Learning Psychology: Recent Episodes
Eskil Burck
What makes us happy? How can we help people with depressive disorder? Is it possible to improve intelligence?... Scientists all over the world seek to find answers to these questions. Let's take a look at their findings...
The foot-in-the-door technique is certainly one of the best-known and best-researched influence techniques. Usually only the study by Freedman and Fraser (1966) is presented in psychology textbooks. Meanwhile, foot-in-the-door technique has been tested in many other situations. For example when it comes to begging money or to invite a woman to a date. In recent years attempts are being made to improve the effectiveness of foot-in-the-door technology ...
The foot-in-the-door technique is certainly one of the best-known and best-researched influence techniques. Usually only the study by Freedman and Fraser (1966) is presented in psychology textbooks.
When someone asks us for a favor and provides a valid reason, we are more inclined to help. But in some situations it is already sufficient to present a quite dumb reason...
How we can be influenced by the "just one more"-technique.
www.learningpsychology.net
Author: Eskil Burck (degreed psychologist)
Should you touch a woman softly on her forearm when you ask her for a date?
Keywords: Touch, Education, Dating, Willpower, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Can you improve the probabilty of getting help by others when you touch them on their arm?
Keywords: Touch, Education, Delay of Gratification, Willpower, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Can you earn more Tips by touching the customer?
Keywords: Touch, Education, Delay of Gratification, Willpower, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Do customers stay longer in a shop and spend more money when you touch them on their arm?
Keywords: Touch, Education, Delay of Gratification, Willpower, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Can you improve cooperativeness with a 10-Cent-Coin? We review a classic experiment from social psychology: The "Phonebooth Study".
Keywords: Touch, Education, Delay of Gratification, Willpower, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
For many people their birthday is a very special date. Good friends are calling. We get a lot of presents. And maybe we plan to go to an exciting event. So probably we are in a quite good mood. Is it possible that other people use this to their advantage to persuade us?
Keywords: Touch, Education, Delay of Gratification, Willpower, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Are we more vulnerable for persuasion when somebody uses the phrase "You will probably refuse, but ..."
Keywords: Touch, Education, Delay of Gratification, Willpower, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Can you improve compliance just by handshaking?
Guéguen, N. (2013). Handshaking and compliance with a request: A door-to-door setting. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(10), 1585-1588.
Keywords: Manipulation, Handshake, Consumer Psychology, Marketing, Advertising, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology, Touch
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Usually reactance shields us from persuasion attempts. Because we do not want to be treated like marionettes, but we want to decide on our own. We hate it when our freedom gets threatened and as a result we often counteract.
Unfortunately, our counteraction is often utilized by marketing experts...
Keywords: Manipulation, Reactance, Consumer Psychology, Marketing, Advertising, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Do video games make you more intelligent? Given the current state of research the answer should be differentiating ...
Keywords: IQ, Video Games, Intelligence, intelligent Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
In almost all areas of life attractive people are preferred.
In this episode we take a look at the (extremely rare) cases in which attractive people are disadvantaged.
Keywords: Attraction, Halo effect, job interview, jealousy, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
In real life most of us usually have only one or two accounts at the bank. According to the Nobel laureates Tversky and Kahnemann the situation in our mind is quite different:
They assume that we have mental accounts for all the different areas of life (vacation, education, entertainment, etc.). On the one hand these mental accounts allow us to save money for longterm goals (e.g. leave account). On the other hand mental accounting can also be exploited deliberately by marketing experts and sales people ...
Keywords: Mental Accounting, Tversky, Kahnemann, willpower, self-regulation, self-control, self-discipline, Social Psychology, mind, Brain, Influence, Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
In many depictions the goddess of justice (lady justice) is presented with a blindfold.
By that it shall be expressed that before the law all men are equal - regardless of their position or their appearance.
But is this really true?
Keywords: Justice - Psychology - Criminals - Appearance - Beauty - Plastic Surgery - Social Psychology - Lawyer - Judge
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Mind Readers like Derren Brown do not really read your mind. They mainly use magic tricks. But sometimes they also use psychological knowledge to predict, what is going to be your next number...
Keywords: Derren Brown - Mind Reading - Priming - Influence - Manipulation
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
In the 1920s Edward Thorndike discovered that when people were asked to rate another person, their ratings were strongly influenced by single personality traits (e.g. appearance). He called this phenomenon the "halo effect"...
Keywords: Halo Effect - Psychology - Thorndike - Dion - Attractiveness - Social Psychology
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
For a long time a high stress level was associated wit negative health outcomes. In recent years, however, emerging evidence suggests, that it is not only stress itself that causes health problems but also our attitude towards stress. Thus in new experiments (e.g. Beltzer, Nock, Peters and Jamieson, 2014) scientists tested, how to restructure our dysfunctional thought patterns. The results are promising ...
Keywords: Fear - Stress - Psychology - Rethinking - Reframing - Cognitive Therapy - CBT - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - social phobia - Trier Stress Test
Author: Eskil Burck (Degreed Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Without doubt: Music is powerful. It can inspire, it can be uplifting and exhilarating. But can music put us in a buying frenzy? In many shops or restaurants music is used to entice us to stay longer. The idea behind this is clear: Those who stay longer, will probably consume more. But does it really pay off? How large are the effects of music? What kind of music seems to be particularly effective?
Keywords: Consumer Psychology - Music - Psychology - Classical Music - Musical fit - Wine cellar - Restaurant - Bar - drinking songs
Author: Eskil Burck (Graduate Psychologist)
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Many manipulation techniques of the advertising industry bypass our conscious mind. Sometimes it is a quiet background music, a pleasant scent or even the behaviour of the people around us that influence our behaviour in a subtle way.
However, if we are asked: "Why did you buy this?" We often provide rational explanations. Certainly, this is a Specialty of our brain: To make up rational reasons for sometimes irrational behavior...
Keywords: Subliminal Messages - Marketing - Influence - Psychology - Consumer Psychology - Advertising - Priming - Contextual Priming - Jonah Berger - Chartrand - James Vicary
Author: Eskil Burck
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Owing to brain research we know that it is enough to think of a movement (e.g. service in tennis) to activate almost the same areas of the brain, that are involved in the actual movement. In addition, we also know that the repeated use of "information highways" in the brain (associated nerve cells) is a central feature of many learning processes. So one could conclude: Mental Practice must be working. But is it really that easy? Finally, an extremely important component is missing: Feedback from the environment. Was the imagined movement really successful? So how effective is mental training in comparison to physical practice? Let's take a look at the research...
Keywords: Psychology - Sport Psychology - Mental Practice - Mental Training - Motor Imagery - Basketball - Free throw - Relaxation - Surgery - Tennis - Sport - Brain - Mental Representation
Author: Eskil Burck
http://www.learningpsychology.net/
Whether in advertising, in politics or in everyday conversation with acquaintances or friends: Persuasion is omnipresent. Especially in advertising, persuasion attempts are rarely based on substantial arguments. Instead, marketers often introduce (supposed) experts, celebrities or seducing background music. Quite often even beautiful models are photoshopped and speaker voices are made even more enjoyable by sound designers.
But are we really fooled by these superficial characteristics? And if so - under what circumstances? The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) by Petty and Cacioppo yields reliable predictions.
Keywords: Persuasion - Influence - Manipulation - Psychology - nonverbal communication - Speaker - Voice - body language - mind - brain - music - social psychology - psychology of advertising - consumer psychology - mind control - marketing - ELM
Author: Eskil Burck
http://www.learningpsychology.net/