Why “Right Now” Feels So Powerful Why do we value immediate rewards more than long-term rewards? Imagine I offer you: $50 today or $60 tomorrow. You may be tempted to…
Heuristics
61 Articles
Why Winning Streaks Feel More Predictive Than They Are Why do we expect previous success to lead to future success? Imagine a basketball player makes five shots in a row….
Why the Past Looks More Predictable Than It Really Was Why do unpredictable events only seem predictable after they occur? After a stock crashes, someone says: “It was obvious this…
Why Your Brain Loves Mental Shortcuts Imagine walking into a restaurant and seeing it packed. You think: “It must be good.” You didn’t read every review, inspect the kitchen, compare…
Why We’re Overconfident When Things Are Hard Why is our confidence disproportionate to the difficulty of a task? Imagine taking two quizzes. The first is easy. You’re sure you scored…
When One Good Trait Colors Everything Else Why do positive impressions produced in one area positively influence our opinions in another area? Imagine you meet someone who is confident, attractive,…
Why do we forget information that we just looked up? Why We Forget What We Can Easily Look Up Imagine someone tells you an interesting fact: “The capital of Mongolia…
Why Random Events Don’t Owe You a Correction Why do we think a random event is more or less likely to occur if it happened several times in the past?…
Why We Blame People Too Quickly Why do we underestimate the influence of the situation on people’s behavior? Have you ever seen someone driving aggressively and thought, “What a terrible…
When Your Brain Can’t See a New Use for an Old Thing Why do we have trouble thinking outside the box? Imagine you need to tighten a loose screw. There’s…