The brain is an interesting and somewhat scary place.
Our brain can play trick after trick on us and make us believe it's real. Consider people with Schizophrenia, for instance, who live inside of their very own waking nightmare--while their mind does cartwheels and shows them things that aren't there. Or else people with DID, whose brain has convinced them they are indeed several different people. How does the brain do that?
The interesting phenomena doesn't stop there. There is a whole roster of weird tricks our brain plays on us.
u/RandomChickenWing asked:
What do you think is the most interesting psychology phenomenon?
Here were some of those answers.
It's Dangerous To Go Alone! Take This.
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If you're talking to someone intently and you hand them something, more often than not they'll take it.
Doesn't matter if it's a book, a pen or an orange.
Makin' Memories
Childhood amnesia. The fact that up until a certain point you don't remember things. My first memory isn't until I was 6. My wife's is when she was 2. Hers seem to be emotionally based. So they're sparse and fleeting. Mine are like I just suddenly had a switch flipped, and there I was.
Never Put Me In A Home
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Locus of Control (LOC). LOC basically is how you view control over your own life. People either have an internal LOC where they believe they have the power to control thier own lives, or an external LOC where you believe everything in life comes from a source other than yourself (I got fired because my boss hates me, I was late because traffic...etc.). Now, what's interesting is that studies have shown people with an internal LOC find greater satisfaction and success in almost every aspect of life.....except one......being in a nursing home. Drives internal LOC people CRAZY while external LOC people thrive
The Call
I'm probably late to this thread, but I find the "The Call of the Void" an interesting phenomenon. It's that feeling you get when you stand on a high place and subconsciously think "I could totally jump off right now," but you don't really want to and you don't actually jump. I experienced this multiple times on my most recent trip to Europe.
Well Received
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If you get yourself to be really happy and excited to see other people, they will react the same to you. It doesn't always happen the first time, but it will definitely happen next time. Time and again this has always worked fine for me.
A Simple Conditional
Playing.
When 2 animals play with each other, they both communicate aggression, they show fangs, claws, they bite, they go for the neck, etc. Everything about it should communicate danger, but they never feel endangered, even when one animal accidentally hurts another. This happens even when animals are playing with animals they have barely known for some time.
It blows my mind how the right context completely transforms all the communication between animals who play.
Adios
Dissociative disorders
A dissociative disorder is a mental disorder that involve experiencing a disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions and identity. People with dissociative disorders escape reality in ways that are involuntary and unhealthy and cause problems with functioning in everyday life.
Balance
How laughter affects people. Laughter is basically the ying to stress's yang, which inspires me to make people laugh when I can, as I don't know what they're going through. Laughter increases things like dopamine, and can even help soothe physical pain sometimes.
How We Make Ourselves Struggle
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I'm amazed at the number of people who freeze in a disastrous situation like a sinking ship. People who survive tragedies like that always report that there's not nearly the amount of panic and confusion that you'd expect. A lot of people freeze in place and simply can't move, even as the water is rising around them. Families have been split up in situations like this, where two of them can move, but the other three can't.
Seeing People
Simply put...how your brain has evolved to have an upper-limit on the number of people you can conceptualise as people. After which they just become "people". And are then clumped into groups. The perception of which can be warped drastically by hearsay, the media, your own bias, etc.
Which goes a very long way to explain why many things in human society are the way they are.
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