How Long to Form a Habit?
Research reveals a curved relationship between practice and automaticity.Say you want to create a new habit, whether it's taking more exercise, eating more healthily or writing a blog post every day, how often does it need to be performed before it no lo...
Why You Can’t Help Believing Everything You Read
You shouldn't believe everything you read, yet according to a classic psychology study at first we can't help it.What is the mind's default position: are we naturally critical or naturally gullible? As a species do we have a tendency to behave like Agent ...
Essentials of Group Psychology
How groups form, conform, then warp our decision-making, productivity and creativity.When we're in a group other people have an incredibly powerful effect on us. Groups can kill our creativity, inspire us to work harder, allow us to slack off, skew our de...
Sit Up Straight! Be Confident!
· New study finds slouchers make less confident self-evaluations.At school all the cool kids were slouchers. No one wanted to be seen sitting up straight, paying attention or, heaven forbid making an effort to learn. It was only the geeks in the front r...
The Acceptance Prophecy: How You Control Who Likes You
· Is interpersonal attraction a self-fulfilling prophecy?The mystical-sounding 'acceptance prophecy' is simply this: when we think other people are going to like us, we behave more warmly towards them and consequently they like us more. When we think ot...
Brainstorming Reloaded
· Why brainstorming is ineffective and how to fix it.Brainstorming was once thought a fantastic way for groups to generate new ideas. Although not as fashionable as it once was, brainstorming is still frequently used in business and, often inadvertently...
happier.com: Online Tools to Improve Happiness
· Sponsored post: happier.com gives you the tools to live better. Includes special offer for PsyBlog readers.The people at happier.com have been working hard to come up with new ways to make you happier. Now boasting 32,000 users in their community, hap...
40 Superb Psychology Blogs
Forty of the best psychology blogs, chosen to give you a broad sweep of the most interesting content being produced online right now.The list is split into three sections: first are more general psychological blogs, followed by those with an academic sla...
How Newcomers Can Influence Established Groups
· Groups resist criticism—especially from newcomers.Picture this: you've just started a new job and you're sat nervously in your first meeting. You look around, still trying to match names to faces. Early on a problem is discussed you know all about f...
Are Your Initials Holding You Back?
"What's in a name? That which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet." ~Romeo and JulietIn these lines from Shakespeare's famous play, Juliet is trying to persuade Romeo that the bitter feud between their respective families doesn't matter, ...
Persuasion: The Right-Ear Advantage
If you want someone to comply with a random request for a cigarette, you should speak into their right ear, according to a new study by researchers in Italy.Marzoli & Tommasi (2009) had a female confederate visit a disco and approach 176 random people...
Live Happy with New iPhone Application
· Sponsored post: Live Happy is a new happiness-boosting iPhone/iPod app.Our happiness levels are influenced by three factors: our genes, our circumstances and what we choose to do every day. While there's nothing we can do about our genes and circumstan...
Why Group Norms Kill Creativity
· Research shows group members equate creativity with conformity. Creativity is a much coveted asset for a very simple reason: an idea that transcends orthodoxy has the power to bring wealth, fame and status. Commercial, scientific, educational and artis...
Social Loafing: When Groups Are Bad for Productivity
› When social loafing strikes and how it can be reduced.Groups can be fantastically unproductive because they provide such wonderful camouflage. Under cover of group work people will slack off, happy in the knowledge others are probably doing the same. ...
Why Thought Suppression is Counter-Productive
· How pushing a thought out of consciousness can bring it back with a vengeance.It sometimes feels like our minds are not on the same team as us. I want to go to sleep, but it wants to keep me awake rerunning events from my childhood. I want to forget th...
The Psychology of Attention
› How attention works, what happens when it fails and how it can be improved.Every day we we are bombarded with perceptions, ideas and emotions and what we choose to pay attention to shapes our lives, it makes us who we are.Attention is one of the most ...
How Meditation Improves Attention
› The science of meditation and attention.› Learn to meditate with a beginner's guide.William James wrote that controlling attention is at "the very root of judgement, character and will". He also noted that controlling attention is much easier said t...
Why Do People Watch Scary Movies, Stay in Ice Hotels or Eat Bacon-Flavoured Ice-Cream?
We live in a society of total consumption: not just the physical consumption of things but also the conceptual consumption of ideas. We're always on the lookout for tasty new morsels of information and unusual experiences to add to our ever-expanding ment...
Attentional Blink and the Stream of Consciousness
Yesterday I was sitting in a park staring off into the distance, without a care in the world.The park was empty, the sky blue, trees rustling; a small lake shimmering in the distance, nudging its banks. A lone figure approached across the grass, not yet i...
