Psychology

Cognitive-behavioral phenomenon that occurs when an individual who is trying to maintain abstinence from a certain behavior experiences a lapse or relapse, leading to feelings of guilt, shame, and hopelessness.

The notion that the human brain has evolved to reason adaptively, rather than truthfully or even rationally, and that cognitive bias may have evolved as a mechanism to reduce the overall cost of cognitive errors as opposed to merely reducing the number of cognitive errors, when faced with making a decision under conditions of uncertainty.

A mental shortcut that allows people to make decisions and solve problems quickly and efficiently, in which current emotion—fear, pleasure, surprise, etc.—influences decisions. For example, reading the words "lung cancer" usually generates an effect of dread, while reading the words "mother's love" usually generates a feeling of affection and comfort.

The prediction of one's affect (emotional state) in the future.

A cognitive bias where decision making is affected by a lack of information, or "ambiguity". The effect implies that people tend to select options for which the probability of a favorable outcome is known, over an option for which the probability of a favorable outcome is unknown.

The tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things. It has come to imply a universal human tendency to seek patterns in random information.

A psychological process occurs when an individual has to make a judgment that is computationally complex, and instead substitutes a more easily calculated heuristic attribute. For example, when someone tries to answer a difficult question, they may actually answer a related but different question, without realizing that a substitution has taken place.

The bias that people tend to heavily weigh their judgments toward more recent information, making new opinions biased toward that latest information.

A self-reinforcing cycle that explains the development of certain kinds of collective beliefs, which trades on social acceptance and the appearance of sophistication over critical reasoning. The cascade cycle beginning with a novel idea that seems to explain a complex process in a simple manner, which then becomes popular owing to its simplicity and insightfulness, which then triggers a chain reaction within the social network where individuals adopt the new insight because other people within the network have adopted it.

Cognitive bias that causes people who encounter evidence which challenges their beliefs to reject that evidence, and to strengthen their support of their original stance.

A psychological phenomenon whereby individuals give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, that are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some paranormal beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, aura reading, and some types of personality tests.

The cognitive bias of recognizing the impact of biases on the judgment of others, while failing to see the impact of biases on one's own judgment.

Phenomenon in which an individual or group is protected from criticism or negative feedback, leading to a lack of accountability and potential negative consequences.

Feeling of regret or anxiety that a person may experience after making a purchase, often associated with the fear of having made a wrong or costly decision.

The experience of a sudden urge to act on an impulse that is precisely what your judgment is telling you not to do, such as overlooking from a tall height or the urge to pull a fire alarm for no reason.

A policy of offering a combination of rewards and punishments to induce appropriate behavior.

The impact that coercion, or threat of coercion, can have in stifling specific behavior, such as general free speech, contributing unpopular opinions, or calling out injustice.

A learning procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell). It also refers to the learning process that results from this pairing, through which the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response (e.g. salivation) that is usually similar to the one elicited by the potent stimulus.

Technique used in art and literature to disrupt and challenge the reader's or viewer's assumptions and preconceptions, leading to a greater understanding and awareness of the world.

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.

In social psychology, a broad term for the heuristics of how individuals perceive, comprehend, and interpret the world around them — particularly the behavior or action of others towards themselves.

A cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand. A famous example of this is the "Tappers and Listeners" study — an experiment in psychology in 1990 where "Tappers" were given a list of well-known songs and asked to tap out the rhythm of a song on a table. "Listeners" had to guess the song based on the tapping. Over the course of Newton’s experiment, 120 songs were tapped out. Listeners guessed only three of the songs correctly: a success ratio of 2.5%. But before they guessed, Newton asked the tappers to predict the probability that listeners would guess correctly. They predicted 50%.

The willful decision not to know the answer to a question, even if the answer is free, that is, i.e. with no search costs.

A form of cognitive bias relating to currency, suggesting people may be less likely to spend larger currency denominations than their equivalent value in smaller denominations.

The suggested cognitive limit to the number of friends one can maintain, in terms of stable, social relationships, which is usually said to be around 150.

Cognitive bias in which people underestimate the influences of visceral drives on their own attitudes, preferences, and behaviors.

Pattern of behavior in which an individual or group facing increasingly negative outcomes from a decision, action, or investment nevertheless continues the behavior instead of altering course.

A psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.

An attributional bias where people attribute relatively more to "extrinsic incentives" (such as monetary reward) than to "intrinsic incentives" (such as learning a new skill) when weighing the motives of others rather than themselves.

An attributional type of cognitive bias whereby people tend to overestimate the extent to which their opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others (i.e., that others also think the same way that they do).

A psychological phenomenon where recognition times or error rates for a particular concept increases as more information about the concept is acquired. The word "fan" refers to the number of associations correlated with the concept.

German term that literally translates to "finger-tip feeling." and describes a highly developed sense of intuition, sensitivity, or instinct, often in the context of skilled or strategic decision-making. This term is used to convey a kind of immediate, almost tactile understanding or awareness that allows someone to make quick, effective judgments without needing to rely solely on deliberate, analytical thought.

A cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used.

Aa psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

Fixed Mindset is the belief that abilities are innate, and failure is interpreted as a lack of those abilities, where Growth Mindset is the belief that one can acquire abilities provided appropriate effort.

