Many fascinating insights into the human mind are hidden in the most routine activities.
What is the most depressing day of the week? How do you deal with queue-jumpers? Do you have paranoid thoughts while travelling on an underground train?
The answers to these simple questions can speak volumes about complex psychological process. Because the queue is a small social system, our reaction to its disruption hints at what we will tolerate elsewhere; clues to how our memory and emotions work come from whether we’re right about the most depressing day of the week; and paranoid thoughts on a train show how differently we can each interpret exactly the same environment.
Collected below are links to recent articles on the psychology of the everyday.
- Why Familiarity Really Does Breed Contempt
- Do You Challenge Queue-Jumpers and Line-Cutters?
- Weather Has Little Effect on Mood
- Superstitious? Why Even Rational People Hate to Tempt Fate
- Ask For Help: Why People Are Twice as Likely to Assist as You Think
- Would You Ask Someone to Pick up Their Dog’s Poop?
- Friendships Can Depend on Who You Meet First
- Mondays Are Not As Depressing As You Think
- 40% Experienced Paranoid Thoughts on Virtual Journey
- The Over-Interpretation of Dreams
- Why People’s Names Are So Hard to Remember
- Why Do People Yawn?
- Does The Weather Affect Your Mood?
- How Much Do You ‘Zone Out’ While Reading?
Image credit: GasBombGirl
