Heuristics

Presidents, cult leaders, and marketers all construct enemies to force people to pick a side. Here is the technique to keep calm and reasonable.

Is Punishment the Answer for COVID-19 Non-Compliance?

New research offers solutions on how to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Don't Think You Can Manage Problematic Family Relationships?

Do you feel misunderstood or different from family? These two adjustments can help change those feelings.

Heuristics and Biases, Related But Not the Same

Heuristics and biases are often treated as synonymous when they aren’t.

The Substitution Trap

The heuristics and biases community asserts that people unconsciously replace hard problems with easier ones, but it is the analytical decision researchers who fall into this trap.

Novelty adapted from Scientific Moment, page 24: Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces at Play, 2019

Collecting: An Urge That’s Hard to Resist

Collecting decisions are not always rational. Understanding this can not only make us better collectors, but better human beings as well.

The Fragility of Mask-u-linity

We are currently seeing the arbitrariness of gender attributions close up and in person in our public political events.

Heuristics Are the Building Blocks of Human Behavior

Learn when and where heuristics can benefit our decision making and when they can lead us astray.

4 Reasons Why We Resist Psychotherapy Integration

Accepting a comprehensive explanatory framework for how psychotherapy works has been a long time coming. Yet, our cognitive biases may continue to delay the process.

Should You Let the Dice Decide?

Struggling to make a choice? Rolling dice or flipping coins can offer surprising benefits to speed up the process.

The 1986 Challenger Disaster Informs the COVID-19 Pandemic

We will be making risky, pandemic-related choices well into the future. It's human to think we make better decisions than other people do, but we all need to do better. Here's how.

Why Has the “Pet Effect” Meme Spread So Rapidly?

An analysis of press coverage of "the pet effect" partially explains the mismatch between our beliefs about the impact of dogs and cats on human health and what the science says.

The NFL Has a Race-Related Ejection Problem

Do NFL referees' in-game ejections decisions exhibit racial bias? Research on automatic processing could shed light on this question.

Status Quo Bias: Why Things Feel Stuck Sometimes

Why does life sometimes become stuck and repetitive? Why are people (and the systems they create) often slow to change? Research offers a reason.

Planning Fatigue Is Real and Here's Why You're Feeling It

Our minds, over centuries of evolution, have worked hard to simplify our existence by automatizing functioning. During a pandemic, we are forced to overthink again.

Overcoming “Inaction Inertia” to Support Open-Science

What our replication of the classic "inaction inertia" judgment and decision-making effect taught us about the importanc of replications, transparency, & engaging in open-science.

Selfless Narcissists? The Paradox of the Headless Egomaniac

Challenge a narcissist and it feels like you're swiping at thin air. Here's an explanation for how that happens.

Why Basing Relationships on MBTI Can Be Shallow

Stereotyping and ignorance can often be a case of unchecked heuristics.

Stretching the Expertise Bubble

Experts make claims all the time. How do you know when you should trust them?

3 Aspects to Consider When Empowering Coachees

How we view a coachee and approach facilitating the coaching process determines if we are successful or not.

Quarantine Fatigue: How Will You Decide to Rejoin the World?

Are you feeling quarantine fatigue? Are you ready to go back to work, out to dinner, to a movie, or to meet friends for a drink? But should you? Is it safe? How will you decide?

The Helicopter Technique Metaphor

Ten ways to get unstuck in difficult conversations by using the Helicopter Technique.

"Values Voting" May Help Explain Political Polarization

Voters demand politicians put on a morality pageant. Is this leading to political polarization?

This Bias Explains Why People Don't Take COVID-19 Seriously

Unrealistic optimism is our psychological tendency to underestimate our personal risk.

"You Can't Shoot a Virus," and Guns Won't Make You Safer

During the Coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) global pandemic, Americans are stocking up on guns and ammunition. Some people think guns make them safer, but this is a myth.