The so-called Batman Effect encourages altruism by forcing people out of mental autopilot and triggering prosocial behavior – even if it happens unconsciously. In a study conducted in Italy, researchers tracked people’s willingness to give up their seat to a visibly pregnant woman on a crowded subway. Over a total of 138 rides, 67.21% of…
You can learn about intelligence by studying puppies. Too often, we treat intelligence and potential like they are binary outcomes. Someone is either smart or they’re not. They’re either capable of doing something or they’re not. But the reality is more nuanced. A longitudinal study by Duke University’s Canine Cognition Lab challenges our traditional views…
For most of our adult lives, a good friend and I have debated “best of” lists. Whether it’s the best songs to play on Halloween or the greatest movie quotes, we seemingly never get tired of revisiting previous lists and creating new ones. One of our favorite debates is songs with the best opening lines….
According to neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of How Emotions Are Made, emotions aren’t hardwired in your brain but are instead “made in the moment.“ Historically, scientists believed your brain triggers an evolutionary response to external factors, causing your body to act in a predetermined way. For example, if you saw a bear in the woods, you…
The Zeigarnik effect describes the fact that people tend to remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones. It happens because “unfinished tasks create a cognitive burden, weigh more heavily on the mind, and are more easily recalled than completed tasks.” The effect was first described in the 1920s by Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik after observing…
What happens if we relook at predictions from 100 years ago? Futurists usually aren’t judged on the accuracy of their predictions, and people rarely revisit the predictions many years later. Futurists can be wrong and unaccountable; just like meteorologists… The exception might be Ray Kurzweil who some have claimed to have a stunning 86% accuracy…
Despite the popularity of the saying, Sherlock Holmes never actually said “elementary, my dear Watson.” Regardless, we recognize the phrase refers to something which is easily understood – perhaps obvious – even if it seems confusing to others. Referring to the books, Watson is surprised and impressed when Holmes is able to figure out things from…
When people ask for advice or a second opinion, they give clues to the answer they are expecting so they don’t get a truly independent point of view. In a series of experiments, researchers found that people often add their own opinion when they ask for an opinion or advice, even though they are aware…
Ever feel like time speeds up as you get older? In the book “Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies” Professor Adrian Bejan makes the case there is good reason we feel this way. Perceived time, sometimes called mind time, is different from clock time. Our perception of time changes as we age. For example,…
While we are taught how to read words and sentences when we are young, we are rarely taught how to read paragraphs or books. And most of us don’t realize there are different levels of reading. The fascinating and useful How To Read A Book is subtitled “The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.” The authors…