Have you ever noticed you do quite a few things on instinct? One moment you were faced with a decision to make and the very next seconds you had a solution and it’s something you’ve done time and time again? Why do we do this?
There are many things we do subconsciously and have been doing for years. We don’t really pay much attention to them or think about it but there are people who do. Behavioral researchers have noted things we all do without thinking or it being our first reaction and have found explanations to them.
Yes and the list of those things is a bit long. As we grow up we develop certain quirks or things we do in particular situations. For example some of us bit our lower lips when in stressful situations or while concentrating very hard.
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So, you bite your lip every time you are nervous or stressed out or your leg vibrates when you get anxious. Why do we need to look into this? We don’t, as normal people we don’t have to look into anything that isn’t of our immediate importance but science does. Scientists have spent years in understanding the human body and mind. These things are important to science and it is always fun to read something new.
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Today we’re going to read about a few things we all do, things we actually do so often that they have become a sort of unwritten rules in society. Things like what? Turning down the volume of the sound system while looking for something, keeping a single urinal distance between two occupied ones etc.
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It’s not exactly everyone but a majority of us will relate to quite a few of the points listed. But all of us are different so how can we do the same thing? Yes, we all are different and we all do things differently but our minds to an extent do work in the same way and there are things most of us do the same way. Some of those things might happen due to the situation or surroundings calling for it while others might be a general preference thing.
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Have you ever noticed while driving you tend to lower the volume of the sound system if you are looking for something? This has a valid psychological explanation. According to Dr. Steven Yantis, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, when we need to focus our attention on listening, we focus less on gathering visual information.
Therefore, when visual information is more important, we try to remove all background music, so that the brain can focus on seeing what is needed to see.
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Humans are social beings and do not like isolation. For this reason we often follow the crowd, as it gives us a sense of security. Rob Henderson, a research assistant at Yale University, outlined several reasons why people follow the crowd.
The number of products and services is innumerable in today’s commercial world. We do not have the time o means to try them all ourselves. Hence, we often choose products which are advertised by other people or experts. This is one of the reasons for following the crowd.
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This is actually contrary to what we have heard before, that the scarcer a product is, the more we want it. But scientists Daniel A. Effron and Dale T. Miller from Stanford University proved during their research, that when people are part of a big group, they don’t take the last slice of pizza, the last doughnut or the last gum in a pack, because they fell that they simply don’t have the right to. This phenomenon is called the diffusion of entitlement.
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Back me up guys; no one wants their privacy invaded. Public toilets are usually not that pleasant because they are full of people. But sometimes, one does not have a choice but to use them. In such situations, to maintain some privacy, men choose to keep some distance. No one wants to use the toilet under someone else’s glance. This is the simple reason why men don’t use neighboring urinals.
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Something we might have not noticed ourselves doing but others may have pointed out. According to Professor Andrew Bass, from Cornell University, the impulse to gesticulate is actually a result of evolution. Scientists traced the evolutionary development of the neutral networks in our brain and fund out that the signals or gesticulations that birds, mammals and humans use, is actually from the hindbrain of fish. Gesticulation is a pretty common activity and now you know its origin.
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We try o send our hard-earned money rationally. We try to find parity between the prices of a product ad its quality. We don’t go for the most expensive product, because it could be overestimated. Similarly, the cheapest product is avoided because its quality might be compromised. Marketers use this to their advantage. They place cheaper products next to expensive products, ensuring that the cheaper product sells fast.
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You may have noticed yourself doing this but do we only do this as a result of what we were taught as children, to be polite? Or is there a scientific reason behind this as well? An article by Joseph Santamaria and David Rosenbaum showed that we hold doors open to minimize the collective efforts spent. When you hold a door open for someone, they don’t have to spend their energy. Similarly, later when someone opens a door for you, you don’t have to spend your energy.
It’s not like men have an agenda with asking for directions but most men prefer not to. According to a survey conducted by TrekAce, only 6 per cent of the male respondents accepted that they would ask directions from a stranger if they were lost. The survey also revealed that n an average, men travel about 900 extra miles within 50 years of their lives because the refuse to ask for directions! According to Mark Goulston, men don’t ask for directions because they do not want to feel vulnerable, incompetent and humiliated.
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Joe Navarro M.A., in his book ’What Every BODY is Saying’, says it’s actually a survival instinct. When our feet are placed toward someone, it means that we are ready to move quickly if some threat shows up. We keep our legs crossed when we are alone and comfortable. We immediately uncross them if some strangers enter. When a person is bored or wants to leave, their feet will face the exit or towards someone else.
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Pick up any book or newspaper around you and see how the content has been written. It’s the age old short columns system and it is quite easy to read. Writing in this style allows for more content on the page as well as looking organized and classy. But did you know you could read that exact same content faster if it were in a single long line? Yes, the human brain is able to process words and sentences faster when written in a single long line.
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