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!
#41
"The differences between male and female brains. For example, when two young boys are given chairs and told to sit and have a conversation, they almost always put the chairs next to each other and don't have strong eye contact. When asked the same of two young girls, they will almost always put the chairs facing one another and have stronger eye contact. Things like this create problems later in life in some relationships where a woman won't feel validated in conversation because the man isn't giving them direct eye contact. However, he is still listening just the same."
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14points
#42
"Prospect theory, the idea that people perceive gain and loss unequally, where a loss has about twice as much impact on a person as a gain of the same amount. People will take unnecessary risks to avoid loss."
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13points
#43
"If you're talking to someone intently and you hand them something, more often than not they'll take it. Doesn't matter if it's a book, a pen, or an orange. No idea what the phenomenon is called or if it's even psychological, but it's made for some great pranks."
delvach comments: "Especially when you're the pilot."
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13points
#44
"The Monkeysphere.
How your brain has evolved to have an upper limit on the number of people you can conceptualize as people. After which they just become 'people'. And are then clumped into groups. The perception of which can be warped drastically by hearsay, the media, your own bias, etc.
This goes a very long way to explain why many things in human society are the way they are."
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13points
#46
"It’s not so much a psychology phenomenon but I love how easy misdirection can be used. As an amateur magician, I’m always amazed at how easy it is to make a person look the wrong way or focus on the irrelevant."
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13points
#47
"I always heard this psych friend of mine talk about this thing that happens if you can have a situation created where a room is absolutely silent.
He said they have one at a recording studio somewhere, like a room where you could get flatline zero on a decibel meter.
He says if you go in there (not playing an instrument or anything, but just go in and sit) you can only take a few minutes of it before you start to go crazy. Some can take more some can take less but something about hearing your own heartbeat start to get louder and louder clearly, and all your body noises, and absence of anything else, just starts to drive you nuts.
I've never been, but I'd like to try it out. Just so long as I could be let out when I wish!"
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13points
#48
"Kinda a basic one but still interesting, when you yawn others yawn as a sign of affection. It's kinda a little-known fact and I always find it funny."
Taffy-Giggleberry replied: "I yawned reading this."
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13points
#49
"Alien hand syndrome.
Essentially your left hand develops its own personality and doesn't over your conscious thoughts. Doctor House did a great episode about this. The really interesting part is the implication that we all have two personalities inside of us."
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13points
#50
"How I can have a surprise in my dream. Like something will happen and I'll be confused about it, then someone will explain it by giving new information, and then it makes sense. But ALL of this is created by my own brain while I'm dreaming. How can I reveal new information to myself to explain something?"
phoeniciao replied:
"This also fascinates me, my brain has created things in my dreams that baffle me to this day, but isn't my brain supposed to be me? So where are these creations coming from?"
"This also fascinates me, my brain has created things in my dreams that baffle me to this day, but isn't my brain supposed to be me? So where are these creations coming from?"
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12points
#51
"How laughter affects people. Laughter is basically the ying to stress's yang, which inspires me to make people laugh when I can, as I don't know what they're going through. Laughter increases things like dopamine, and can even help soothe physical pain sometimes."
user replied:
"Even smiling, (lifting the corners of your mouth) alone has positive effects on you, even if you force it."
"Even smiling, (lifting the corners of your mouth) alone has positive effects on you, even if you force it."
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12points
#52
"Dissociative disorder.
It's a mental disorder that involves experiencing a disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions, and identity. People with dissociative disorders escape reality in ways that are involuntary and unhealthy and cause problems with functioning in everyday life."
Mikkiep replied:
"I don't have a dissociative disorder so to say, but the scariest symptom of my severe anxiety is dissociating. The world does not look as real. The sunlight on the earth looks superficial, sounds are a little quieter or much louder, and houses and trees look a little different; like it's a hyper-realistic rendering of the world that's almost spot on but not exactly. I feel like I'm dreaming and become completely numb emotionally. I'm just there, separated from everything, and feel like I'm not real. I could stare straight ahead for hours in this state and not think of a single thing. It's awful and I would trade that mental response for a panic attack any day."
