No, this is not about how men who take frequent selfies are more narcissistic and psychopathic (they apparently are, though)...  ... Read More

According to the classic anecdote - Very slowly...  ... Read More

So you have probably seen the popular meme on the internet of a picture of a cocktail dress with the question: What colour is the dress?   ... Read More

Have you ever wondered why you can't tickle yourself?  ... Read More

Try this little exercise. Without peeking at a phone or laptop in your vicinity, draw an outline of the Apple logo...    ... Read More

Toyota’s first attempt at selling the Prius hybrid in Europe wasn’t very successful...   ... Read More

A scientific field that brings together psychology and economics, called Behavioral Economics, makes much of the fact that humans have lousy intuition when it comes to statistics. It postulates that we are much more susceptible to using our emotional systems when estimating the likelihood of an outcome than good old logical reason. For example, I often see people quite convinced that having bought a lotto ticket that they have a fairly reasonable chance of winning the jackpot.  ... Read More

Quick, there is a fire in your building! Do you know where the nearest fire extinguisher is? A recent UCLA psychology study found that people often do not recall things they have seen hundreds of times. In the study, 54 people who worked in an office building were asked whether they knew of the location of their nearest fire extinguisher, but only 13 (24%) were able to correctly identify the location. But when asked to find a fire extinguisher, in other words to physically locate it, they were all able to do so quickly.   ... Read More

I previously wrote about self-fulfilling prophecies in marketing research. Here is another example that has much scarier implications. Leonard Mlodinow outlines this experiment called “Pygmalion in the Classroom” in his new book, Subliminal.  ... Read More

Here’s a quick assessment of your personality...  ... Read More