Phenomenon in which individuals become overconfident and underestimate the risks associated with certain tasks or activities, leading to increased risk-taking behavior.

A cognitive bias that manifests itself as a tendency to overestimate the probability of one's success at a task perceived as hard, and to underestimate the likelihood of one's success at a task perceived as easy. The hard-easy effect takes place, for example, when individuals exhibit a degree of underconfidence in answering relatively easy questions and a degree of overconfidence in answering relatively difficult questions.

The tendency to interpret others' behaviors as having hostile intent, even when the behavior is ambiguous or benign.

A cognitive bias whereby people perceive their knowledge of others to surpass other people's knowledge of them.

The tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events.

The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which their personal mental state is known by others. Additionally, a tendency for people to overestimate how well they understand others' personal mental states.

The tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future emotional states.

A cognitive bias in which people wrongly think they have direct insight into the origins of their mental states, while treating others' introspections as unreliable.

Scandinavian social code that emphasizes humility, conformity, and egalitarianism, and discourages individualism and self-promotion.

The process by which a mental health professional labels the patient's accurate perception of real events as delusional, and therefore misdiagnoses accordingly.

Maslow used the terms ‘physiological', ‘safety', ‘belongingness' and ‘love', ‘esteem', ‘self-actualization', and ‘self-transcendence' to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through, in a ranked and building fashion.

A bias against acknowledging the achievements of those women scientists whose work is attributed to their male colleagues.

A state of extreme funk/irritability after waking up — i.e. getting up on the wrong side of the bed.

The tendency to express undue liking for things merely because of familiarity with them.

An informal fallacy where someone thinks that the way they see the world reflects the way the world really is.

Confidence in one's self-image tends to make one less worried about the consequences of subsequent immoral behavior, thus making one more likely to make immoral choices.

The notion that listening to Mozart (and similar classical music) makes one smarter and can improve test scores — though not scientifically verified.

A factitious disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves.

When people naïvely expect more egocentric bias in others than actually is the case.

Term used to describe the violation of personal boundaries and invasion of privacy by individuals with narcissistic tendencies or personality disorder, often causing emotional harm and psychological distress to their victims.

The notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things.

Japanese concept of hospitality that brings ones whole self to the satisfaction of the guests.

Causes a person to believe that they are at a lesser risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others.

Causes a person to believe that they are at a greater risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others.

The phenomenon where a patient is given a decoy intervention (sugar pill, fake surgery, etc. — the 'placebo'), where they believe they are receiving a 'real' intervention, and they in fact demonstrate measurable positive clinical outcomes.

The trend of favoring positive over negative stimuli in cognitive processing, such as remembering more experiences as positive than negative.

A technique whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention.

An observer assumes the objectivity of their own perspective when analyzing a behavioral event.

Danish term for a cultural concept of cultivating a healthy mindset towards stress by injecting a pause, reflection, and reset of one's current mental state and attitude.

A theory that, with a subconscious set of mental filters formed from beliefs and experiences, every individual interprets the same world differently, hence "Truth is in the eye of the beholder".

A behavior whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism's fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will act in a similar manner at a later time.

The tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control impulsive behavior. An inflated self-control belief may lead to greater exposure to temptation, and increased impulsiveness.

A technique involving the assertion of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what actually is desired.

Portuguese term that describes a deep emotional state of nostalgia or melancholic longing for something or someone that is absent or unreachable.

A cognitive bias whereby a person overestimates their own qualities and abilities, in relation to the same qualities and abilities of other persons.

A cognitive strategy by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem.

A narrative or perceptual framework that is distorted by the need to maintain (or enhances) one's self-esteem — the belief that individuals ascribe success to their own abilities and efforts, and failure to external factors.

Any custom or tradition, particularly a speech pattern, that distinguishes one group of people (an ingroup) from others (outgroups).

A Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness.

A psychological phenomenon where people copy the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior in a given situation.

A condition that causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity.

A cognitive bias by which a person will consider a statement or another piece of information to be correct if it has any personal meaning or significance to them.

A behavior or pursuit that is engaged in for its own sake, but is ultimately a substitute for a more meaningful or satisfying activity or goal.

The idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.

When people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.

German compound word translated as "gate-close-panic", describing a fear that time is running out to do major life things.

The tendency for people to view themselves as relatively variable in terms of personality, behavior and mood while viewing others as much more predictable in their personal traits across different situations.

The notion that emotion is based on two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive label, such that when an emotion is felt, a physiological arousal occurs, and the person uses the immediate environment to search for emotional cues to label the physiological arousal.

A group-level attribution error where one explains an outgroups' negative behavior as flaws in their personality, and positive behavior as a result of chance or circumstance, where conversely they explain an \*ingroups'\* negative behavior as a result of chance or circumstance, and positive behavior as strengths in their personality.

Phrase used to describe the frustration or resentment that individuals may feel when they are not included in decision-making processes that directly affect them or their work.

Labor strategy in which employees strictly follow their job descriptions and work contracts, refusing to work overtime or perform any tasks that are not explicitly outlined in their agreements, often used as a form of protest or negotiation.

Psychological principle that suggests that there is an optimal level of arousal for performance on a task, with too little or too much arousal leading to reduced performance.