Have you ever bought a lottery or raffle ticket? I have. I enjoyed musing about what I’d do with the prize (until, inevitably, I lost!)

While they may not be wise investment strategies, lotteries can be surprisingly effective for encouraging positive behaviors because they can make an unappealing task more motivating (and people tend to focus more on the prize, rather than their chance of winning).

Have you ever been “attacked” online, or felt shocked by the aggressive responses from strangers to a post?

Coined by Psychologist John Suler, the online disinhibition effect* explains that many people say and do things online that they would not do face-to-face. 

Are you planning a holiday this year? Perhaps you’re picturing the sheer joy you’ll feel when you can finally relax.

Now, think back to your last holiday. Was it as amazing as you imagined, or somewhat marred by unexpected issues?

According to Affective Forecasting research, it turns out that people are generally bad at predicting how we’ll feel in the future.

Do you ever find yourself struggling to “stay positive”?

If so, there’s good news – the Pollyanna Principle (named after a perpetually cheerful book and movie character) explains that most people subconsciously focus on the positive in our conversations, and recall more positive memories. We discuss more good news than bad, we’re upbeat in most texts and emails, and we describe others more positively than negatively, too.

Picture this: You’re shopping for a gift when you spot a fantastic shirt, and it’s the last one. Ugh – it’s twice the price you expected! You can’t decide what to do, but then think “Whatever, I’ll buy it, I don’t want to regret it later!”

About how many emails do you receive each day: 50, 100, 200?

Now think for a second: which emails do you respond to immediately, and which do you put off till later, or ignore?

Professor Todd Rogers, a behavioral scientist at Harvard, has determined the secret to increasing responses to emails, letters, and text messages, and it’s (drumroll . . . . )

Think about where you live – which accents are “desirable,” and which are not?

Professor John Baugh explains in an enlightening Ted Talk that how people speak can lead to linguistic profiling: when someone is denied access to available goods or services by phone, sight unseen, based exclusively on the sound of their voice.

Do you feel a little happier when you take a walk, or find yourself surrounded by green? 

Well, it’s not just you.

Think about your favorite backpack, purse, or briefcase. If I really wanted to buy it from you, how much would you charge me?

Now think again – how much do you think your bag is actually worth? I’m guessing your first figure is higher than the second.

Would you call yourself a “binary thinker,” someone who sees only two sides, such as right or wrong, or us vs. them?

I’m guessing you’d say, “Of course not!”

Do you remember the last time you realized you were wrong? 

 In his book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing what You Don’t Know organizational psychologist Adam Grant encourages us not just to develop knowledge and experience, but to hone the skill of rethinking. Grant asserts that too often we favor feeling right over being right, and we slip into one of three mindsets: preacher, prosecutor, or politician.

Do you ever have trouble motivating yourself to exercise, meditate, or study, even though you KNOW you’ll feel better afterwards?

It turns out the composition of the human brain is a key reason this is difficult.

Has this happened to you?

You’re on a hiring panel and you’ve just finished four back-to-back interviews. You launch into discussion with the other panelists – you’re sure the best candidate is obvious. But . . . wait . . . the others have two different top choices. How can that be?

Imagine this: You’re on a 1500 calorie/day diet when your spouse brings home freshly-baked cookies.  You decide to have just one, then realize you’ve exceeded your daily calorie limit. Oh, what-the-hell, you think, and eat four more — you’ll restart your diet tomorrow.

The “What-the-Hell” Effect is the actual term for this psychological phenomenon.

Have you ever finished some intense exercise, and then later rewarded yourself with an indulgent dinner or dessert? Moral licensing is a phenomenon via which human beings give ourselves permission to do something “bad,” because we’ve already done something “good.” We conduct psychological bargaining, and let ourselves off the hook because “we’ve earned it.”

Last week we introduced the intention-action gap: how human beings often know what we should do, but we have trouble following through on our good intentions. One method for addressing this gap is called a planning prompt, a.k.a. implementation intention plan. This is a simple intervention through which people are prompted to decide when, where, and how they will do something.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever: planned to exercise, but ended up on the couch; started a diet, then found yourself eating cake; vowed to save money, then splurged on a new purchase. These examples demonstrate a key focus of the behavioral sciences called the intention-action gap: basically, people often know what we should do, and we have good intentions, but we have trouble following through on these intentions. There’s a gap between what we want, and what we do.

Human beings place time in mental accounts, such as by designating specific hours for work, family, or relaxation. More broadly, when we consider our lives, we pay attention to temporal landmarks, significant periods like birthdays, holidays, job changes, or major world events.

Have you ever postponed stepping on a scale, getting your cholesterol tested, or checking your bank balance? If so, you likely fell prey to the ostrich effect, the human tendency to avoid negative information that could help one make corrective action.

Which would you prefer, natural spring water or distilled water?

The first just sounds better, doesn’t it?  But why?

The Appeal to Nature Fallacy is a faulty reasoning process via which we conclude that “natural” equates with “good.”