Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink.
Today, we are going to learn about 15 psychological facts you didn’t know about yourself.
Now, let’s begin.
1.
Mental Models Imagine you’re handed a strange device.
You’ve never used the device before, but somehow you hold it naturally in your hands.
You know what buttons to press and how to perform simple functions, like turning it
on or navigating to the home page.
How does your brain engage with unfamiliar objects?
Even though you’ve never used this strange device, you have used many other devices before.
You have a phone, a laptop, or a tablet.
Those pieces of technology have taught your brain how to engage with similar objects.
We call this a mental model.
A mental model is an internal understanding of how the world works.
When you press a button, for example, you expect something to happen, right?
Mental models describe basic, operational truths we “know” about the world around
us.
And it’s because of these mental models that nothing in the world is truly unfamiliar.
2.
Flashbulb Memories Have you ever experienced a flashbulb memory?
A flashbulb memory is a sudden, vivid snapshot of a scene in your life, often a surprising
event or an emotional revelation.
All at once, you remember feelings, drama, and tension.
You remember where you were, what you were doing, even what you were wearing.
Flashbulb memories feel exceptionally realistic, but here’s the problem: they’re often
untrue.
That’s because your memory has a bad habit of lying to you.
You may not remember what you were wearing or what you were doing, but your brain supplements
the gaps in your memory with realistic yet fictitious details.
Just like that, your memory becomes historical fiction—the major events may be true, but
the details are often forgotten.
3.
The Goal-Gradient Effect Finding motivation is a constant challenge
that you’ll face at every stage of your life.
But the better you understand how motivation actually works, the easier it is to stimulate
your productivity.
For example, progress is an effective, psychological motivator.
When you feel like you’re making progress, you work harder, longer, and faster than before.
But here’s something many people don’t know.
You don’t need to make actual progress to motivate your brain.
All you need… is a convincing illusion.
Imagine waiting for a progress bar to load on your phone or computer.
Each time that bar climbs higher you feel encouraged to wait longer.
Why?
Because your brain functions on a goal-gradient.
The closer you feel to accomplishing a goal, the more motivated you become.
In reality, those percentage points don’t mean much of anything.
You’re not actually making progress, but your brain falls for the illusion.
4.
Unconscious Rules Do you follow the rules?
Many people underestimate the psychological value of rules.
Whether you’re building a piece of furniture or learning a new skill, rules affect your
behavior on an unconscious level.
You may think you’re paving your own pay.
Consciously, you’re not listening to instructions or paying attention to the rules, but unconsciously
you’re doing exactly what you are supposed to do.
Rules teach your brain where to look, what to do, and how to get started.
You pay attention to the right things and engage with the right stimuli, because in
the back of your mind… you’re following the rules.
5.
Staying Busy Do you feel unhappy when you don’t know
what to do?
Maybe you have too much free time.
Maybe you don’t know what to do with your life?
Either way, you have too much time on your hands, and your happiness is paying the price.
If this sounds familiar, search for something to keep yourself busy.
Get a job.
Find a hobby.
Join a social group.
It’s not always easy, but you need to find ways to fill your time.
Whether you like it or not, you’re the happiest when you have something meaningful to do.
6.
The Post-Goal Drop Earlier, we talked about goal-gradients.
You become more motivated as you near the end of a goal, but what happens when you achieve
that goal?
Many people are so focused on the finish line, they forget to think about what happens next.
You might experience a post-goal drop in your motivation.
Once you’ve accomplished your singular ambition, your motivation disappears, and you feel aimless
or lost.
Luckily there’s an easy solution.
Before you accomplish one goal, start thinking about what comes next.
Let your primary goal lead naturally into another, more ambitious goal.
That way, you can maintain your momentum and keep moving in the right direction.
7.
Daily Dreaming How much time do you spend daydreaming?
The average person spends 30% of their day lost in daydreams.
You may worry you’re wasting too much of your time, but daydreams play a critical role
in your cognitive performance.
When you daydream, your brain mulls over difficult problems.
