Hannah Aster

SEO Team Lead

Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.

Expertise

Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing

5 Factors for Success: The Tiny Habit’s Ability Chain

What is the Ability Chain from Tiny Habits? What are the five factors for success? When trying to form a new habit, there are three components: motivation, ability, and prompt. The ability component can be thought of as a chain with five links. or the ability chain. These five links, or the five factors for success, are time, money, physical effort, mental effort, and how easy it is to incorporate the habit into your routine. Keep reading to learn more about the ability chain and its five links.

Relative Happiness: Stop Comparing Yourself

What is relative happiness? Why can comparing yourself to others be so detrimental? How can you improve your happiness levels? Relative happiness is when you ceaselessly compare your life to the lives of others. This kind of thinking will almost always result in dissatisfaction and envy. But you can learn to control your comparison compulsions. Keep reading to learn how to overcome relative happiness.

Human Sexuality and the Psychology of Love

What is the psychology of human sexuality and how does it relate to love? Why do humans fall in love? What is the difference between passionate and compassionate love? Human sexuality psychology is like that of no other animal. Human sex is not solely for reproduction and fathers actually fall in love with their mate and child. Why are we so different? It’s because of the child development process. Keep reading for more on the psychology of human sexuality.

Manipulating Statistics: The Top 8 Techniques

How do liars manipulate statistics to make them more favorable? How can hard numbers possibly be skewed? Manipulating statistics isn’t as difficult as one may think. Although statistics are hard numbers and lying about them isn’t legal, that doesn’t mean they can’t be skewed or framed in a way to make the presenter look better. Keep reading for the top eight ways that statistics are manipulated.

Placebo Effect Psychology: Questions of Ethics

What are the two mechanisms of placebo effect psychology? Is pricing a medication higher to trigger the placebo effect unethical? How can you think against the placebo effect? The psychology of the placebo effect relies on two mechanisms: faith and conditioning. If you have faith in something, then it’s more likely to work better. However, this raises ethical questions when it comes to marketing medications. Continue on for more about the psychology of the placebo effect.

Behavior Prompts: Without Them, You Can’t Change

Are you trying to rid yourself of bad habits? Do you want to develop new, positive habits in your life? How can Behavior Prompts help you? A Behavior Prompt is your reminder to initiate your new behavior. Without a Prompt, a behavior won’t properly stick. There are three different types of prompts and this article will help you choose which type is best for you. Keep reading for more information about behavior Prompts.

The Negativity Bias: Psychology and Causes

What is the negativity bias? How did the negativity bias stem from evolution? The negativity bias is the tendency for us to perceive and interpret events in our lives with pessimism. This stems from evolution because we are wired to dislike and fear bad things more than we like good things. Keep reading for more about the negativity bias.

Public Decision-Making: When Choices Are Harder

Why do we make irrational choices when we have to make a decision in public? How can we counter the urge to make unique choices? Studies show that when we have to make decisions aloud, we tend to choose things we don’t actually want in order to maintain our independence and end up dissatisfied. There are some steps we can take towards making more satisfying choices. Continue reading to learn how to make more satisfying choices when forced into public decision-making.

Core Virtues: Cultivate the Best Version of Your Self

What is the most useful way to think about core virtues? Why does cultivating your virtues lead to a satisfying life? Cultivating your core virtues is about fulfilling your potential and working on self-improvement. Everybody’s virtues are different but the key to satisfaction in life is to strive towards achieving a set of positive attributes. Keep reading to learn why strengthening your core virtues will bring you satisfaction.

How to Get Accurate Statistics: Good Sampling

How can you get accurate statics if you can’t possibly count every entity of a population? What criteria make a good sample? It is true that the only way to get a 100% accurate sample is to count every single entity, but that’s just impossible. That’s why statisticians use samples to represent a population. There are certain criteria that must be met to ensure that your sample is as accurate as possible. Keep reading to learn more about how good sampling leads to accurate statistics.