It's easier to deal with something you can actually see. An enemy on the battlefield. A broken bone. A flat tire. But when the 'enemy' is invisible, for example, emotional and psychological trauma contributing to many psychological effects and outcomes such as depression and anxiety, dealing with it becomes even more complicated. How do you deal with, or even more importantly, understand, something you can't see? This might be one of the reasons why the human psyche is one of the most difficult subjects to study.
And although the science of psychology is quite good at differentiating psychological effects from psychological phenomena, it might be more challenging for an ordinary human to distinguish between the two. And to be fair, the margin is somewhat blurred. We often refer to effects as the outcomes of how we act and think caused by things such as sleep deprivation, substance abuse, childhood emotional neglect, etc. But psychological effects such as the 'placebo' or 'bystander' effect can also be referred to as examples of psychological phenomena. And these interesting phenomena continue to fascinate both experts in the field and the ordinary public. Some time ago, a member of the AskReddit community asked, "What do you think is the most interesting psychology phenomenon?" And judging by the vast number of comments, many individuals find it fascinating how the human brain works.
We have gone through the whole thread and compiled some of the most interesting responses that many seemed to agree with or which spiraled into separate and even more extensive discussions. Scroll further below and give those a read. Do you agree with the thoughts of the Redditors? What psychological phenomenon do you find the most fascinating? Or most difficult to grasp? Share your thoughts in the comments!
#21
"Right now, how psychology influences elections and political affiliations. Some of it is really depressing - like name recognition or even a candidate's last name has an effect on how people vote. I wish I still had the study, but it found people liked to select simple last names. So Joe Smith will beat out John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, policy is irrelevant."
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17points
#22
"If you get yourself to be really happy and excited to see other people, they will react the same to you. It doesn't always happen the first time, but it will definitely happen next time. Time and again this has always worked fine for me."
MasterRonin comments: "I do a more subdued version of this. Basically, if I want to be friends with someone, I just treat them like we've known each other for years. Most of the time it works and they treat me the same way."
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16points
#23
"Childhood amnesia. The fact that up until a certain point, you don't remember things. My first memory isn't until I was 6. My wife's is when she was 2. Hers seem to be emotionally based. So they're sparse and fleeting. Mine are like I just suddenly had a switch flipped, and there I was."
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16points
#24
"Phantom limb syndrome, the ability to feel sensations and even pain in a limb or limbs that no longer exist. Phantom limb syndrome is characterized by both nonpainful and painful sensations. Nonpainful sensations can be divided into the perception of movement and the perception of external sensations (exteroception), including touch, temperature, pressure, vibration, and itch. Pain sensations range from burning and shooting pains to feelings of tingling “pins and needles.” While phantom limb syndrome occurs only in amputees, phantom sensations may be perceived in people who have survived strokes but lost function of certain body parts or who have spinal cord injury or peripheral nerve injury."
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16points
#25
"Planning fallacy. We always believe that things will take less time than they do, even when we've done this activity before. It's very strange to me."
Gramage replied:
"If you're gonna be late, tell the person you're going to be later than you think you are. 'Hey, sorry boss I'm gonna be 30 min late today.' Then you show up 15min late, the boss will be less annoyed because now it feels like you're early even though you're still late.
"If you're gonna be late, tell the person you're going to be later than you think you are. 'Hey, sorry boss I'm gonna be 30 min late today.' Then you show up 15min late, the boss will be less annoyed because now it feels like you're early even though you're still late.
Source: I was late often."
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16points
#26
"Confirmation bias. The brain so actively tries not to see things it is fascinating."
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16points
#27
"When there are accidents and suddenly the rush of hormones makes people super strong that they can lift cars and stuff. Yeah, that's pretty interesting."
Pachulski replied: "More specifically, it’s called hysterical strength."
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16points
#28
"Precognition dreams. Sometimes I dream of something from the future. I can't remember it when I woke up until that moment actually happened and I have this déjá vu feeling with the thoughts I had when I dreamt. For example, in the dream, I was in a different house with a different bathroom and I couldn't recognize it. Months later, I'm in that bathroom, brushing my teeth."
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16points
#29
"Nostalgia. Memories overall, but nostalgic moments that appear out of nowhere, from a song or smell or any of the 5 senses are insane to think about sometimes. Memories are a way for us to learn from outcomes, whether going over there gets you food or you run into danger, but nostalgia is pure happiness. It usually has no rhyme or reason to it besides feeling happy at the moment."
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16points
#30
"You can look straight up towards the sky in a public location, and everyone else around you will look up, too."
stuwallace47 replied: "Similar results if you start screaming on a flight."
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15points
#31
"Synesthesia.
This happens when you experience one sensory stimulus and it triggers another. For example, you hear a splash and think of the color blue. I get this quite vividly with tastes. If I see a plastic fork, I always taste ketchup for some reason."
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15points
#32
"Dissociative fugues. They're pretty rare, but the idea of the brain just shutting down and allowing for reversible amnesia is so fascinating. There are documented cases of people disappearing for years at a time and starting whole new lives and not remembering anything about their past."
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15points
#33
"Narcissistic personality disorder. This disorder is so insidious that its very nature is to convince the sufferer that it doesn’t exist and that everything is great... while that person ruins lives and destroys families. You couldn’t even design something so terrible."
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15points
#34
"The attachment theory. And how parent-child relationships from when we're babies affect how we act and trust people in adulthood."
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15points
#35
"Intuition. That knowing without knowing. I don't know if it's the head, heart or the gut but intuition has always fascinated me."
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15points
#36
"Jamais vu - when something familiar seems unfamiliar. Its the opposite of déjà vu."
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15points
#37
"Stockholm syndrome is pretty interesting. You probably all know what it is already but for anyone who doesn't. It's when a victim of kidnapping falls in love with their kidnapper and it's more common than you'd think."
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14points
#38
"Capgras syndrome. It’s a psychiatric disorder where you believe the people around you are ‘imposters’ despite recognizing that they look/act/sound the same. It can come from a disconnect between the emotional brain regions and visual regions. I believe there are cases where a patient will overcome the imposter sensation by speaking on the phone with someone (so having no visual information). I’ve also seen it in people who suffer from schizophrenia."
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14points
#39
"Hysterical pregnancies. The individual is so obsessed/convinced that they are pregnant that their body responds! They may miss periods, hold weight in their belly, swollen breasts that may even lactate, it's incredible."
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14points
#40
"The Halo effect. Just because of how freaking powerful it is. The first time I heard about it, I was just kinda like, 'Yeah, of course, everyone knows that' as if I knew better and I was above succumbing to it. Boyy, have I realized just how much I fall prey to it too without being aware of it, it's like people just unconsciously have more goodwill and patience with good-looking people, and it's kinda hard to fight against that even when you're aware of it cause it's such a visceral instinctive reaction to be drawn to beauty."
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14points


