The American Psychology Association defines Psychology as the
scientific study of the mind and behavior. Through the years if the said
practice, it has been subject to many misconceptions regarding its real
nature as well as of its practitioners. Still, its many discoveries on
the human psyche are one of the fun things about it.
Here are a few interesting psychology facts that you definitely need to know.
Everything your mind says has an equivalent reaction from the cells in your body.
It is the reason why amounts of negativity eventually take your immune system down and make you feel sick.
Sarcasm is a sign of a healthy brain.
People who could instantly
use sarcasm in response to a trivial question have healthy minds.
Moreover, those who could understand cynicism well are also good at
reading people’s minds.
‘Catching a yawn’ shows empathy.
Yawning upon seeing someone
else yawn is a common occurrence, despite not feeling tired nor sleepy.
One theory on its contagiousness is that people ‘catch’ it to show
empathy.
Hence, toddlers and young people with autism are less likely to have the symptoms as they have yet to learn compassion.
Tears indicate the reason for one’s crying.
If the first teardrop came from the right eye, the person is crying tears of joy. Otherwise, the person is crying tears of pain.
A person still has 7 minutes of brain activity upon dying.
In those moments, they see their memories in a dream-like sequence.
The length of your tongue tells something about your sexual curiosity.
If you could lick your elbows, then it means that you are more willing and open to trying new experiences.
The way you dress has a connection with your mood.
It is not just in the color that you choose to wear. Dressing well could also help in keeping you stable and happy.
A single negative thing could be only be outweighed by at least five positive things.
Your brain
remembers bad over good; an effect of this thing called ‘negativity
bias.’ It is also the reason why you keep dwelling on how a coworker
insulted your outfit despite hearing a compliment from your client.
In order to have a balance, a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative is a must.
Food made by someone else tastes better than your own cooking, despite having the same recipe.
A study found that making a
meal requires you to stand around it so long that it already feels less
appealing by eating time. Hence, your satisfaction decreases
subsequently.
You tend to believe only what you want to believe, unintentionally.
The human brain is also
captive to ‘confirmation bias’ which makes people render facts to
somewhat confirm what they already believe. For instance, your grandpa
changing his political opinions has little to no chances despite your
swaying attempts.
It is just one of the psychology facts that you could not change and just have to accept.
Your memories are easy to manipulate.
In a span of 3 hours, you could be wrongly convinced that you committed a crime in your teenage years.
Thinking in another language makes your decision sound more rational.
You tend to be less discerning about money in your native tongue. In other words, the language you use affects your decisions.
Asking ‘Will I?’ is more motivating than saying ‘I Will.’
A study from the University of Illinois suggested that asking goal-related questions to yourself could motivate you more than declaring it to be true.
A rule too strict would only get you to break more.
Psychologists found how
this ‘reactance’ phenomenon affects people’s perception of rules. Not
only would they want to break a certain rule that takes certain freedom
away; they would also break more aside from that.
This might be the part of psychology facts behind a teenager
who is not allowed to use a phone in class would even chew gum in the
act of doing so.
Your dreams are more meaningful than your conscious thoughts.
Among all of the dreams you have had, 70% of it contains secret
messages. It means that they bear more importance and worth than the
things you think in your conscious.
Having a plan B would only make plan A less likely to work.
The University of Pennsylvania
held a series of experiments that revealed that volunteers who prepared
a backup plan before starting a task did worse than those who did not.
Team Plan B realized that having options made their motivation to
succeed the first time drop.
While it is good to think ahead, keeping those plans vague first could make you be more successful.
Fear is an actually good feeling if you are not really in danger.
There are people who love
scary movies and there are those who do not, and the difference might be
in their hormones. Such activities give you adrenaline, dopamine, and
endorphins from a fight-or-flight response.
However, your brain knows that you are not in real danger, so you still get that natural high despite how scared you feel.
You tend to care more about a single person rather than about massive tragedies.
Another one from the
University of Pennsylvania, this study had one group learn about a
starving little girl, another group learn about starving millions and a
third group who learned about both situations. The results showed that
people who heard about the little girl donated more than twice the
amount than when they heard the statistics.
