Do you have a tip jar at work? Here’s one way to use a little psychology to increase the likelihood that customers will put a little money in there: Set out not one but two tip jars Label the jars with two competing themes Okay, so what do I mean by “competing themes”? What you […]
It’s easy to find videos on the web of animals showing what appears to be some pretty smart behavior. But is it really “smarts”? How can you tell? In this episode I’ll point out examples that look like intelligence but probably aren’t – as well as an example of animal behavior that is really hard […]
How can you find the best videos on YouTube? In this video episode of The Psych Files you are going to learn some crazy power tips that will alert you whenever whenever a video from a credible source gets added to a YouTube playlist. You will be the first to know. And you can find […]
Working from home sounds great – but be aware of the downside. In this episode of The Psych Files I talk about what factors influence your job satisfaction and motivation when you work from home. I also discuss the interesting concept of “emotional labor” – what is it like when you know your boss […]
Ever wondered what it was like to be a patient in an “insane asylum”? “Asylums” changed names over the years (including “State Hospital” and “Psychiatric Center”) and so did the treatment of the mentally ill. Hear from Dr. Jennifer Bazar how we went from chaining people up to hydrotherapy to sexual surgery and finally to […]
We all know that adolescence is a time of change and often a tough time for the teen. But what about the parent? Today’s parents are often older than years ago, and today’s parents are sometimes going through their own self-examination, their own doubts, their own exploration. What happens when you bring those two together? […]
How do we motivate you to click online? Well, we don’t necessarily have to pay you to get you to do things (extrinsic motivation) because you’re already a curious person. We also don’t necessarily have to find things you’re already interested in (intrinsic motivation) we just have to find things that are naturally interesting to […]
What are the psychological themes in the movie The Matrix? In this episode I talk about connections between The Matrix and Jung‘s idea of the Collective Unconscious, Joseph Campbell‘s notion of the Hero’s Journey and some recent research that explains why you experience déjà vu. Also, can you change your whole world by thinking […]
We face more moral “dilemmas” in everyday life than maybe we don’t realize. How do we resolve them? In this episode I discuss two interesting moral dilemmas: a) should you employ for-hire crowds of actors to attend your event in order to make it look like you’re more popular than you really are? and b) […]
Need to memorize Kohlberg’s moral development stages really quickly? You’re in for a treat. In this episode, we’ll explore a swift and effective method to help you master these stages. No need to worry – we won’t drown you in details. Instead, we’ve got clever techniques and memorable associations that will make these stages stick […]