The framing effect: the same truth, two different decisions
"90 per cent survive" and "10 per cent die" say the same thing. Yet people, doctors included, make different decisions depending on how the information is presented.
Psychology of thought
9 articles
Many choices, few decisions? The story of the jam experiment
In a Californian supermarket, a table with 24 kinds of jam attracted more people than one with 6. But far fewer bought. This experiment became the symbol of the "paradox of choice". What do we know today?
Rumination: when endless thinking solves nothing
After a bad event, some people turn it over in their minds for hours and days: why it happened, what it means, why I feel this way. This is called rumination, and it often prolongs the pain.
The nocebo effect: when expecting harm makes us feel unwell
If we expect a drug to give us a headache or tiredness, we often feel them, even when the drug contains no active substance. This is the nocebo effect.
Don’t think of a white bear: why the thoughts we suppress come back
When we try hard not to think about something, we often think about it more. A simple experiment with a white bear showed this clearly.
The placebo effect: what expectation can do, and what it cannot
A sugar pill does not cure a disease. But it can change how we experience pain or fatigue. It is one of the clearest pieces of evidence for the link between mind and body.
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.
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.