Every Psychological Concept Explained In 7 Minutes

The Sketch Narrator

21 Feb 202407:02

Summary

TLDRThis script delves into various cognitive biases and psychological phenomena that influence human behavior and decision-making. It covers topics such as confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, the availability heuristic, and the halo effect, among others. It also touches on social behaviors like in-group bias, the bystander effect, and conformity. The script aims to raise awareness of these unconscious influences to promote more rational thinking and behavior.

Takeaways

🔍 Confirmation Bias: People tend to seek out information that aligns with their pre-existing beliefs, such as astrology enthusiasts recalling only accurate horoscope predictions.
😖 Cognitive Dissonance: The discomfort arises when one's beliefs or actions contradict each other, like a smoker downplaying health risks to justify their habit.
🗂 Availability Heuristic: Judgments are often based on readily available information, such as overestimating the risk of shark attacks after hearing recent news.
📐 Anchoring: Initial information heavily influences judgments, even when new information suggests otherwise, as seen in negotiations where the first offer sets the tone.
🌟 Halo Effect: Positive perceptions in one area can influence perceptions in another, like assuming an attractive person is also intelligent.
👤 Fundamental Attribution Error: People often attribute others' behaviors to internal factors, underestimating external influences, like assuming someone cutting in line is rude without knowing their hurry.
🎓 Self-Serving Bias: Successes are attributed to internal factors, while failures are blamed on external factors, like attributing good grades to intelligence and poor ones to exam difficulty.
📣 Recency Effect: Information presented last is often remembered and weighted more heavily, influencing decisions such as a job candidate's final interview responses.
💊 Placebo Effect: Belief in a treatment's efficacy can lead to perceived improvements, even if the treatment is inert, like patients feeling better after taking sugar pills.
🏆 In-Group Bias: People favor their own group over outsiders, as seen in sports fans supporting their team regardless of performance.
👮 Authority Bias: There's a tendency to follow authority figures without question, even if their instructions are incorrect or unethical.
👥 Bystander Effect: The presence of others can reduce the likelihood of offering help, as individuals assume someone else will act in an emergency.
🚗 Overconfidence Bias: People often overestimate their abilities or judgment, leading to risky behavior, like believing oneself to be a better driver than one truly is.
👥 False Consensus Effect: Individuals overestimate the extent to which others share their beliefs or behaviors, like assuming most people dislike a certain food.
📊 Social Comparison Theory: Self-evaluation often involves comparing oneself to others to gauge abilities or opinions, such as students comparing grades to assess academic performance.
😟 Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): Anxiety about potentially missing out on social events or experiences can compel constant social media checking to stay updated.
🤝 Stockholm Syndrome: Positive feelings or loyalty can develop towards captors or abusers due to prolonged captivity or abuse, as seen in hostages defending their captors.
🔒 Learned Helplessness: A sense of passivity and resignation arises when individuals believe they have no control over their situation, even when change is possible.
💰 Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continued investment in a decision is made despite its irrationality due to previous investments, like repairing a constantly breaking car instead of buying a new one.
🏷️ Stereotype Threat: Anxiety or poor performance can occur when individuals are aware of negative stereotypes about their group relevant to the task at hand.
🤦‍♂️ Impostor Syndrome: Doubt in one's abilities and fear of being exposed as a fraud, despite competence or accomplishments, like attributing success to luck.
👥 Conformity: Adjustment of behavior, beliefs, or attitudes to align with a group or societal norms, such as changing an opinion to fit in with friends.
🧠 Cognitive Load Theory: Limited cognitive resources can affect task performance, with mental effort required to complete tasks potentially leading to struggle, like students learning amidst distractions.
🕵️‍♂️ Implicit Bias: Unconscious attitudes or stereotypes about certain groups can influence behavior and decisions without awareness, like unconscious negative associations leading to biased treatment.
🔁 Mere Exposure Effect: Repeated exposure to something can lead to developing a preference for it, even if initially neutral or unfamiliar, like liking a song after hearing it often on the radio.
🏡 Place Attachment: Emotional bonds and a sense of belonging can develop to specific places, like feeling nostalgic for a childhood park even after moving away.