Description: How do you deal with someone who you believe is completely unreasonable? Well, one possible answer that makes a lot of sense is simply to not deal with them at all. Who needs the stress and the headaches associated with trying to take on an unreasonable person and try to get them to BE… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Persuasion
The Psychology of Covid: Being A Guinea Pig
Description: If I asked you to ponder what it is like to be a Guinea Pig, I suspect you would not actually start to reflect on what it might be like to be small and furry. Rather, you would be more likely to contemplate what is would be like to be a participant in a… Read more »
The Psychology of Incitement to Violence: It is Not New
Description: Discussion and debate about the factors that lead up to the violent actions taken by supporters of Donald Trump in Washington on January 6, 2021 are often wrapped in political stances and loyalties. As the Senate trial of Donald Trump on the single article of impeachment of encouraging insurrection approaches it is useful to… Read more »
Investigator Lies and False Confessions: A Deeper Look
Description: Sometimes an individual who has confessed to a crime recants or withdraws their confession. What comes to mind when you read that sentence? Knowing nothing else about an individual case, what would you estimate is the likelihood that the person recanting a confession is actually guilty of what they origin ally confessed to? Now… Read more »
Psychology of COVID-19: Contact Tracing and Human Memory
Description: Think back over the past 10 days and then itemize everything you did, everywhere you went, everyone you saw, interacted with, for how long and how far apart were you during that interaction? Include every place or situation you encountered over that same period that involved groups of people. How many people? How close… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19: COVID Messaging – Time for Behavioral Science
Description: As we isolate and socially distance (more or less) out way into the holiday season it is a good time to think about others. Yes, that might involve giving something to your local food bank (good idea!), but what about the sort of “thinking of others” that is behind the pleas from health officials… Read more »
Psychology of Covid-19: Pandemic Fatigue Meet Pandemic Anger
Description: What is the difference between shame and guilt (and what do they have to do with Covid-19)? Well, we could dive deeply into philosophy to try and sort that out but let’s start with how shame and guilt are viewed within Psychology. With roots in Psychodynamic (Freudian) theory, shame is the earlier arising feeling… Read more »
Psychology of Online Shopping: Traps and Pitfalls
Description: I bet, or hope, that you are doing most of your holiday shopping online this year. I also bet that most of what come to mind if you are asked to think about things that retailers do to nudge you to by more involve “real” bricks and mortar stores such as small quantities of… Read more »
Black Friday: The Psychology of Retail Rage?
Description: Even if you are not in the United States you have certainly heard about the Black Friday sales. We have them up in Canada as well though they are not quite as big a deal as are our Boxing Day sales. Things are a bit different this year, to say the least, but predicting… Read more »
Protests that Produce Real Change
Description: In thinking about recent events and the Black Lives Matter movement, if you had to come up with a small number, how many different kinds of protests would you say there have been in North America focusing issues relating to the BLM movement? If you said 2 (non-violent and violent) then you have likely… Read more »
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