"I don't have a dissociative disorder so to say, but the scariest symptom of my severe anxiety is dissociating. The world does not look as real. The sunlight on the earth looks superficial, sounds are a little quieter or much louder, and houses and trees look a little different; like it's a hyper-realistic rendering of the world that's almost spot on but not exactly. I feel like I'm dreaming and become completely numb emotionally. I'm just there, separated from everything, and feel like I'm not real. I could stare straight ahead for hours in this state and not think of a single thing. It's awful and I would trade that mental response for a panic attack any day."
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12points
#53
"The repression of traumatic memories."
stryker161 replied:
"It's so weird! Went through a rough time a long time ago and self-harm was involved, apparently. Because later on, I couldn't remember doing that to myself. The scars are there and maybe there's a very vague memory of a moment somewhere but nothing that will make me say, 'Ah, yes, I remember when I did this'".
"It's so weird! Went through a rough time a long time ago and self-harm was involved, apparently. Because later on, I couldn't remember doing that to myself. The scars are there and maybe there's a very vague memory of a moment somewhere but nothing that will make me say, 'Ah, yes, I remember when I did this'".
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12points
#54
"Normalcy bias. The inability to recognize a situation, (especially that of danger) for what it is because the brain wants to regulate the event and normalize it according to what it typically used to.
For example, I had a friend and his wife visit the USA from Canada. During their stay, they witnessed a felon run past them, chased by cops, and get shot. (Not fatally) they were both so unaccustomed to firearms and shootings that they went about their business like everything was fine. Then, about 15 minutes later, both of them had the sudden realization of, 'Holy s*it, we just watched a guy get shot by the police!"
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12points
#56
"Playing.
When 2 animals play with each other, they both communicate aggression, they show fangs, and claws, they bite, they go for the neck, etc. Everything about it should communicate danger, but they never feel endangered, even when one animal accidentally hurts another. This happens even when animals are playing with animals they have barely known for some time.
It blows my mind how the right context completely transforms all the communication between animals who play."
lauren_strokes replied:
"My understanding is that dogs have little pauses throughout a play fight that confirms it's just playing. And that dogs get so riled up when humans play fight because they sometimes can't tell when it's for real."
"My understanding is that dogs have little pauses throughout a play fight that confirms it's just playing. And that dogs get so riled up when humans play fight because they sometimes can't tell when it's for real."
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11points
#57
"That you're more likely to like someone if you think that person likes you."
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11points
#58
"It seems crazy that we can not use our intellect to override fears and phobias. For example, if you have a fear of spiders, you know they can't hurt you and aren't dangerous, but even if you tell yourself this and understand this, the fear remains."
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11points
#59
"Dreaming. Even though everyone does it, it's amazing that our minds create virtual realities for us nightly. If you can lucid dream, it can be more entertaining than any game technology has invented."
thudly replied:
"Why do our brains create nightmares, though? It seems so masochistic for your own mind to create nightmarish scenarios that would never happen in real life, or simply relive bad memories over and over. This has always baffled me. Normally our biology avoids pain at all costs. But the brain seems to obsess over it while we dream."
"Why do our brains create nightmares, though? It seems so masochistic for your own mind to create nightmarish scenarios that would never happen in real life, or simply relive bad memories over and over. This has always baffled me. Normally our biology avoids pain at all costs. But the brain seems to obsess over it while we dream."
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10points
#60
"Why do people have favorites? Like a favorite color or a favorite flower?"
User replied:
"Not being able to choose, could mean death. Therefore the brain collects fragments of positive memories, which will guide you throughout the rest of your life. One of these fragments could be that you have a preference for the color red because you associate it with a lot of childhood memories (Charizard, Ash Ketchum Hat, Pikachu Cheeks) etc."
"Not being able to choose, could mean death. Therefore the brain collects fragments of positive memories, which will guide you throughout the rest of your life. One of these fragments could be that you have a preference for the color red because you associate it with a lot of childhood memories (Charizard, Ash Ketchum Hat, Pikachu Cheeks) etc."
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10points
