Psychology
has a reputation for being the science of common sense, or a field that
simply confirms things we already know about ourselves.
One way of battling this misconception, explains Jeremy Dean — a
PhD candidate in psychology and master of ceremonies at the
always-awesome PsyBlog — is to
"think about all the unexpected, surprising, and just plain weird
findings that have popped out of psychology studies over the years."
Here are ten of his favorite examples.
10. Cognitive dissonance
This is perhaps one of the weirdest and most unsettling findings in psychology.
Cognitive dissonance
is the idea that we find it hard to hold two contradictory beliefs, so
we unconsciously adjust one to make it fit with the other.
In the
classic study, students found a boring task more interesting if they were paid
less
to take part. Our unconscious reasons like this: if I didn't do it for
money, then I must have done it because it was interesting. As if by
magic, a boring task becomes more interesting because otherwise I can't
explain my behaviour.
The reason it's unsettling is that our minds are probably performing
these sorts of rationalisations all the time, without our conscious
knowledge. So how do we know what we really think?
9. Hallucinations are common
Hallucinations are like waking dreams, and we tend to think of them as
markers of serious mental illness. In reality, however, they are more
common amongst 'normal' people than we might imagine. One-third of us
report having experienced hallucinations, with 20% experiencing
hallucinations once a month, and 2% once a week (
Ohayon, 2000).
Similarly, 'normal' people often have paranoid thoughts, as in this study I reported previously in which
40% experienced paranoid thoughts on a virtual journey.
The gap between people with mental illness and the 'sane' is a lot
smaller than we'd like to think. [Illustration by S. Stalkfleet]
8. The placebo effect
Perhaps you've had the experience that a headache improves seconds after
you take an aspirin? This can't be the drug because it takes at least
15 minutes to kick in.
That's the placebo effect: your mind knows you've taken a pill, so
you feel better. In medicine it seems strongest in the case of pain:
some studies suggest a placebo of saline (salty water)
can be as powerful as morphine. Some studies even suggest that
80% of the power of Prozac is placebo.
The placebo effect is counter-intuitive because we easily forget that mind and body are not separate.
7. Obedience to authority
Most of us like to think of ourselves as independently-minded people.
We feel sure that we wouldn't harm another human being unless under
very serious duress. Certainly something as weak as being ordered to
give someone an electric shock by an authority figure in a white coat
wouldn't be enough, would it?
Stanley Milgram's famous study found it was.
Sixty-three percent of participants kept giving electric shocks to
another human being despite the victim screaming in agony and eventually
falling silent. [The test setting is illustrated in the figure shown
here,
via]
Situations have huge power to control our behaviour, and it's a power
we don't notice until it's dramatically revealed in studies like this.
6. Fantasies reduce motivation
One way people commonly motivate themselves is by using fantasies about
the future. The idea is that dreaming about a positive future helps
motivate you towards that goal.
Beware, though, psychologists have found that
fantasising about future success is actually bad for motivation.
It seems that getting a taste of the future in the here and now reduces
the drive to achieve it. Fantasies also fail to flag up the problems
we're likely to face on the way to our goals.
So what's a better way to commit to goals? Instead of fantasising,
use mental contrasting.
5. Choice blindness
We all know the reasons for our decisions, right? For example, do you
know why you're attracted to someone? Don't be so sure. In one study,
people were easily tricked into justifying choices they didn't actually
make
about who they found attractive. Under some circumstances, we exhibit what is known as
choice blindness:
we seem to have little or no awareness of choices we've made and why
we've made them. We then use rationalisations to try and cover our
tracks.
This is just one example of the general idea that
we have relatively little access to the inner workings of our minds. [Photo by
Pablo Perez]
4. Two (or three, or four...) heads are not always better than one
Want to think outside the box? Do some blue sky thinking? Want to... [insert your own least-favourite cliché here].
Well, according to psychological research,
brainstorming doesn't work.
People in groups tend to be lazy, likely to forget their ideas while
others talk, and worry about what others will think (despite the rule
that 'there are no bad ideas').
It turns out it's much better to send people off to think up new ideas on their own. Groups then do better at
evaluating those ideas.
3. Trying to suppress your thoughts is counterproductive
When you're down or worried about something, people often say: "hey, try not to think about it; just put it out of your mind!"
This is very bad advice.
Trying to suppress your thoughts is counter-productive.
Like trying as hard as you can not to think about pink elephants or
white bears. What people experience when they try to suppress their
thoughts is an ironic rebound effect: the thought comes back stronger
than before. Looking for distractions is a much better strategy.
2. Incredible multi-tasking skills
Despite all the mind's limitations, we can train it to do incredible
things. Take our multitasking abilities, for example — did you know
that, with practice, people can actually read and write at the same
time?
One study of multitasking trained two volunteers over 16 weeks until
they could read a short story and categorise lists of words at the same
time. Eventually they could perform as well on both tasks at the same
time as they could on each task individually before the study began.
Read a full description of the study, along with potential criticisms,
here.
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