Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? People believe in conspiracy theories for a number of different reasons. They can give people a sense of being in control, of feeling special, or of belonging to a group. It is also much easier to believe in conspiracy theories today than at any point in history. Recently, […]
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Why do people procrastinate? The majority of people that procrastinate do so because they are trying to avoid the negative emotions that come with whatever task it is they are trying to do. The word “procrastinate” came into English via French, from Latin. The latin word was “procrastinare”. In Latin, “pro” means “forward” and “crastinus”
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Does the placebo effect work? The placebo effect works for things that are directly affected by the brain, but not for actual illnesses. Nobody understands exactly the mechanism behind the placebo effect, but there are some pretty good theories. The word “placebo” comes from Latin, and its origins give a clue to what it does.
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How does a lie detector work? Lie detectors work by recording breathing rate, pulse, blood pressure, muscular activity, and perspiration to look for any changes. They are not admissible in court because they don’t always work. The modern lie detector (polygraph) was created in 1945, but there were many steps along the way. The first
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Why does the bystander effect happen? The bystander effect happens because in a group of people, everybody assumes that somebody else will be the one to act. There are many examples of the bystander effect. It has been given that name because when something happens, people just stand by and nobody acts. This can happen
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Do guilt and shame have a purpose? Shame and guilt serve to make people function more as a group and to follow the agreed social norms. Many of us spend a large portion of our lives weighed down with shame and guilt and we often wish that they were two emotions we didn’t need to
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What is survivorship bias? It is when researchers focus on the individuals that have passed a selection process, while forgetting those that have not. It is an error in logic. Survivorship bias doesn’t have to be about people who have survived, it can reference people or things that have survived a selection process. There are
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What is a black swan event? It is a completely surprising and unpredictable event that has major consequences. It is something that is as rare as a black swan. The phrase was first used in Rome in the 2nd century BC and its usage was to show that an event was as rare on Earth
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How does cold reading work? It is a method of reading a person you don’t know in order to get information. It is the opposite of hot reading, where the person already either knows the target or has a lot of information about them to start with. Cold reading is a method employed by psychics
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How do hallucinations happen? They are caused by a chemical imbalance or some kind of abnormality in the brain. All hallucinations are created by the sensory parts of our brain and they are basically firing without the stimulus. If you look at a dog, light is bouncing off the dog and entering your eyes. Your
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