You are the same as an insect, just with a more complex nervous system responding to stimuli with a wider array of denser behavioral routines that only appear to give rise to consciousness.
You are biased to overestimate the emotional impact of future events.
You are as deluded as the rest of us, but that’s OK, it keeps you sane.
When the third person effect leads you to condone censorship, take a step back and imagine the sort of messages people on the other side might think are brainwashing you, and then ask yourself if thos...
To be less dumb is to see the danger in believing in forces that do not exist and trusting them when you would do better to trust yourself.
The research shows that groups of friends who allow members to disagree and still be friends are more likely to come to better decisions. So the next time you are in a group of people trying to reach...
The more info you get about a statement, the more likely you are to believe that statement.
THE MISCONCEPTION: Knowing a person’s history makes it easier to determine what sort of person they are. THE TRUTH: You jump to conclusions based on how representative a person seems to be of a precon...
THE MISCONCEPTION: If you can’t trust someone, you should ignore that person’s claims. THE TRUTH: What someone says and why they say it should be judged separately.
One of the stranger facets of consistency bias is how it can be evoked on the spot. If you are primed to believe you are an honest person, you will then act as if you are.
Jokes and movies, comic books and professional wrestling, television shows and news programs—they all present dramatic interpretations of facts and fiction in the format of a narrative for the same re...
It is not a fallacy to trust the consensus of thousands of researchers on how to interpret the evidence provided by decades of studies.
In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
If you neglect your personal space and allow chaos and clutter to creep in, it will affect you, and perhaps encourage further neglect. Positive feedback loops should improve your life, not detract fro...
Branding builds on this by giving you the option to create the person you think you are through choosing to align yourself with the mystique of certain products.
For any plan to work, every team needs at least one asshole who doesn’t give a shit if he or she gets fired or exiled or excommunicated.
You make plans and decisions assuming randomness and chaos are for chumps. The illusion of control is a peculiar thing because it often leads to high self-esteem and a belief your destiny is yours for...
When a kid asks, But, why? she is rightfully bringing to the attention of the adult world that all this stuff is just made up and mostly arbitrary nonsense often clung to for some long-forgotten reaso...
The tendency to make poor decisions and ignore odds in favor of your gut feelings is called the affect heuristic.
The real trouble begins when confirmation bias distorts your active pursuit of facts.