how our brains tick

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Understanding the psychology

behind the way we tickmight help

us to tick even better.

Many studies and much research

has been invested into the how

and why behind our everyday

actions and interactions. The

results are revealing. If you are

looking for a way to supercharge

your personal development,

understanding the psychology

behind our actionsis an essential first step.

Fortunately, knowing is half the battle. When you realize all the many

ways in which our minds create perceptions, weigh decisions, and

By Kevan Lee

AUGUST 9, 201327 Comments

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Social Open Over#ow Happiness

6 Powerful Psychological Effects ThatExplain How Our Brains Tick

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subconsciously operate, you can see the psychological advantages start

to take shape. Its like a backstage pass to the way we work, and

being backstage, you have an even greater understanding of what it

takes to succeed.

The following 6 psychology facts can be viewed as a hackers guide toself-improvement, based on the brains default settings. So, thats

exactly what this is your backstage pass to how our brain functions

and how we can best avoid common misconceptions:

The Pratfall E!ect Your likability willincrease if you arent perfect.

Dont worry about tripping and falling

in front of your boyfriend; doing so

will only make him like you more. Go

ahead and admit your failures to your

friends; your humanness will endear

yourself to them.

These mistakes attract charm as aresult of the Pratfall Effect: Those who

never make mistakes are perceived as

less likeable than those who commit

the occasional faux pas. Messing up

draws people closer to you, makes you

more human. Perfection creates distance and an unattractive air of

invincibility. Those of us with flaws win out every time.

This theory was tested by psychologist Elliot Aronson. In his test, he

asked participants to listen to recordings of people answering a quiz.

Select recordings included the sound of the person knocking over a cup

of coffee. When participants were asked to rate the quizzers on

likability, the coffee-spill group came out on top.

Key Takeaway

The Pratfall Effect serves as a good reminder that it is okay to be

fallible. Occasional mistakes are not only acceptable, they may turn out


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to be beneficial. So long as the mistakes are not critical and making

mistakes does not compound a reputation for being unliked, the

occasional pratfall can come in very handy. Pratfall away.

The Pygmalion E!ect Greaterexpectations drive greater performance.

The crux of this psychological phenomenon is the concept of

self-fulfilling prophecy: If you believe something is true of yourself,

eventually it will be.

The first test of the Pygmalion Effect was performed by psychologist

Robert Rosenthal and occurred in an elementary school classroom with

first and second grade students. At the beginning of the year, all the

students took an assessment test, and Rosenthal led the teachers to

believe that certain students were capable of great academic

achievement. Rosenthal chose these students at random, regardless of

the actual results of the IQ tests.

At the end of the year, when the students were retested, the group of

earmarked high achievers did indeed show improvement over their

peers. Why was this? Later tests concluded that teachers

subconsciously gave greater opportunities, attention, and feedback to

the special group. Their expectations for this group were higher, and

their expectations created the reality.

Rosenthal summarized his finding:

What one person expects of another can come to serve as a

self-fulfilling prophecy.

The effect was dubbed Pygmalion, named after the Ovid tale of a

sculptor who falls in love with one of his statues.


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Key Takeaway

The applications for the Pygmalion Effectcan have benefits for both

personal development and leadership. Individually, you can challenge

yourself with more difficult goals and tasks in an effort to rise to meet

the challenge. As a leader, when you expect great things of your team,

you may see improved performance in return.

The Paradox of Choice The more choiceswe have, the less likely we are to becontent with our decision.


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(photo credit: stirwise)

Have you felt buyers remorse? If so, youve seen the Paradox of Choice

in effect.

Even if our ultimate decision is clearly correct, when faced with manychoices, we are less likely to be happy with what we choose. No doubt

this is familiar to you. When I eat out, I often second-guess my menu

choice. When you buy a new car, you might toss and turn over the

decision. A wealth of choices makes finding contentment that much

harder.

To prove this paradox, psychologists Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar

conducted an experiment on supermarket jam. At a gourmet food store,

Lepper and Iyengar set up a display of high-quality jams and taste

samples. In one test, they offered six varieties; another test, they

offered 24. The results of the study showed that 30 percent of people

exposed to the smaller selection ended up purchasing a jar of jam. Only

3 percent of the people exposed to the larger selection purchased jam.

The fame of the jam study coupled with a popular book and TED talk by

psychologist Barry Schwartzmake the paradox of choice one of the

most publicized (and criticized) psychological phenomenons. Perhaps


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the best affirmations of this tyranny of choice are its common sense

explanations: Happiness is diminished with the extra effort and stress

it takes to weigh multiple options, opportunity cost affects the way we

value items, pressure to choose can be draining, and the possibility of

blame exists should the decision not turn out how we had hoped.

Key takeaway

A simple solution to the paradox of choice: Give yourself fewer options.

A key to this is identified in the following excerpt from Schwartzs

book:

Focus on what makes you happy, and do what gives meaning to your life

The Bystander E!ect The more peoplewho see someone in need, the less likelythat person is to receive help.

The parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates this effect clearly. So too

do many tragic eventsthroughout history. Researchers call it a

confusion of responsibility, where individuals feel less responsibilityfor the outcome of an event when others are around. In fact, the

probability of help is inversely related to the number of people present.

If you are to ever need assistance, dont go looking for it in a crowd.

The Bystander Effect was shown in a study by social psychologists Bibb

Latane and John Darley. They watched students respond to the

perceived choking of a fellow student in a nearby cubicle. When the test

subjects felt they were the only other person there, 85 percent rushed

to help. When the student felt there was one other person, 65 percent

helped. When the student felt there were four other people, the

percentage dropped to 31 percent.


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You may have experienced the Bystander Effect in a group project at

school. There is often one group member who puts off deadlines and

assignments because of diffused responsibility: They assume someone

else will pick up the slack.

Key takeaway

Be specificwhen you need help. Ask someone for help by name so as toremove the confusion of responsibility. This is especially

counterintuitive since we naturally assume saying to a larger group to

help us will encourage more people to jump in, when really the

opposite is the case. To avoid frustration, pick out 1 person only every

time.

The Spotlight E!ect Your mistakes arenot noticed as much as you think

The perception of our being under constant scrutiny is merely in our

minds, and the paranoia and self-doubt that we feel each time we make

a mistake does not truly reflect reality. According to the Spotlight

Effect, people arent paying attention at our moments of failure nearlyas much as we think.


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To test the Spotlight Effect, a team of psychologists at Cornell asked a

group of test subjects to wear an embarrassing T-shirt (featuring a

picture of Barry Manilows face) and estimate how many other people

had noticed what they were wearing. The estimations of the test

subjects weretwice as high as the actual number.

Key takeaway

You are under the spotlight less often than you think. Acknowledging

this should lead to increased comfortability and relaxation in public

settings and more freedom to be yourself. More so, when you do make a

mistake, you can rest easy knowing that its impact is far less than you

think. Psychologist Kenneth Savitsky puts it this way:

You cant completely eliminate the embarrassment you feel when you

commit a faux pas, but it helps to know how much youre exaggerating

its impact.


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The Focusing E!ect People place toomuch importance on one aspect of anevent and fail to recognize other factors

Nothing In Life Is As Important As You Think It Is, While You Are

Thinking About It Daniel Kahneman

How great is the difference in mood between someone who earns high

income and someone who earns lower income? The difference does

exist, but it is one-third less significant than most people expect. Thisillustrates the Focusing Effect; in the income example, the factor of

income as it relates to mood overshadows the myriad other

circumstances at play.

How much happier is a Californian than a Midwesterner? When

psychologists posed this question to residents of both areas, the answer

from each group was that Californians must be considerably happier.

The truth was that there was no differencebetween the actual

happiness rating of Californians and Midwesterners. Respondents were

focusing on the sunny weather in California and the easy-going

lifestyle as the predominant factors in happiness when in fact there are

many other, less publicized aspects of happiness that Midwesterners

enjoy: low crime, safety from earthquakes, etc.

Marketers use Focusing Effect (also called focusing illusion) on

consumers by convincing them of the necessary features of a product or

service. Politicians, too, use focusing to exaggerate the importance of

particular issues.

Key takeaway

To combat this effect, it is important to remember to keep perspective,

look at problems from many angles, and weigh several factors before

making a decision. The downfall of the Focusing Effect is that it can

lead to mistakes in predicting future outcomes. If you can avoid tunnel


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vision (or at least acknowledge that it may exist), you can improve your

chances of making a sound choice.

Over to you now. Have you ever experienced some of these

psychological effects before?If so, how did you deal with overcoming

them? Id love to hear your thoughts on the topic and see what the bestways are to combat them.

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Tags: Helping others paradox of choice psychological e!ects

Psychology the bystander e!ect the focusing e!ect

the pratfall e!ect the Pygmalion e!ect the spotlight e!ect

Written by Kevan Lee

Content crafter at Bu!er. You can "nd me online, tweeting about my writing process, or

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at home, second-guessing football coaches. Live simply, give generously,

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Comments for this thread are now closed.

27 Comments

!

Leo Ji !

Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Useful.

!

Kevan ! Mod

Glad to hear it, Leo!

!

Joey Espinosa !

Poor Barry Manilow.

!

Giacomo Balli !

this is awesome!

!

Smriti Chawla !

Great article, Kevan. Love the pratfall e"ect. It's funny in a mischevios

way. ;)

!

theirmind !

Humans does have a lot of myths, bias, absurd ideas and prejudice.

!

Eli DeParke !

All important e"ects -- good summary from some of the top sources.

!

Siddharth !

This Definitely will create a di"erence in my Perception. Thanks Mate !

!

Rick Grimes !

my life was changed for the better when i discovered i couldnrt

englisdh. thank you for changing my life i woill be foerecve in your

debt. deuces

Guest !

Awesome! Thanks Kevan!


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