The handicap principle is a principle in sociobiology which denotes that the more costly it is to make a signal, and the more costly it is to be caught if that signal is dishonest, the more reliable that signal appears. This means that in many cases, for an act of communication to be perceived as …
Sooner or later, the things that you use start falling apart. Clothes are no exceptions, and eventually they start to tear, split at the seams, lose buttons, or suffer from other minor forms of damage. When this happens, a lot of people tend to just throw the item away. However, in most cases you …
The appeal to the stone is a logical fallacy that occurs when a person dismisses their opponent’s argument as absurd, without actually addressing it, or without providing sufficient evidence in order to prove its absurdity. For example, a person using the appeal to the stone in a debate might simply laugh off all of their …
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) is the adage that in many situations, 80% of outcomes are derived from 20% of causes. For example, the Pareto principle could mean that, when it comes to movies, 20% of the films that are being shown in cinemas are responsible for 80% of the ticket …
The halo effect is a cognitive bias that causes people’s impression of one aspect of something to influence their impression of other aspects of it. For example, the halo effect can cause people to assume that someone will have an interesting personality, simply because they find that person to be physically attractive. Essentially, the halo …
Memory cues are objects or events that help trigger an action or a memory of that action. Memory cues can either be things that we set up intentionally in advance, as in the case of a reminder on our phone, or they can be unintentional, as in the case of seeing a product at the …
Roland, Harry, and Billy are three outlaws who recently arrived at the town of Deadwood. After realizing there’s not enough room for the three of them in this town, they decide to meet at the town center at noon, and duel to the death. The rules of the duel are simple: each one, in …
In a perfectly rational world, people who encounter evidence that challenges their beliefs would first evaluate this evidence, and then adjust their beliefs accordingly. However, in reality this is seldom the case. Instead, when people encounter evidence that should cause them to doubt their beliefs, they often reject this evidence, and strengthen their support for …
David Ogilvy (1911-1999), who is often hailed as the “Father of Advertising”, was a US marketing tycoon, and a co-founder of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest marketing companies in the world. Ogilvy was best known for advocating two important concepts in marketing. The first concept was that marketing decisions should be driven by …
A common question people ask is whether you should write notes by hand or type them up on a computer. In short, studies generally show that writing notes by hand allows you to remember the material better than typing it. However, when it comes to actually choosing which method you should use, the answer …