“You are nothing more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules,” said Francis Crick, one of the discoverers of DNA.
Almost 90% of the population is classified into four basic personality types: optimistic, pessimistic, trusting, and envious. We all react almost in a similar manner if given the same circumstances.
But still, there are many odds where we react in a different pattern. We will go through those facts about psychology that we neglect in our daily life.
Psychology
Psychology is the study of mental processes and behavior. It is derived from the Greek words psyche, meaning “breath, spirit, soul,” and logia, meaning “study of.”
Psychology is not a mere assumption but a factual conclusion of various investigational research based on relationships between different variables.
The person who studies psychology is known as a psychologist. They use various techniques to analyze the human mind and behavior, including naturalistic observation, case studies, and experiments.
If you want to make a career in psychology, it depends on your education, work experience, and passion. Some career options are clinical psychology, forensic psychology, health psychology.
If you are suffering from emotional symptoms, you need to counsel a clinical psychologist; for children, developmental psychologists are suitable to consult with. The types of a psychologist vary with the symptoms.
Psychology Facts
Since the human mind is infinitely complex, new research is published every day to explain why we are the way we are.
While some psychological experiments affirm fairly mundane psychology facts (for example, one University of Rochester study concluded that people are happier on weekends), others are truly enlightening.
We’ve compiled a list of psychology facts that illustrate human nature—and can help you understand some of the patterns you’ve noticed in yourself and others.
Have a look at some interesting facts about psychology:
1. Mind and cell both react equivalently to the experience
The synchronization of the brain with the physical body and the physical world is what we experience; it’s simple, take your time and think about it.
There are thousands of receptors on each cell in our body. These receptors are specific to one peptide(chain of amino acids).
Whenever we feel any emotions, these neuropeptides are released; they travel through the body and contact those receptors, changing each cell’s structure as a whole.
This statement clarifies these amazing facts about psychology, where the outer environment steers up different behavioral outcomes.
We are too self-concerned that we ignore the influence of the outside world. The negativity filled in your mind will affect your immune system and make you feel sick.
2. Sarcasm is a sign of a well-functioning brain
People with healthy minds will respond to a trivial question with sarcasm almost instantly. Furthermore, those who are well-versed in cynicism are also great at reading people’s minds.
Sarcasm expresses the sting of hatred, hurting others, and harming relationships. It is a form of communication that might lead to conflict.
On the other hand, sarcasm promotes creativity when used with care and in moderation. Rather than avoiding sarcasm, the humorous environment and talks can trigger creative sparks.
These facts about psychology are interesting; when used in the right time and place, sarcasm can recharge your brain with a productive outcome.
3. Catching a yawn helps us connect
Even if you are not exhausted or sleepy, “yawning” after seeing someone else yawn is natural—people’ catch’ it to express empathy, according to one theory about its contagiousness.
The test was carried out from toddlers to young adults for further study. As a result, since they have not yet developed compassion, toddlers and young adults with autism are less likely to show symptoms.
The test showed that the less empathy a person had, the less likely they would catch a yawn. The yawning connected to the individual’s empathy is also one of the surprising facts about psychology.
4. Five positive things can only outweigh a single negative thing
We have a proneness to the negativity or wrong thing than right things that happen around us. E.g., if someone is celebrating, we don’t care; when we see an accident, we are unnecessarily curious.
One negative thought or event takes over our mind in ways that may harm your work. This phenomenon is called “negativity bias,” one of the most basic psychological principles.
People must understand this human behavior in day-to-day life and how it affects their relationships, reactions to political or religious speakers, etc.
5. Mind looks for faces or patterns in every information
Humans have a propensity to find faces or patterns in random visual or audio information. This behavior of mind is called “pareidolia.”
We seek and intuitively find patterns or structures in inanimate objects. Most of us have seen an elephant, a building, the dinosaur, and so on in the clouds.
These facts about psychology relate to the behavioral experience we face every moment in our daily life. Our mind intuitively catches the pattern from the stochastic surroundings.
6. We want to return a favor
Reciprocity is the essential trait that helped us reach the top of the food chain, unite to fight the enemies, and help each other in complicated situations.
According to social psychology, reciprocity of traits responds to a positive action or favor with another positive action or favor in return. It creates a friendly and more cooperative atmosphere in society.
