New study shows that self-control can be automatically, unconsciously bolstered by abstract thinking.
New study shows that self-control can be automatically, unconsciously bolstered by abstract thinking.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just spontaneously and automatically exercise self-control, without all that painful back-and-forth battle with ourselves?
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A wealth of psychological insights from ten more key social psychology studies.
A wealth of psychological insights from ten more key social psychology studies.
Over the last 7 months I’ve been exploring 10 more of my favourite social psychology studies, each with an insightful story to tell about how our minds work. This follows on from an article I wrote two years ago (10 brilliant social psychology studies).
Key insights from each study are below but click through to get the full story of each experiment.
The stories we weave about our mental processes are logically appealing but fatally flawed more often than we’d like to think.
The stories we weave about our mental processes are logically appealing but fatally flawed more often than we’d like to think.
We all have intuitive theories about how our own and other people’s minds work. Unfortunately psychological research demonstrates that these theories are often wrong. The gulf between how we think our minds work and how they actually work is sometimes so huge it’s laughable.
Classic social psychology study explores our yearning to bask in the reflected glory of successful others.
Classic social psychology study explores our yearning to bask in the reflected glory of successful others.
Here in England we have a strange tradition called ‘test cricket’. It’s a ridiculous game that goes on for five days, stops for tea and bad light, has impenetrable rules, weird names for fielding positions like ‘silly-mid-on’ and ‘short-backward-leg’ and which frequently ends, after the aforementioned five days, with neither side victorious.
It might seem like an undemocratic question but it’s one that’s always plagued me: why do I bother voting? Most people know their own tick in the box is hardly worth it when weighed against the effort involved in getting registered and actually going to vote, let alone when weighed against all the other people voting.
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New study finds slouchers make less confident self-evaluations.
New study finds slouchers make less confident self-evaluations.
At school all the cool kids were slouchers. No one wanted to be seen sitting up straight, paying attention or, heaven forbid making an effort to learn. It was only the geeks in the front row, hoovering up all that useless knowledge, who kept their backs straight. The rest were doing their best to reach the horizontal, and sometimes exceeding it.