It designs innovative solutions and relieves peripheral stress.
In other words, daydreams give your brain a safe and creative space to think.
So don’t be afraid to get lost in a dream.
8.
The Yerkes-Dodson Law Do you work well under pressure?
Some people thrive in stressful situations.
For example, you might work harder on a project the night before the deadline.
In some cases, stress can increase your cognitive performance, but too much stress can trigger
a sudden decline.
According to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, your performance decreases when your anxiety grows too strong.
You make sloppy mistakes.
You miss obvious problems, and you quickly lose track of things you’d normally remember.
If you have to make a difficult decision or finish an important project, stay on top of
your stress and anxiety.
Otherwise, your anxiety may impact the quality of your work.
9.
The Diversity of Time Think about the last time you went on a road
trip.
The entire drive was six hours, but some of those hours flew by faster than others.
Every hour of your time is 60 minutes, but your perception of those minutes constantly
changes.
And it’s not just your perception.
Everyone around you perceives time differently.
Let’s say you’ve got company on your road trip.
You’re distracted, so time passes quickly for you, but your friend isn’t so lucky.
Their time seems to move at a crawl.
Why?
Because time is unique to your individual brain.
10.
Confidently Incorrect Most people are unwilling to admit their own
misunderstanding.
Instead, they lean harder into their mistakes.
They defend their lack of knowledge and pretend to know something they don’t understand.
Turns out, uncertainty makes us more likely to defend uninformed opinions or incorrect
information.
It doesn’t matter how right or wrong we think you are.
We’ll defend our wrong answers to the ends of the Earth.
11.
Biased Intuition Do you trust your intuition?
Most of the time, your intuition leads you in the right direction.
You can trust your gut to make logical decisions in difficult situations.
But your gut isn’t as reliable as you think.
When you’re in a good mood— when you’re feeling happy, motivated, and confident—your
instincts are sharp and reasonable.
Your gut makes sound, common-sense decisions.
But what happens when you’re in a bad mood?
Your instincts spiral down the drain.
You’re much more likely to make irrational, emotional decisions, thanks to your bad attitude.
In general, trust your gut.
But remember that your instincts aren’t always right.
12.
Dunbar’s Number In the 1990s, an anthropologist named Robin
Dunbar discovered the maximum number of relationships a single person can maintain.
The cognitive limit, known as Dunbar’s Number, is 150 people.
Once you pass Dunbar’s number, you start to lose track of the people in your life.
Of course, not every person socializes the same way.
For some people, the ideal number is much lower than Dunbar’s Number, dropping as
low as 100.
For others, their number is much larger, containing over 200 people.
To better understand your social circle, think about the inner and outer limits of your social
circle.
How large is your network?
How many people do you know?
Chances are, you know a lot more people than you think.
13.
Ignoring Shortcuts The human brain is programmed to find shortcuts.
We like discovering innovative ways to save ourselves time.
When doing a boring job, most people will invent shortcuts to streamline their productivity.
But what happens when shortcuts are too difficult to find?
The brain likes simple, surface-level shortcuts.
If a shortcut is easy to understand, your brain jumps at the opportunity.
On the other hand, if the shortcut takes extra effort—even if it saves you hours in the
long run—your brain could care less.
14.
Collective Obstacles Have you ever felt connected to a complete
stranger?
Think about the last time you sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
You may have felt a sense of comradery with the hundreds of other drivers on the road.
Why?
Because you are all facing an obstacle together.
You may not know anything about these people.
Yet they feel like your brothers-in-arms, because you know exactly what they’re going
through.
15.
Predictive Overestimation Imagine how your life would change if you
won the lottery… or met your soulmate.
We like to imagine life-changing scenarios, transforming our lives forever.
But those life-changing scenarios… aren’t as life-changing as you think.
Most of us overestimate the impact our future will have on our present.
In other words, even the largest changes, like winning the lottery, won’t change that
much about the way you live your life.
You’ll enjoy the same TV shows.
You’ll spend time with the same friends.
You envision radical, nerve-racking changes, but reality is far less extreme.
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