Reciprocity triggers indebtedness even if the party we are receiving the favor from is unbearable or hated. It is a powerful method for gaining someone’s acquiescence.
So, the brain commands and is programmed for returning the favor. This natural phenomenon keeps the smooth flow of society and affects the ecosystem of animal species.
Hence, these facts about psychology state we are bound or eager to return the favor once we receive it from an unknown person or hated person.
7. Mind tends to care about one person than the masses suffering
The research done at the University of Pennsylvania stated; they informed one group about a starving little girl, another about millions starving, and the third with both the information.
The number of donations was double from those who heard about the little girl; when the number of victims increases, our empathy decreases, even that number may be one or two.
The term for this behavior is “psychic numbing,” which explains if the number of fatalities increases, our empathy and willingness reliably decrease.
The worldwide people in crisis are 68 million, displaced from their homes; what can we do. This statement justifies when there is no solution; then our mind prefers to ignore it.
8. Feeling alone
Did you know that lonely people are 50 percent more likely to die young than those with strong social ties? For starters, isolation lowers immunity and thus raises the risk of disease.
It also causes an increase in inflammation in the body, which, like smoking, leads to heart disease and other chronic illnesses—being lonely causes you to experience more emotional and mental stress, which affects your overall well-being.
So, if you’re lonely, make sure you’re doing whatever you can to avoid loneliness. It could be a life-or-death scenario! These facts about psychology might seem unlikely, but it justifies the statement, “empty mind devil’s home.”
9. The middles are always hard to remember
One research published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience found that when people are asked to recognize objects from a list, they are more likely to think of them from the very end or the very beginning. The center becomes muddled, which may explain why you recall your supervisor finishing her presentation but not the middle.
This phenomenon is known as a “serial-position effect.” Two memory recall biases responsible are called the primary effect(beginning) and the recency effect( the recent or last thing that happened).
When combined, our memory recall is better for the beginning and the end information as the data is stored in our short-term memory. At the same time, the middle information is not being processed long enough to be stored in our long-term memory.
These facts about psychology explain the multi-store model of memory where the information passes from a sensory register to our short-term memory to our long-term memory.
10. When food is prepared by someone else, it tastes better
One of the most surprising facts about psychology is taste varies according to the one who cooks it.
Have you ever wondered why, using the same ingredients, the sandwich from the takeout place down the street tastes better than the one you make at home?
A study published in the journal Science feels less exciting but exhausting when you prepare a meal for yourself. As you spend so much time around it, it becomes less exciting by finally digging in, lowering your enjoyment.
While making food, the chef needs to anticipate the taste and continuously be exposed to smell while cooking, making food less desirable and killing the hunger.
On the other hand, if the food is being prepared by someone else. We are unaware of the smell as well as the taste that is going to be served. Even if we are not that hungry, we might consume more.
11. Fear can feel good if not in danger
Not everybody enjoys horror movies, but a few hypotheses have to do with hormones for those who do. You get all the adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine from a fight-or-flight reaction when you watch a scary movie or walk through a haunted house.
But your brain knows that you’re not really in danger, so you get the natural high without any of the risks. These facts about psychology justify why most people love watching horror movies.
12. Our favorite subject to explore is ourselves
It’s not their fault that your brother is always talking about himself; it’s just the way his brain is wired. According to a Harvard study, our reward centers light up more when talking about ourselves than when we’re talking about other people.
According to the research, the activity in the neural regions was tracked by changes in blood flow and by pairing fMRI output with behavioral data of the participants.
As a result, the increased neural activity in areas of the brain associated with motivation and reward was noticed when they talked about the self.
13. We believe that the future is exciting
We believe in living longer and our children to outsmart others and live a successful life than average. It is necessary to have optimism for us to thrive. During hardship or rejection, it pushes us to believe in our abilities.
The belief of experiencing more positive than negative situations compared to our peers is known as “optimism bias,” which is built-in and basic psychological behavior.
This phenomenon leads us to believe that we are less likely to endure pain and more likely to achieve accomplishment than the real world suggests.
The other terms used for optimism bias are “the illusion of invulnerability,” “unrealistic optimism,” and a “personal fable.”
