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. Once you've had a look, vote for your favourite at the bottom of this page.
Why You Can’t Help Believing Everything You Read
By default are we critical or gullible? This study shows that understanding something is believing it. A fraction of a second after reading it, you believe it until some other critical faculty kicks in to change your mind. Read on →
The Truth About Self-Deception
Surely lying to ourselves is counter-productive? This study shows that people can deceive themselves so thoroughly that they act as though their incorrect beliefs are completely true, totally disregarding any incoming hints from reality. Read on →
How Rewards Can Backfire and Reduce Motivation
Sometimes rewards do work to increase motivation, especially if the task is objectionable. But when tasks are inherently interesting to us rewards can damage our motivation by undermining our natural talent for self-regulation. Read on →
Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively
When asked to make a group decision, people tend to repeat what everyone already knows, instead of sharing vital information known only to themselves. At first these findings seem deeply counter-intuitive but in fact it's just what we should expect. Read on →
Why Thought Suppression is Counter-Productive
The classic response to unpleasant thoughts and feelings is to try and push them to the back of our minds. Unfortunately these experiments show that the attempt to push away thoughts about pain, trauma or obsession brings them back with a vengeance. Read on →
Is it just a myth peddled by glossy magazines that mimicking body language can increase how much others like us? Apparently not: this series of experiments suggests it really is effective. Read on →
How Other People's Unspoken Expectations Control Us
Understanding that other people's expectations about us directly and immediately affect our behaviour is a vital component in understanding ourselves. This experiment shows that we quickly sense how others view us and play up to these expectations. Read on →
When Situations Not Personality Dictate Our Behaviour
A fundamental mistake we often make when judging other people is assuming that their behaviour mainly reflects their personality. A modern test of an ancient bible story demonstrates the power of situations to trump personality in determining behaviour. Read on →
Finding The Surprising Gaps in Your Self-Knowledge
This research reveals the fascinating and unnerving idea that some aspects of our own personalities may be completely mysterious to us. In the experiment some participants were unaware of whether or not they were independent people.Read on →
Stereotypes: Why We Act Without Thinking
Stereotypes can be handy short cuts that give us useful information about the world and other people. But when a particular stereotype is activated can we avoid being influenced by it? These experiments suggest stereotypes can easily influence our behaviour and our conscious mind seems to have no say. Read on →
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