Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink.
Today, we are going to learn about 15 psychological facts that will blow your mind!
Now, let’s begin 1.
Taking Control Your environment greatly influences your behavior.
Let’s say that you and your friend had a fight a few days ago.
Now, your friend is asking for your forgiveness.
You consider yourself a gracious person, so you choose to forgive and forget.
But that choice is not entirely under your control.
Everything in your environment, including sights, sounds, and smells, influences your
actions and your decisions, even more so than your personality.
In fact, your personality explains less than 10% of your behavior.
So, before you make any conclusions about what kind of person you are, take a look at
your environment.
Because the world around you controls almost every decision you make.
2.
Unconscious Rebellion How do people respond when something bad happens?
Most people respond to negativity with more negativity.
For example, if someone takes something from you, like your phone or your free time, you
unconsciously rebel against their authority.
As soon as you lose those freedoms, you become significantly more likely to break more rules
in the future.
Psychologists call this principle, “reactance,” and it is one of the driving psychological
forces behind a variety of social phenomena.
One of the most common is reverse psychology.
When someone tells you what to do, you’re more likely to do the opposite.
Why?
Because you’re rebelling against their authority.
But reactance isn’t always negative or rebellious.
For instance, when people have more freedom, they often make more thoughtful choices.
It’s the same social principle, but in reverse.
Take freedoms away, and people make poor decisions.
Give freedoms back, and people rise to the occasion.
3.
Faulty Judgments On average, people have a terrible understanding
of their psychology.
In 1977, researchers asked two groups of people to watch a movie and, when they finished,
rate that movie out of ten.
One group watched the movie in silence, while the other group was constantly interrupted
by a loud, irritating noise.
After the movie, the two groups gave their feedback.
Naturally, the second group disliked the movie more than the first group.
But here’s the twist.
Participants blamed their poor feedback on the movie itself.
Not a single participant mentioned the loud noise in the background.
So, what can we learn?
We create all kinds of explanations to justify and understand our behavior.
But the explanations we create… are often horribly misguided.
4.
Foreign Reasoning Many people struggle to make logical, unemotional
decisions.
Whenever a big decision falls into your lap, your feelings get the better of you.
But it may not be your fault.
You may struggle to set aside your emotions, because those feelings are ingrained into
the way you speak.
This comes from a study at the University of Chicago.
Researchers discovered that changing the language a person speaks can significantly improve
their logical reasoning.
For example, a native English speaker is more likely to experience a cognitive bias when
speaking English than speaking a second language, like Spanish or French.
So, if you need to make a hard decision, make that decision in a second language.
You may discover you think more analytically without using your native tongue.
5.
The Rule of Reciprocity How do you feel when someone does you a favor?
You may feel an unconscious drive to return the favor.
This is called the Rule of Reciprocity.
Human beings are psychologically programmed to pay back any rewards they receive.
If someone lends you money, for example, you pay them back.
If someone gives you a present, you feel compelled to give as much as you received.
But the same rule holds true for losses and damages.
If someone cuts you off in traffic, you feel an unconscious urge to get your revenge.
That doesn’t mean you should, but that powerful feeling is shared by almost every human on
the planet.
6.
Intellectual Sarcasm Are you a sarcastic person?
Sarcasm is a surprisingly complicated means of communication.
To apply sarcasm, your brain needs to master a variety of complex cognitive skills, like
problem-solving and abstract reasoning.
Because sarcasm is such a psychologically complicated process, it’s often a sign of
cognitive intelligence.
People who frequently use sarcasm usually possess other intellectual traits, like curiosity
and creativity.
If you’re a sarcastic person, not everyone may appreciate your sense of humor.
But, chances are, your sarcasm has made you a smarter person.
7.
Universal Imagination Try to imagine an object in your mind.
Choose something simple like a mug, and picture that mug to the best of your ability.
Now, everyone may be picturing a slightly different object.
But there is one thing we all have in common.
Unconsciously, our brains imagine every object from the same perspective.
Psychologists call this the canonical perspective, and it is your brain’s preferred vantage
point for just about everything.
Instead of looking directly above or directly below an object, we imagine that object rotated
down a few degrees, so that we can see the object’s most identifiable features.
No one thinks about your imagination as a universal human trait, but preferences like
this one reveal just how much our minds have in common.
