The halo effect: when one good quality blinds us to all the others
When someone seems pleasant or good-looking, we often also see them as cleverer, more capable and more honest. And strangest of all: we do not realise we are doing it.
Mind
How we think, what we believe, and how thoughts shape our actions.
35 articles
The sunk cost trap: why we keep going only because we have paid
A boring film, a course you do not like, a project that is not working. We often carry on not because it is worth it but because "we have put in so much". This is one of the most common decision errors.
The availability heuristic: why we fear the wrong things
The more easily an example comes to mind, the more frequent it seems. This mental shortcut often works, but it also makes us afraid of planes and forget everyday risks.
"I knew it would happen": the hindsight bias
After every election, match or crisis, someone says: "It was obvious from the start." Psychologists have shown that this feeling of certainty often arises only once we know the outcome.
The Pygmalion effect: do teachers’ expectations affect pupils?
At a school in California, teachers were told that some pupils would soon "bloom". In fact, the names had been chosen at random. What happened eight months later?
The fast mind and the slow mind: why we are wrong with complete confidence
Most of the time our mind works quickly and effortlessly. That saves us, but it also leads us into mistakes we do not see.
The law of attraction: what is true and what is not
The idea that our thoughts attract the events in our life is very widespread. Science does not support it. But there are some true things inside it worth keeping.
How we explain failures to ourselves: explanatory style and learned optimism
Two people suffer the same failure. One says "I am useless", the other "this time I did not prepare well". The difference seems small, but it shapes what they do next.
Can intelligence grow? What we know today about the "growth mindset"
Believing that abilities can be developed has an effect, but a smaller and more conditional one than often claimed. Here is how to use it wisely.
The visualisation that helps and the visualisation that holds you back
Imagining the steps of a task improves it. Imagining only the victory can drain your energy. The difference matters.
It is not things that trouble us, but how we see them
Between what happens and what we feel there is a thought. Once we notice it, we gain a little room to choose.