Shortform Books

History of Humankind: From Animal to World Domination

What are the basic events in the history of humankind? What revolutions characterized the cognitive and cultural evolution of homo sapiens? The history of humankind is punctuated by four major revolutions: The Cognitive Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution. These revolutions changed the history of humankind in ways both positive and negative. We’ll look at each revolution and how it dramatically redirected the course of human history, but to understand these upheavals, we need to go back to a time when Homo sapiens was just one of multiple human species (and not a very distinguished

Duration Neglect: Why You Forget How Long Pain Lasts

What is duration neglect? What does it have to do with our overall happiness? Duration neglect is the psychological principle that the length of an experience has little effect on the memory of that event. This factor affects how remember pain and joy. We’ll cover the concept of duration neglect, how it affects overall happiness, and the experiments that demonstrate its power.

The Pygmalion Effect: How Expectations Bias You

What is the meaning of the pygmalion effect? How do our expectations affect results? The pygmalion effect is a phenomenon in which a person’s expectation of a target person affects the target person’s performance. If you have higher expectations of a person, he or she will tend to do better. Learn what the pygmalion effect means in everyday life and how bias plays a part in whether the pygmalion effect is positive or negative.

Mere Exposure Effect: 3 Examples of the Power of Familiarity

What is the “mere exposure effect”? How does it work? What’s a good mere exposure effect example? The mere exposure effect is the idea that exposing someone to an input repeatedly makes them like it more. For example, having a memory of a word, phrase, or idea makes it easier to see again. We’ll cover mere exposure effect examples that demonstrate its power, and how you can use the mere exposure effect to create cognitive ease.

If Gender Is a Social Construct, Why Is Patriarchy Universal?

Gender is a social construct. This is confusing because it has its basis in biology. When it comes to gender, what’s the relationship between societal norms and biology? Gender is a social construct because, while it’s related to your sex, it’s not based on your biology. It’s influenced by how you fit (or choose to fit) the “man” or “woman” mold created by your particular culture’s myths about men and women. We’ll cover the difference between “gender” and “sex” and look at how these distinctions have played out over the history of humanity.

Cultural Evolution of Man: How Our Global Civilization Began

What are the major events in the cultural evolution of man? How did these events shape our cultures today? The cultural evolution of man has been shaped by changes in the ways we think, our language, and the ways by which we relate to each other. Language, especially, has had a powerful role in creating the global culture we recognize today. We’ll cover the events of man’s cultural evolution and how language brought people together to create a global society.

Focusing Illusion: Why You Can’t Predict What Makes You Happy

What is the focusing illusion? How does it affect your memory of an event? The focusing illusion is a cognitive bias that happens when you focus too much on one aspect of an experience. This keeps you from holding an accurate memory of the experience as a whole and leads to bad predictions about future experiences. We’ll cover what the focusing illusion is, how it affects what we predict will make us happy, and how to counter it.

Indifference Curve Definition (+ How It Graphs Value)

What’s an indifference curve? How does it explain how much I value my belongings? Where is it inaccurate? An indifference curve is a graph that demonstrates goods are quantities that a person sees as equal in value. Indifference curves don’t always accurately describe reality–for instance, they can’t explain why we tend to overvalue our belongings. We’ll cover the indifference curve definition and the properties of indifference curves.

Law of Small Numbers: A Deceptive Cognitive Bias

What is the law of small numbers? How does ignoring it lead to biased decision-making? The law of small numbers is the bias of making generalizations from a small sample size. In truth, the smaller your sample size, the more likely you are to have extreme results. If you’re not aware of this principle, when you have small sample sizes, you may be misled by outliers. We’ll cover two examples of the law of small numbers in action and how to use your awareness of it to make better decisions.

Priming: 9 Examples of the Power of Your Subconscious

Shape Your Thoughts to Shape Your Reality

What is the meaning of “priming” in psychology? How does priming work? When is it useful? Why is it controversial? Priming is a technique based on the theory that when an idea is triggered, its associations can cause you to behave in a meaningfully different way without your consciously realizing it. The concept of priming takes the idea of association beyond mere thought, to the functional level. We’ll cover what priming is, how it’s used, and why it’s controversial.