8.
The Negativity Gene Have you met someone who is constantly negative?
Negativity stems from an array of psychological places.
Some people are dissatisfied with their jobs.
Others are trapped in bad relationships.
But, for a select few people, negativity has nothing to do with their state of mind.
A 2013 study discovered an unusual genetic disposition to negative thinking.
Participants in this study were shown images of beaches and waterfalls, which most people
found peaceful or charming.
But people with a predisposition for negativity processed these peaceful images as dangerous
and alarming.
For most people, negativity can be overcome with positive habits and healthy changes to
your environment.
But, if you have the negativity gene, your bad moods may be a part of who you are.
9.
Functional Design Psychology is ingrained into the fabric of
our society.
Every place you go and everything you touch was designed with your brain in mind.
The shapes, sizes, and textures of different objects all activate intuitive behaviors,
which allow your brain to unconsciously interact with everyday objects.
Buttons, for example, are designed to be pressed by human fingers.
Handles are designed to be held in our hands.
When you encounter these objects, your brain immediately recognizes their behavioral functions,
because those functions are programmed into your brain by years of experience.
10.
Brain Dominance Has someone ever called you right-brain or
left-brain dominant?
The brain is divided into two hemispheres, right and left, each of which handle a variety
of cognitive processes.
The right brain is typically associated with linear thinking and quantitative reasoning,
while the left brain is associated with creativity and emotional intelligence.
As such, logical people consider themselves right-brain dominant, while artistic people
see themselves as left-brain dominant.
But the truth is… one side of your brain doesn’t dominate the other.
Both of your hemispheres are constantly working in tandem, so that you can think, create,
and navigate the world.
No matter which personality traits you have, the simple fact is… your brain works like
everyone else’s.
11.
The Sleeper’s Dilemma Sleep is foundational to your health, your
development, and your cognitive function.
Next to breathing, eating, and drinking water, it’s one of the most important things you
do.
But if sleep is so important for your life, why is it so hard to sleep the right way?
Many people fall for the sleeper’s dilemma.
One morning, you wake up feeling tired.
So, you tell yourself, “Tonight, I’m going to sleep 10 hours instead of 8” But, when
it comes to sleep, more isn’t always better.
Sleeping too much is just as harmful as sleeping too little.
So, instead of racking up extra hours, aim for the magic number.
Get 8 hours every night, and you’ll feel more rested than ever.
12.
Creative Questions Asking questions is a surprisingly rare psychological
talent.
It requires a creative mind, capable of thinking outside the box and forming rapid connections
between new pieces of information.
Therefore, asking questions can be a powerful exercise for your brain.
By recognizing things you don’t know, you not only learn more information, but you also
improve your ability to recognize gaps in your understanding.
So, ask lots of questions, because the smartest people always do.
13.
Preparation Hurts In life we learn that preparation is good.
People who are prepared are more likely to succeed, and most of the time, that’s the
truth.
But there is such a thing as preparing too much.
A 2016 study discovered that creating a backup plan actually sabotages your chances of success.
Why?
Because you’re assuming your actual plan is going to fail.
Even if you only have a sliver of doubt, that sliver can undermine your confidence and bring
your actual plan crashing down.
14.
Looming Deadlines Deadlines are a powerful psychological motivator.
When you’re running out of time, you can use deadlines to accelerate the performance
of your brain, forcing you to either fail or rise to the occasion.
But some deadlines are more effective motivators than others.
In fact, the language of a deadline can impact how motivating it sounds.
Imagine you tell someone, “I need this presentation in a month.”
They feel like they have a lot of time, which leads to laziness and procrastination.
But if you say, “I need this presentation in 30 days,” it creates significantly more
pressure.
The time frame hasn’t changed.
But the difference in language fools your brain into working harder.
15.
Emotional Success Most people see cognitive intelligence as
one of the most important personality traits.
Cognitive intelligence describes your ability to solve problems, apply logic, and learn
information — all of which are skills you use every day.
But in our world, cognitive intelligence is not the most accurate predictor of success.
Instead, most successful people score off the charts on emotional intelligence, which
is your ability to understand and empathize with other people.
In fact, many of the most successful people in the world have surprisingly average IQs.
Ultimately, it’s not their cognitive intelligence that brought them success, but their strong
understanding of human emotions.
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