Psychologists believe that although you would willingly help a
person, you would conclude that your little part could not do much when a
problem seems too big.
You would prefer anticipating something bad over not knowing what to expect.
Researchers found that
something negative that is about to happen is less stressful to grasp
than not knowing how things will end up.
The consequences-predicting part of your brain becomes more active when you have no idea what to expect.
Returning a favor is in your nature.
Good manners could not take credit over the ‘rule of
reciprocity.’ This brain command programs you to want to help someone
who helped you.
It might have developed with the goal of keeping the smooth flow of society.
Being tested on things help you remember them better.
Some psychology facts for
the kids: testing is an efficient tool for learning. A study discovered
that information could last longer in the memory of a person tested for
it than when only studied without the need to remember immediately.
You obsess over things which you feel you lack.
Take money for example. The human brain is scarcity-sensitive; it constantly feels that you are missing things that you need.
Farmers, for instance, come up with better plans when the cash flow is good than when money is tight.
You are in a constant search for human faces in inanimate objects.
This sensation is called
‘pareidolia’ which scientists think came from the notion that face
recognition is an important part of social life. It entails how your
brain tends to find a face where there is none rather than missing a
real one.
You always find a problem.
It is psychologically
normal for you to find another problem upon resolving one. One research
demonstrated that volunteers who are asked to select computer-generated
faces that look threatening eventually resorted to faces that do not.
It turns out that as the volunteers ran out of
threatening-looking faces, they started turning to faces that they would
usually call harmless.
People would rather alter facts than change their opinions about people.
As much as ‘cognitive
dissonance’ normal, you hate it when reality contradicts your beliefs.
It explains why you undermine a loved one’s wrongdoings despite how bad
it is.
High expectations incline people to rise to it while low ones have no such effects.
The Pygmalion effect holds
the explanation as to why you do better when other people believe you
would. On the contrary, you could not do well when someone expects you
to fail.
Crying has benefits.
Doing so could make you feel a lot better, reduce stress, and could even help in keeping your body healthy.
It is possible to feel certain about something without facts or reasoning.
Undergoing electric
simulation over that specific part of your brain could trigger a feeling
of certainty despite the absence of evidence or logic.
Some people are afraid of feeling too much happiness.
It is due to the fear of the pattern that something tragic might happen next.
There is a reason why that song is your favorite.
It is not just about the lyrics or the tune, it is because you link that song with an emotional event in your life.
Smart people tend to depreciate themselves.
On the other hand, ignorant
people think they are excellent. This psychology fact would make you
take a second look at the people that you know and how they present
themselves.
The pain from being ignored is not an overreaction.
This feeling has similar
chemical effects as to that of a physical injury. Hence, your brain
handles rejection like it would with physical pain.
Being lonely is worse for your health than you actually think.
A Harvard University study found a connection between extreme loneliness and the very same levels of the blood-clotting protein responsible for stroke and heart attacks.
In other words, not having friends could have the same deadly effect as smoking.
Psychology facts proved that power lessens a person’s care for others.
Aside from the Stanford
Prison Experiment, other studies found that people who are in the
position of power become worse at assessing another’s feelings. It shows
in their lack of facial expression which is a major indicator of loss
of empathy.
Receiving rewards could convince you that a boring task was fun.
A study paid volunteers to convince someone that a boring task
was actually interesting. Those who lied yet still find the activity
boring got paid $20. On the other hand, those who did not have a genuine
reason to lie and convinced themselves that the task was truly fun were
only paid $1.
Your brain gives less importance to long-term deadlines.
Yes, you are a
procrastinator for a psychological reason. The brain makes you
prioritize urgent tasks, regardless of its importance, because it knows
that you could complete them.
Optimism could be taught.
What’s more, is that researchers also observed that you could teach it to yourself.
Psychologically speaking, there is more behind an internet troll.
Scientists claim that most of them are naturally psychopathic, narcissistic and sadistic.
What considered normal anxiety levels has increased over the years.
