Every Psychological Trap Explained in 13 Minutes
source: youtube
The Ostrich Effect: ignoring negative information or feedback, similar to an ostrich burying its head in the sand; counter this by regularly reviewing your situation even if it’s uncomfortable.
Inability to close doors: difficulty making decisions due to fear of missing out on other opportunities; focusing on one thing is more effective, but people often work on multiple ideas at once, leading to no or average results.
The Contrast Effect: judgment of one thing is affected by recent exposure to something else; for example, showing a terrible house before a nice one makes the second house seem better.
Chauffeur Knowledge: someone seems knowledgeable and confident but lacks genuine expertise; identify such individuals by asking deeper questions, as they can’t provide detailed insights.
The Ikea Effect: overvaluing something because you put effort into creating it; avoid overvaluing by getting external feedback to assess the real value of your efforts and make objective decisions.
The Curse of Specificity: extremely detailed information seems more persuasive even if it’s irrelevant; be cautious of this when evaluating information.
The Spotlight Effect: thinking people notice your appearance, mistakes, or behavior more than they actually do; remind yourself that others are usually too focused on themselves to notice minor things about you.
The Halo Effect: impression of someone in one area influences your opinion of them in other areas; avoid this by judging each situation or decision on its own facts.
Reciprocity: feeling obliged to give back when someone gives you something; recognize when you’re reacting out of obligation rather than genuine desire.
The Self-Serving Bias: crediting yourself for successes but blaming external factors for failures; practice taking responsibility for your actions, both good and bad.
The Dito Effect: acquiring a new possession leads to a spiral of additional purchases; be mindful of how one purchase can influence your overall spending.
The Anchoring Effect: first impression or an initial number shapes subsequent thinking; always view offers and decisions independently, not just in comparison to the first option you’ve seen.
Negativity Bias: paying more attention to negative events than positive ones; consciously shift your perspective to positive events and be grateful.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: continuing to do something because you’ve already invested a lot in it; base your investment or business decisions on potential future returns rather than past costs.
The Paradox of Choice: having too many options makes it harder to make a decision; limit your own options and the options you give to others.
The Framing Effect: decisions are influenced by how information is presented; consider facts from multiple perspectives before making a decision.
The End of History Illusion: believing who you are now is who you’ll be forever; embrace the idea of change and recognize that your preferences and beliefs will change.
The Pygmalion Effect: higher expectations lead to an increase in performance; aim to achieve your goals in a shorter time frame to significantly increase your performance.
Consistency Principle: being consistent with what you’ve previously said or done enhances commitment to your goals; find someone to hold you accountable.
The Planning Fallacy: underestimating how long it will take to do something; always add extra time to help plan your day better and reduce stress.
Confirmation Bias: noticing things that support what you already believe; actively look for information that challenges your views.
The Bandwagon Effect: copying what others do because everyone else has it; ask yourself why you’re making a decision and if it’s really what you want.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect: people with less skill or knowledge overestimate their ability; be cautious when making important decisions and consult with experts.
Loss Aversion: the fear of losing something motivates you more than the potential gain; focus on what you could gain, not just what you could lose.
The Decoy Effect: preference between two options changes when a third, less attractive option is introduced; evaluate each option alone.
The Availability Heuristic: judging the likelihood of events based on how easily you can remember them; look for actual facts and statistics before making a decision.
The Gambler’s Fallacy: thinking past events affect future ones, especially in random situations; remember that each event is independent.
The Hindsight Bias: believing you predicted an event after it has occurred; focus on the actual likelihood of events instead of assuming you knew the outcome.
The Reactant Bias: wanting to do the opposite of what you’re told because you feel your freedom is being threatened; focus on why the action is beneficial for you.
21 Mind Traps : The Ultimate Guide to your most common Thinking errors
source: youtube
Cognitive Dissonance: The discomfort or stress caused by holding two conflicting beliefs or values, leading to rationalization or denial.
The Spotlight Effect: Overestimating the extent to which others notice our appearance, behavior, or mistakes.
The Anchoring Effect: Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions or judgments, even if it’s irrelevant or unreliable.
The Halo Effect: Allowing an initial impression or trait to influence our overall perception of a person, object, or situation.
Gambler’s Fallacy: Believing that a random event is more likely to happen because it hasn’t happened recently, or that a pattern exists in independent events.
The Contrast Effect: Judging the value or attractiveness of something based on its comparison to something else, rather than its absolute value.
Confirmation Bias: Seeking out information that confirms our existing beliefs and ignoring or downplaying contradictory evidence.
The Baader Meinhof Phenomenon: Noticing a concept or thing more frequently after we’ve recently become aware of it, due to increased awareness and confirmation bias.
The Paradox of Choice: Experiencing decision fatigue and decreased satisfaction when faced with too many options, leading to inner paralysis and regret.
Zeigarnik Effect: Remembering incomplete tasks or unfinished business more easily than completed ones, and how writing down a plan can help alleviate this effect.
Survivorship Bias: Focusing on winners and overlooking losers, leading to an overly optimistic view of success.
Self-Serving Bias: Attributing successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.
Hindsight Bias: Believing, after an event, that it was predictable and that we would have known it would happen.
Availability Bias: Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind.
Availability Cascade: A self-sustaining chain of events that leads to an overreaction to a minor problem.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: Continuing to invest in something because of resources already committed, even if it no longer makes sense to do so.
Framing Effect: Being influenced by the way information is presented, rather than the information itself.
Clustering Illusion: Seeing patterns in random data.
Exponential Growth: Underestimating the power of exponential growth due to our inability to intuitively understand it.
Barnum Effect: Attributing vague and generalized statements to our own personalities.