuristics and biases research program made important methodological contributions. 30 years later, their thinking entered the mainstream.

Bounded Rationality

The economist Richard Thaler coined the concept of mental accounting. According to Thaler:<ul><li>People think of value in relative rather than absolute terms. They derive pleasure not just from an object’s value, but also the quality of the deal.</li><li> People fail to fully consider opportunity costs and are susceptible to the sunk cost fallacy.</li><li>People treat money differently, depending on the money’s origin and intended use, rather than thinking of it in terms of the “bottom line” as in formal accounting.</li><li>People don’t like to spend money. We experience the pain of paying because we are loss averse. </li></ul>

Mental Accounting

Humans’ bounded rationality is particularly well illustrated by the concept of choice overload. This phenomenon occurs as a result of too many choices being available to consumers. Overchoice has been associated with unhappiness, decision fatigue, going with the default option, as well as avoiding making a decision altogether, such as not buying a product. Factors that contribute to perceived choice overload:  the number of options and attributes, time constraints, decision accountability, alignability and complementarity of options, and consumers’ preference uncertainty, etc.

Too Much Information: Choice Overload

In an ideal world, our decisions would be the result of a careful weighing of costs and benefits and informed by existing preferences. We would always make optimal decisions. The theory of rational choice assumes that human actors have stable preferences and engage in maximizing behavior.

Rational Choice

Experience, good information, and prompt feedback are key factors that enable people to make good decisions. <ul><li>Climate change, for example, has been cited as a particularly challenging problem in relation to experience and feedback. Climate change is invisible, diffuse, and a long-term process. Pro-environmental behavior by an individual, such as reducing carbon emissions, does not lead to a noticeable change. </li><li>The same is true in the domain of health. Feedback in this area is often poor, and we are more likely to get feedback on previously chosen options than rejected ones.</li></ul>

Limited Information: The Importance of Feedback

BE uses psychological experimentation to develop theories about human decision-making and has identified a range of biases as a result of the way people think and feel.BE is trying to change the way economists think about people’s perceptions of value and expressed preferences. According to BE, people are not always self-interested, benefits maximizing, and costs minimize individuals with stable preferences—our thinking is subject to insufficient knowledge, feedback, and processing capability, which often involves uncertainty and is affected by the context in which we make decisions.

Behavioral Economics (BE)

<ul><li>Trust is one of the explanations for discrepancies between actual behavior and that predicted by a model of self-interested actors, makes social life possible, and permeates economic relationships.</li><li>Dishonesty is the product of situations as well as both internal and external reward mechanisms, which often involves self-deception—the reframing of dishonest acts (e.g. not declaring all of your income to the tax authorities) in a way that makes them appear less dishonest.</li><li>Fairness is related to a human desire for reciprocity, our tendency to return another’s action with another equivalent action. </li></ul>

Social Dimensions

Daniel Kahneman uses a dual-system theoretical framework to explain why our judgments and decisions often do not conform to formal notions of rationality. <ul><li>System 1 consists of thinking processes that are intuitive, automatic, experience-based, and relatively unconscious. </li><li>System 2 is more reflective, controlled, deliberative, and analytical. </li></ul>Judgments influenced by System 1 are rooted in impressions arising from mental content that is easily accessible. System 2, on the other hand, monitors or provides a check on mental operations and overt behavior—often unsuccessfully.

Dual-System Theory

Our willingness to take risks is influenced by the way in which choices are framed, i.e. it is context-dependent. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman are perhaps best known for the development of prospect theory and published a number of papers that show that decisions are not always optimal.

Prospect Theory

When we make plans for the future, we are often too optimistic. For example, we are subject to committing the planning fallacy by underestimating how long it will take us to complete a task and ignoring past experience. Similarly, when we try to predict how we will feel in the future, we may overestimate the intensity of our emotions.

Forecasting and Memory

<ul><li>Our preferences are not simply a matter of basic tastes; they are also influenced by norms, as manifested in gender roles, for example.</li><li>Social norms signal appropriate behavior or actions taken by the majority of people (although what is deemed ‘appropriate’ is itself subject to continual change). </li><li>Human susceptibility to feedback about social norms is related to our desire to maintain a positive view of who we are as a person. </li><li>People’s susceptibility to social forces is also evident in herd behavior: when people do what others are doing instead of making independent decisions. </li></ul>

Social Norms

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Behavioral Economics, Explained

A short primer on core ideas from behavioral economics. By Alain Samson, PhD, editor of the BE Guide and founder of the BE Group.

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An Introduction to Behavioral Economics

The definition of rational, according to dictionaries, is "having a reason." And the term reason derives from the Latin word ratio, which means "reason."Rationality, according to philosophers, is the ability to use information to achieve goals. The term "knowledge" refers to true beliefs that are supported by evidence. We wouldn't consider someone rational if they acted on incorrect beliefs.But rationality entails more than just believing correct thoughts like "1 Plus 1 = 2." It also facilitates our tasks.

Rationality Is a Tool for Achieving a Goal

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.

