Everyday Psychology You Should Probably Know

Everyday Psychology You Should Probably Know

1. Sex, danger, and food are meant to draw your attention
Your brain is hardwired to stay safe, reproduce, and eat as a means of survival. Everything else is secondary.

2. Just because you haven’t doesn’t mean you can’t
You have a mental model for just about everything. This allows you to use past experience and intuitive perceptions to do things you’ve never tried.

3. You see what you expect to see
How we perceive what we see is heavily influenced by context. Our brains naturally filter irrelevant information in a process called inattentional blindness.

4. You are built to imitate and empathize
“Mirror neurons” allow us to share other’s experiences and provoke us to imitate other’s actions. This is why babies imitate facial expressions.

5. It’s normal for your mind to wander
Your brain is hardwired to stay safe, reproduce, and eat as a means of survival. Everything else is secondary.

6. We choose the first one on the list
Studies show that when people are presented with a list of options they are most likely to pick whatever is first. The same is shown to hold true for voting.

7. You value what’s right in front of you
Being able to hold an object in your hands has more influence on what people are willing to pay for an item than product presentation or pictures.

8. You are motivated by the idea of progress
The “goal-gradient” effect states that the closer you are to your goal, the more motivated you become. However, your motivation plummets once the goal is reached.

9. Your social group has a maximum capacity
The size of the neocortex has a direct impact on the number of stable relationships a species can have. For humans, it’s about 150.

10. You’re more likely to spend money if not asked
Most people are primarily concerned with time, experience and personal connection when making a purchase.

source: www.health-science-degree.com