This effect seems beneficial as the brain focus on the positive without being preoccupied with the negative thoughts.
Practically, it is important to be more aware of the negative outcomes we are unprepared for; meanwhile, optimism keeps you motivated.
Suppose you like where you are now or not, according to studies published in Current Biology. In that case, most of us have an “optimism bias” that convinces us that the future will be better than the present.
14. Our minds want us to be lazy
The scientists from the University of Geneva(UNIGE) in Switzerland concluded that brains take much effort to engage in physical activity over doing nothing.
In another experiment, when participants were shown lazy and active pictures, the electroencephalograms revealed that the brain needed to work harder to move to active pictures.
Humans constantly need to search for food and shelter, compete for survival and territory, at the same time avoid predators. All these factors show how important was conserving energy.
This automation of brian towards laziness may be due to the brain processes developed and reinforced across evolution. These facts about psychology reveal the connection between the brain and laziness.
15. Color makes an impact
Color is the primitive form of communication, which has a robust effect on our psychology. Color can manipulate your mood, fluctuate your blood pressure, and even affect your appetite.
The emotion varies from person to person when they are looking at the same color. According to the popular theory of color psychology, an individual’s behavioral changes can be obtained when exposed to different colors.
Exposure to colors can cause emotions in people and intensify the viability of placebos. The effectiveness of color influence may differ depending upon age, gender, and culture.
The marketing and branding sectors are widely using this method of color psychology. Marketers are convinced, consumer’s emotions and perceptions about goods and services hugely depend on color.
16. Facing too many options feels paralyzed
We think that the larger the choice greater the advantage, but it will be messy once you are in this situation. E.g., you are in a queue to buy yourself a takeaway, and when you see the menu, there will be many options.
When your time comes to place the order, your mind stays confused, and in that hurry, you will regret the decision. The terms choice overload, paradox of preference, or choice are related to the paralyzing effect during the decision-making process.
Researchers have dismissed the whole “paradox of preference” hypothesis, arguing that it hasn’t been confirmed in experiments. Still, some evidence suggests that our brains prefer a few choices to a lot.
Singles at speed-dating events preferred fewer possible dates as they encountered more people, and those people were more diverse in terms of age and profession.
17. You will admit to the crime not committed
This research was inspired by evidence from wrongful conviction trials. Adult offenders were interviewed in a comfortable atmosphere, and memory retrieval methods were used. Within three hours, the suspects had been interrogated in ways that led them to believe in and admit to crimes they had not committed.
They were also able to explain the incidents vividly, and some of them claimed they had committed a crime as serious as an attack with a weapon while still in their teens. These facts about psychology training the mind to believe the incident that never happened or occurred is spine chilling.
18. Happiness bought with money is limited
According to a study, people have a “satiation point” regarding income, where satisfaction increases and making more won’t make you happier. Various studies have proposed different sums (one from 2010 suggested $75,000, while another from 2018 suggested $105,000), but the argument remains the same: Continually striving for more, more, more won’t help you.
One of the important secrets for happiness is that money won’t buy you happiness, and anything you gain is momentary. The survey is stated in the above sentence, which is one of the relevant facts about psychology.
19. Long-term deadlines are taken lightly
Almost everybody has procrastinated at some point, even though we know it makes more sense to get a head start on our taxes than to watch Netflix. We prefer unimportant, urgent activities because we know we’ll be able to finish them.
There’s also proof that when we see the deadline approaching in days rather than months or years, we feel more connected to the passage of time on a day-by-day basis.
We are willing to waste our time doing nothing or roaming around, rather than utilizing it to do projects or assignments to be submitted after a week or so.
20. Sugar and fat were used by our forefathers
Why, oh why, must cake be more delicious than vegetables? And that is how we have been programmed for millions of years.
Our forefathers were getting a fast burst of energy from sugar and then storing it as fat to fuel our bodies and brains. Thus, most people prefer sugary products(considered delicious and mouth watery) over healthy vegetables.
All the above facts about psychology briefly state how our mind makes us work in a certain manner. We may knowingly or unknowingly follow the pattern repeatedly that is stored or programmed in our minds. The way we behave, tackle situations, and express ourselves depending on psychology seems appealing.
