20/50 super interesting classic psychological effects that will benefit you for a lifetime

11. Free-rider effect (free-riding)

refers to the situation in which, within a group with a common interest, the efforts made by a member for the benefit of the group may benefit all the people in the group, but the costs are borne by that individual.

Case: There are many families living in Lazy Village. The road in front of their homes is in disrepair all year round, and becomes muddy and difficult to walk on when it rains. However, no one is willing to pay out of their own pockets to have it repaired. Duo Duo, who has just bought a new car and returned to the village, can't stand it anymore and repairs the road himself. As a result, the whole village has a clean road to walk on, and the lazy people in the village who have contributed nothing successfully “ride the coattails”.

12. The ratchet effect (it is hard to go from luxury to frugality)

refers to the irreversibility of a person's consumption habits after they have formed, showing the phenomenon that “it is easy to adjust upwards” but “difficult to adjust downwards”.

Case: Duo Duo had always worn first-tier brand clothing since childhood, but suddenly one day her mother said, “We are having financial difficulties at home now, so we have to switch to fast fashion brands.” As a result, Duo Duo felt that she could no longer compare with her classmates, and she felt so miserable that every time she went out it was a huge ordeal.

13. Murphy's Law (Anything with a non-zero probability of occurring is likely to happen)

Refers to the fact that anything that can go wrong will probably go wrong. In other words, anything with a non-zero probability of occurring will (sooner or later) happen at some point.** The moral is that while we should remain calm in the face of mistakes, we should also guard against the slightest possibility of error.**

Example: Duo Duo thought it would only take 5 minutes to get from the subway to the high-speed train station, but it ended up taking 20 minutes to get through the security check, and the elevator to the waiting hall was broken (it felt like the rain was pouring down on top of her).

14. The wild horse ending (exaggerating minor matters)

Refers to the phenomenon of causing huge emotional fluctuations due to some minor matters, so that one is hurt by external factors of others.** Theory proves that human emotions have a cost, and emotions are the result of one's choices.**

Example: Duo Duo's father forgot to wash the glass after drinking. When Duo Duo's menopausal mother saw it, she immediately exploded, saying that Duo Duo's father did not care about family order, did not know how to be considerate, and even brought up historical events related to family hygiene to scold her husband. While Duo Duo's father quietly watched TV, Duo Duo's mother was so angry that she called Duo Duo's sister to continue scolding her husband for an hour.

15. The Barnum effect (why are many people superstitious?)

Also known as the Fowler effect.** It refers to the phenomenon that some people often believe that a general and general description of a person's character very accurately reveals their own characteristics.** In detail, when some common, vague and broad adjectives are used to describe a person, some people with limited knowledge or a lack of independent and rational thinking are often easily convinced by these descriptions and believe that what is said in the description is themselves.

Example: When a certain car brand sponsors a knowledge-based We Media program or a science forum, the audience will easily associate the car with the identity and group of intellectual youth, and then associate driving that car brand with being an intellectual youth. Some intellectuals even firmly choose to buy cars from that brand, even though there is actually no essential connection between the two.

16. Herding effect (the phenomenon of following the crowd)

Also known as the herd effect. It refers to the psychological tendency of people in a social group to easily accept the opinions or behaviors that most people agree with without analysis.

Example: Nini saw that many people in the company had short haircuts, so she cut her hair short despite the fact that her face shape suited long hair. She later regretted her decision.

17. Bystander effect (groupthink reduces responsibility)

Also known as the diffusion of responsibility effect, it refers to the fact that for a certain task, if an individual is asked to complete it alone, they will feel a strong sense of responsibility and respond positively. However, if a group is asked to complete a task together, each individual in the group will have a weak sense of responsibility and will often shrink from difficulties or responsibilities.

Case: A passenger who missed the stop vented his anger on the driver, seriously interfering with the driver's driving state and causing a traffic tragedy. What is thought-provoking is that during the few minutes when the passenger argued with the driver, no one in the car came forward to stop it.

18. Broken window effect (vices are always easy to imitate)

refers to the phenomenon that if a bad phenomenon is allowed to exist, it will induce people to imitate it, or even make it worse.

Case: If some graffiti on the outside wall of a building is not cleaned up in time, the wall will soon be covered with messy and unsightly new graffiti.

19. The birdcage effect (adding a partner for redundant items)

refers to the behavior of people who will continue to add more related things that they don't need based on the accidental acquisition of an item that they didn't need originally.

Example: Nini's cousin gave her a white rabbit. Nini is a neat freak who is used to keeping plants but doesn't want to keep a pet. She couldn't give the live animal away, so she had to go to the pet supermarket downstairs to buy food for it, planning to give it away the next day. However, she didn't give it away the next day, and when she came home from school the next day, she saw that the rabbit was shivering a little from the cold, so she bought it a little hutch and some toys. Gradually, Nini couldn't live without the rabbit.

20. The Bebel Law (premature stimulation can lead to perceptual dullness)

The “Bebel Law” refers to the fact that the stronger the stimulus people receive at the beginning, the more insensitive they will be to subsequent stimuli. In other words, the first stimulus can alleviate the second mild stimulus.** Simply put, there is a law of diminishing marginal utility.**

Example: Mom makes lamb dumplings for dinner. Dodu thinks they taste great and is full of satisfaction when he eats the first one. By the time he gets to the 10th, he still thinks they taste good. By the 20th, Dodu thinks the dumplings aren't very tasty. By the 25th, Dodu doesn't even know what he's eating anymore.