These psychological tendencies explain why an onslaught of facts won’t necessarily change anyone’s mind.
Francesco Carta fotografo/Moment via Getty Images
Cognitive shortcuts help you efficiently move through a complicated world. But they come with an unwelcome side effect: Facts aren't necessarily enough to change your mind.
If you're struggling to cut back on the booze, your subconscious brain may be over-riding your conscious brain. A new form of brain training targets our subconscious tendencies towards alcohol.
To fight climate change, we need to take people's cognitive biases into account.
A regional election commission member in Banyuwangi, East Java, is tested for COVID-19. Indonesia plans to hold its biggest regional election in December this year.
Budi Candra Setya/wsj/Antara Foto
Is making sense of a story more important than getting at its truth? Looking at the treatment of myth in ancient Greece may help us navigate what is true, and whether that matters.
Far from being blind, justice in jury trials can often depend on the biases of the jurors.
Jonathan Brady/PA
Self-proclaimed gluten sensitivity is on the rise, and so is the stereotype that it goes along with being a politically correct progressive. But is gluten actually a good proxy for social values?
How can both be sure the other hit it out?
J and L Photography/Getty Images (for web use only)
Sports fans see it all the time: two people arguing about a split-second difference in who did what. New research suggests human beings have a bias to perceive their own actions as happening sooner.
How do people respond to media coverage of weather influenced by climate change?
AP Photo/Andy Newman
Media reports are starting to directly connect climate change to its weather effects in local communities. But how you respond to those linkages depends on what you already think about climate change.
People who share potential misinformation on Twitter (in purple) rarely get to see corrections or fact-checking (in orange).
Shao et al.
Information on social media can be misleading because of biases in three places – the brain, society and algorithms. Scholars are developing ways to identify and display the effects of these biases.
A man browsing the shoe department in a shopping centre. Can he really afford new shoes, and does he really need them?
Alex Buirds/Wikimedia
Alberto Cardaci, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Catholic University of Milan
Under some circumstances, people may feel wealthier than they actually are and this makes them psychologically more prone to increase their spending, as well as their borrowing.
We don’t automatically question information we read or hear.
Gaelfphoto/Shutterstock.com
Cognitive psychologists know the way our minds work means we not only don't notice errors and misinformation we know are wrong, we also then remember them as true.
What surprises will this year’s tournament have in store?
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Mental short-cuts guide our everyday decision-making. Unfortunately, five biases can lead us to deny responsibility for our poor decisions and are creating problems for share-bike schemes.
People across Africa don’t have access to mental health professionals. A new community-based approach in Zimbabwe is proving effective.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Provost Professor of Psychology and Marketing and co-director of the Dornsife Mind & Society Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences