Sharing what I have learned from what I have read: A blog by Joe Abittan
"The main moral of priming research is that our thoughts and our behavior are influenced, much more than we know or want, by the environment of the moment. Many people find the priming results unbelievable, because they do not correspond to subjective experience. Many others find the results upsetting, because they threaten the subjective sense … Continue reading The Environment of the Moment
Anchoring effects were one of the psychological phenomenon that I found the most interesting in Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast and Slow. In many situations in our lives, random numbers seem to be able to influence other numbers that we consciously think about, even when there is no reasonable connection between the random number we … Continue reading Anchoring Effects
"Another major advance in our understanding of memory was the discovery that priming is not restricted to concepts and words," writes Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, "You cannot know this from conscious experience, of course, but you must accept the alien idea that your actions and your emotions can be primed … Continue reading Conscious and Unconscious Priming Effects
I remember the first time I watched the Gorilla Attentiveness Study, as a freshman in college, and to this day it is one of my favorite studies and examples of the ways in which our brains can let us down. Writing about the study in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman states, "The … Continue reading Blind to Our Blindness
A challenge in our world today is to be content without the need for too many things. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements about things we could buy and about how happy we would be if we had more stuff. We attach material possessions to lifestyles and people, and in some ways we look toward … Continue reading What We Need For Happiness
A little over a year ago I took a job that had a long commute, a little over 30 miles one way, 60+ miles daily for the round trip. Mornings were usually pretty quick, because I would be out of the house early for a work out and would beat a lot of traffic, but … Continue reading Think More About Your Time
I listen to lots of podcasts and have a handful of authors whose output I follow fairly closely. Those authors frequently discuss the importance of writing, their process, and what they gain from trying to write each day. One thing is clear from these authors, the process of writing helps with the process of thinking. … Continue reading The Process of Writing
According to Daniel Pink in his book When, temporal landmarks can come in two varieties, social and personal. Social temporal landmarks are the dates that everyone shares in common while personal landmarks are the significant dates in our own lives such as birthdays, anniversaries, and dates of significant life events. Studies presented in Pink's book … Continue reading More on Temporal Landmarks
Our actions always make more sense to us than they do to others. To us, what we do and why we do the things we do fit in with an internal narrative that is always running through our head and playing out in our lives. We understand the world in a way that is logically … Continue reading The Case for Doubting Oneself
Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet is exactly what the title suggests. It is a disquieting look at the world around us, making us think, question the every-day, and second guess what it is we believe and accept. Pessoa dealt with sever depression, and writes about his challenges with depression in stark and honest terms. He pulls … Continue reading To See Our Own Face