I Learned These Fascinating Psychology Facts And Now I Feel Like A Mindfreak Genius

These traits, which are called the Big Five, are neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness.

Women were shown videos of men in dating situations for the study, some of whom possessed more psychopathic qualities. The women were then asked to rate the desirability of the men, and Evolutionary Psychological Science reported that "analyses involving comparisons of two men showed women’s ratings increased in favor of the more psychopathic man."

These techniques can be used to produce more lucid dreams, in which the person who is sleeping recognizes that they are dreaming while a dream is taking place. Research conducted in 2020 revealed that people have the ability to take control of lucid dreams around one-third of the time. Reality testing and the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD) technique are two examples of tools that can raise the chances of experiencing lucid dreams, according to researchers.

Psychology Today reported in 2016 that researcher and professor Helen Fisher had identified three phases of falling for someone: lust, attraction, and attachment. Lust relates to being physically interested in someone, attraction consists of a period in which you feel consumed by thoughts of your partner, and lastly, attachment is the time when you have a desire to remain devoted to your significant other for the long haul.

Scientists have found that watching someone else yawn will likely lead to the viewer yawning as well. Even if we were to see someone yawning upside down or sideways, the likelihood that we would mirror their yawning remains the same.

Gerald Zaltman, a Harvard Business School professor, stated that 95% of human cognition takes place subconsciously in his 2003 book, How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market. He then related this finding to how marketers may develop a better understanding of consumers.

Compassion is the quality that proved to be appealing most frequently. In 2003, the American Psychological Association reported this based on a study of single college students which showed that people are most likely to be attracted to those "who they perceive as loving, supportive and secure in their relationships." The key word here is "perceive," as the study also found that someone's perception of a romantic interest is more important than the qualities this person actually possesses as they determine how interested they are in them.

Three studies from 2014 showed that participants who were faced with the task of evaluating backup plans ended up falling short when pursuing their main objectives. In addition, these subjects were less interested in going after their central goals after having been exposed to backup plans.

In 2015, Scientific American referenced a study that revealed both those who are sarcastic and those who are around sarcastic people may end up displaying a higher level of creativity. 

In TV shows and movies, serial killers are often depicted as being highly intelligent, but in real life, this isn't always the case. The IQ test results from the majority of serial killers who have taken this assessment fall somewhere in the range between borderline and above average intelligence; this is comparable to the average IQ of the general population.

Numerous present-day psychologists have also proposed that our personalities are likely to stay the same as we mature.

This phenomenon, called the bystander effect, was identified after the murder of Kitty Genovese. In 1964, Kitty was killed outside of the New York City apartment building she lived in. None of her neighbors intervened or attempted to help her, which Bibb Latané and John Darley, two social psychologists, later attributed to diffusion of responsibility and social influence. They concluded that these neighbors felt less of a responsibility to step in due to a higher number of people being in their environment. In addition, being in an area with neighbors who likewise weren't taking action likely resulted in the group's shared inactivity.

A 2014 study by the Muse using the DeskTime app indicated that the people who were the most productive at work labored for 52 consecutive minutes, took a 17-minute break, then proceeded to resume their work. It was determined that these employees were the most productive because they approached their work with a higher level of focus for these 52-minute time spans. 

The New York Times wrote of a study in 1982 that compared the behavior of children in a classroom before and after the room had undergone color and lighting changes; an orange rug had been replaced with a gray rug, the walls of the room had been changed from white and orange to royal and light blue, while full-spectrum lighting was implemented in place of fluorescent lighting. The kids were better behaved and had lower blood pressure levels following these alterations. 

Generally, cool colors are thought to elicit calm behavior, while warm colors may lead to more animated behavior.

People who love sugary foods may embody sweeter personality traits, NBC News stated, which was found in a 2011 study. College students who had consumed sweets were then more likely to assist a professor than other students who'd been offered either unsweetened food or no food.

Furthermore, another group of students shared their taste preferences and completed a questionnaire rating their level of agreeableness; the students who had a sweet tooth were reported as being more agreeable. 

Over time, as we get older and evolve, our memories can change and become inaccurate. Not only that, but in certain cases, we might inadvertently make up memories that never took place. Though everybody possesses false memories, the severity of these erroneous recollections may vary from person to person.

This concept is called the Ben Franklin effect. It explains that when we help someone, we rationalize it to ourselves by concluding that we must like that person. Ben Franklin tested this out when he asked an opposing Pennsylvania lawmaker to loan him a book. Though they'd previously not been on speaking terms, the two ended up becoming lifelong friends.

Factors like being in a lower income group or feeling that one's social rank is threatened may also make someone more vulnerable to these theories.

Social psychologist and author Heidi Grant Halvorson told CBS Mornings in 2015 that "when people wear more formal clothing, they actually feel more powerful." In addition, wearing formal attire improves your abstract thinking abilities, as people will "see the big picture, they'll be more creative, [and] they're a little bit better at problem-solving" when wearing business clothing.

Heidi also spoke of a past study by psychologist Adam D. Galinsky in which some participants were given identical white coats to wear, with some being told their coat was made for painters, and others being told their coat was made to be worn by doctors. The people who wore the doctors' coats displayed stronger attention levels during tests due to their association of critical thinking with working as a medical professional.

"It's all about what you think your clothing means," Heidi said. "That's how it affects you."

The definition of self-fulfilling prophecies explains this; Essentially, what you think about and expect to happen in any given situation will lead you to behave in a way that yields the end result you had anticipated. The same thing can also occur when the assumptions of others are told to you and affect your behavior, which is called an other-imposed prophecy.