The availability heuristic is a method of making decisions based on familiar facts - anything that has left a lasting impression on our minds.There is too much information circulating in society to evaluate the truth of each point or lack thereof. To combat this, we create mental shortcuts. When we are presented with new information, we make a quick inventory of our current beliefs in order to form an initial assessment of the material’s veracity.

The Availability Heuristic

The conjunction fallacy occurs when a person assumes that specific conditions are more likely than a single general one. ‍What are people thinking? A class of events described by a single statement can be generic and abstract, with nothing for the mind to hold on to. A class of events described by a conjunction of statements can be more vivid, especially when they spell out a storyline we can watch in the theatre of our imagination. Intuitive probability is driven by imaginability: the easier something is to visualize, the likelier it seems.

The Conjunction Fallacy

The media has amplified our irrational judgments. One classic example is the safety of flying versus driving.The world’s roads account for 1.3 million fatal accidents each year, while plane crashes kill 250 people. We hear about the single plane crash of the year, but not about the 364 days of safe air travel. If news outlets used the same approach with cars, they would have to run the headline, “35,000 dead in road accidents yesterday,” every single day.

Our Judgements Are Mostly Irrational

Bayes’ rule or Bayes’ Theorem is the law of probability governing the strength of evidence—the rule saying how much to revise our probabilities (change our minds) when we learn a new fact or observe new evidence.Probabilistic thinking means avoiding absolutes. When we express the likelihood of our beliefs, we open the door to further discussions. Rather than expressing things in black and white terms, as true or false, try saying: ‘I’m an 80 on that’, or ‘I’m only a 25 on that’. As a result, we remain receptive to new evidence while gathering information to guide future truth-seeking efforts.

Bayesian Reasoning: Probabilistic Thinking

Knowing something does not imply that you will act rationally on it.Willpower isn't always up to the challenge of resisting temptation.Preventing yourself from acting on temptation is one approach to fighting it.If you go shopping after you've eaten, for example, it's much easier to resist the siren melodies of unhealthy treats. Similarly, if you've advised your company to set aside a portion of your paycheck for retirement, you can't spend money you know you should be saving.

Ignorance and Self-Restraint Are Both Viable Options

Selective ignorance can also be used to combat bias. That is why jury members are not allowed to see inadmissible evidence obtained through coercion or hearsay.Good scientists also protect their work from bias by performing double-blind studies in which they are unaware of which patients received medicine and which received a placebo. In both circumstances, ignorance aids in maintaining objectivity.

Ignorance To Combat Bias

Motivated reasoning describes how we let our beliefs mold our perception of the world, ensuring that we see things as we are, not as they are.When we add a belief to our arsenal, evidence for why it’s true begins compounding. Even if provided with proof that disproves these beliefs, we will interpret such evidence in ways that support our currently held narratives.The human brain is not a level playing field for rational decision-making. The myth that we are reasonable creatures stems from the incorrect assumption that our brains are, by default, instruments of logic.

Motivated Reasoning

The genetic fallacy describes accepting a claim as true or false solely based on its origin. An idea's source doesn’t validate or invalidate its claim to truth, yet it is one of the most prevalent fallacies you will encounter in the 21st century.

The Genetic Fallacy

Myopic discounting is the reversal of preference based on the distance to the reward. Its name derives from myopia, which means a lack of discernment or foreseeing. The preference reversal is called myopic, or nearsighted, because we see an attractive temptation that is near to us in time all too clearly, while the faraway choices are emotionally blurred and (a bit contrary to the ophthalmological metaphor) we judge them more objectively.

Myopic Discounting 

When someone makes a claim to promote an emotional response rather than provide relevant facts to support their argument, they commit the appeal to emotion fallacy.While arguments often contain emotional components, the appeal to emotion fallacy occurs when a person uses emotion to manipulate and hide the fact that they cannot offer a rational counterargument.

Appeal To Emotion Fallacy

Biases distort our cognitive system and prevent us from making rational decisions. The myth that we are reasonable creatures stems from the incorrect assumption that our brains are, by default, instruments of logic. Through analyzing the most common cognitive fallacies, we’re taken on a journey through the mechanics of the mind towards the root of our irrationality, which the author argues is due to motives shaping our judgment.

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 'Punchy, funny and invigorating ... Pinker is the high priest of rationalism' Sunday Times 'If you've ever considered taking drugs to make yourself smarter, read Rationality instead. It's cheaper, more entertaining, and more effective' Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind In the twenty-first century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that discovered vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures and conspiracy theorizing? In Rationality, Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply an irrational species - cavemen out of time fatally cursed with biases, fallacies and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives and set the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains, we think in ways that suit the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we have built up over millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, causal inference, and decision-making under uncertainty. These tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula, and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book - until now. Rationality matters. It leads to better choices in our lives and in the public sphere, and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress. Brimming with insight and humour, Rationality will enlighten, inspire and empower. 'A terrific book, much-needed for our time' Peter Singer

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Rationality

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13 Psychological Tricks To Gain Control Of Any Situation

40 Mind-Blowing Psychology Facts That Seriously Explain Everything

An Introduction to Behavioral Economics

It's time to Read like a Pro.

Rationality

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.