21 Mind-Blowing Psychology Facts That You Never Knew About People
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Learning something new about yourself is always interesting and entertaining. And understanding the psychology behind our behavior, treating others, and expressing ourselves can be even more appealing
1. Ever wondered why everyone pays attention to food or sex? Ever wondered why everybody slows down at an accident scene? Because your reptilian brain is programmed to constantly remind you to pay attention to food, sex, or danger. In other words, your reptilian brain is designed to constantly ask:- "Can I eat it? Can I have sex with it? Will it kill me?"
2. The universe is governed by nothing but laws and principles. Have you ever wondered why you always get caught for breaking the law? Because in the universe, for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction also known as Newton’s Third Law.
3. Ever wondered why most people tend to do wrong things if there were no laws to keep them in check? Because by nature, most people tend to derive pleasure out of the suffering of others and only feel empathy when the other person is about to die.
4. People will naturally help you for fear that they might also fall into the same peril one day.
5. Humans are seriously limited to the amount of information they can handle at any one time. The estimate is that we can consciously handle 40,000,000 pieces of information per second, but only 40 of those make it to our subconscious brains.
6. People form mental models of something before they can use it for the first time. A mental model is a thought pattern based on a person’s incomplete facts and past experiences. It is an intuitive perception that helps shape actions and behavior, influences what a person pays attention to in complicated situations, and defines how people approach and solve problems.
7. People get used to the frequency of an event, but may completely fail to notice something else that is out of the ordinary. For example, security personnel may notice the bottle of shampoo that is too large, but miss to notice a loaded handgun. This is because of the expectation of how frequently an event does or does not occur.
8. People best process information when in story form. This is because the human mind reacts to stimuli, especially if some or all of that information is related to their present or past experiences. Storytelling is the best way to convey this information because it brings out these experiences as if the person was the actor in the story regardless of whether the experience was romantic, exciting or traumatizing.
9. People are generally more interested in the end of the story than the details of the story itself. However, once they know the end of the story, they will again change the subject and demand for the details of the story.
10. Your subconscious mind is faster than your conscious mind. For example, suppose you are shopping for a new mobile phone someone recommended and the salesperson is offering you what seems to be a good deal. And yet there is still a part of you that feels uncomfortable and isn't sure if this is the right mobile phone, or the right deal, or the right store to buy the phone. This is because your subconscious mind is desperately trying to warn you not to repeat a similar mistake you made in the past. Your subconscious mind is simply retrieving pieces of similar information about a past experience you might have probably forgotten.
11. What people understand or think when they look at a picture, screen or movie, largely depends on what others have said to them about it.
12. Your subconscious mind can tell you if someone is secretly looking at you without your knowledge. This ability is two times more prominent in females than in males.
13. People are poor predictors of events — People greatly overestimate the reaction they think they will have whether it is predicting how you will feel or react if a negative event occurs. For example, everyone tends to overestimate their reaction if they lose their job, have an accident, or if a loved one dies or in predicting how they will feel if a positive event happens, such as coming into a lot of money, landing a dream job, or finding the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend.
14. Our experience of time is relative; not absolute. The more mental processing we do, the more time we think has elapsed due to time illusions. If people stop and think at each step of a task, they tend to feel that the task is taking too long. The mental processing makes the amount of time seem longer. On the other hand, if people continue to work non stop, they tend to think that time is too short.
15. Your peripheral vision can save you. We have two types of vision — central vision and peripheral vision. Central vision is when you look at an object directly and see the details of the object. Peripheral vision is the rest of the visual field that is visible, but that you are not looking at directly. Theory has it that thousands of years ago in the African Savannah, people who were sharpening their spears or looking up at the clouds, and yet still noticed that a lion was coming at them from their peripheral vision had higher chances of survival than those who ignored their peripheral vision.
16. We have inattention blindness. People will hardly pay any attention to detail unless their lives depend on it.
17. Whether you should trust your gut or your logic depends on your mood. People have a higher tendency to trust their guts when their mood is on the high.
18. Culture rather than education and cognitive processes tend to shape our brain.
19. Synchronous activities and cultures involving singing, chanting, drumming, dancing, or moving together can bring groups together more effectively.
20. People don’t generally buy things using their rational brain. They buy things by compulsion (command) of their reptilian brain. For example, you plan to buy a brand new SONY TV when you leave the house because someone recommended it, but on reaching the electronics store, the salesman uses his uncanny selling skills to compel you to buy an LG, claiming that it can access more channels, is more durable and costs half the price. Mostly you will buy the LG. This is because your reptilian brain actually controls your rational brain.
21. Blue and red colors together are hard on your eyes due to an effect known as chromostereopsis. Chromostereopsis is a visual illusion that conveys the impression of depth in two-dimensional color images, usually of red-blue or red-green colours.