The average 1950s
psychiatric patients demonstrated the same level of anxiety that could
be found in today’s average high school kid.
People aged between 18 and 33 carry the most amount of stress in the world.
The stress levels only tend to reduce after the border age of 33.
France is the most depressed country in the world.
For every 5 people, 1 suffers from depression. Above ⅓ of Europeans overall have a mental health disorder.
Artists from creative fields have an 8% greater chance to suffer from bipolar disorder than those from less creative ones.
Studies have found a connection
between bipolar disorder and a person’s creativity. But this definitely
does not mean all creative people have bipolar disorder, and not
everyone with bipolar disorder are creative.
A broken heart could be a legitimate cause of death.
The broken heart syndrome
is also called stress cardiomyopathy, and it could lead to critical,
short-term heart muscle malfunction.
The influence of power could have the same effect on a person as that of a traumatic brain injury.
Victims become more unpredictable, less concerned about risks, and less proficient at being sympathetic and emphatic.
Your addiction to social media is the result of its psychological scheme.
This formula is the real reason why you continue to scroll
Facebook despite only going there to check some notifications. Being
able to stay on the site regardless of interaction and activity is
relevant to the infinite scroll where your brain does not get any stop
cue.
There is a psychological reason why you felt that your phone vibrated when there is actually no notifications.
This condition is called the Phantom Vibration Syndrome, and a whopping 68% of the population suffers from it.
If you think that your idol is in love with you, there is a huge chance that you are suffering from a mental illness.
A psychological disorder named ‘erotomania’ occurs when a person who believes that a famous identity is in love with them.
Some people live their life as if they are in a reality TV show.
They suffer from what is
called the Truman Syndrome. Patients with this psychological disorder
believe that they are, indeed, stars in a reality TV show.
Getting your hopes too high for Paris could give you a mental health disorder.
Mainly Japanese people
suffer from Paris Syndrome, a psychological disorder caused by
disappointment from realizing that Paris is not what they expected it to
be.
Local culture is one of the factors that affect hallucinatory voices.
For one, voices in the U.S.
sound harsh and aggressive. Whereas schizophrenics in India and Africa
hear more mild and playful voices.
Hikikomori is a common mental health condition in Japanese males.
Approximately a million of
this population lock themselves in their bedrooms for years.
Subsequently, they generate social and health problems thus called the hikikomori.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder occurs in about 6% of the population.
This condition shows symptoms of having a sharp sense of self-importance and an apparent lack of empathy.
A person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder often also suffers from depression or anxiety.
However, this coexistence is usually the sole reason why a narcissist would opt for therapy.
Tylenol a.k.a. acetaminophen is not only good for physical aches, pains, and fever.
It is also known to alleviate psychological conditions like social rejection.
Antidepressant drugs carry more than just sexual side effects.
It could also suppress any human emotions relevant to love and romance.
There is a psychological reason behind your urge to go to the beach when you need a vacation.
The sight of water
has that soothing effect that makes people who witness it happier,
calmer and even more creative. Hence, living in such a view is a good
idea.
Paranoia has its opposite disposition.
Known as the pronoia, this delusion makes you think that people have secret plans for building your success.
People tend to value objects more when they assembled it by themselves, even just partially.
Primarily named after
furniture from the famous store, the ‘IKEA effect’ is the cause of the
irrationally high value on such objects in spite of the end result’s
quality.
Leonardo Dicaprio’s movie ‘Inception’ highlighted ideas from psychological scientists.
Beyond the special effects
and great actors of the movie lies a deep storyline. It lowkey
demonstrated how ideas could be instilled into a person’s mind and
integrated into its memory, as per the Association for Psychological
Science.
A man named Billy Milligan had 24 personalities.
He was born in Florida in 1955, but that ‘he’ only pertains to
his core personality named William Stanley Milligan. Aside from him, 23
others reside in his head, 2 of whom committed crimes such as robberies
and rapes.
However, Billy did not serve jail time and instead got sent to the Athens Mental Health Center due to ‘insanity’.
Aren’t
these psychology facts enlightening? May the 80 psychology facts make
you more aware and interested about the science of the mind!