What are some psychological facts that people don't know?

1. intermitten positive response is the best way to keep someone's attention. So if you always give someone a positive response, they will lose interest, and if you never give someone a positive response, they will lose interest. gotta mix it up.
   — DisgustoStoneSnout


2. One of my favorites is Mirroring or Body Language Mirroring. In order to strengthen relationships with our social cohort and increase reciprocal empathy, people unconsciously mimic the behavior of those they are talking to e.g. smiling/frowning along or adopting similar body positioning or posture. It's something that starts in infancy and sticks with us through life.
   — OrangeCassetteTapes


3. Eye witness testimony can be unintentionally wrong. People forget things they witnessed vividly and it can be the difference between exoneration and prison.
   — svetambara






4. People reciprocate. If you want someone to do something for you, giving them a small gift and they’ll be more inclined to give back.
   — 69hailsatan


5. The best way to get a person to do what you want is to subtly give him/her the illusion of control. Your 5-year-old daughter is making a tantrum that she doesn't want to put on a dress to go to a birthday party when you tell her to? Fine. Ask her if she wants to wear the red dress or the blue dress. Boom. She decides a dress and puts it on.
   — PM_ME_LARGE_CHEST


6. There is a field in psychology called proxemics which basically says that the closer somebody is to you during an interaction the closer there relationship is to you. Basically the closer someone sits to you the more they like you.
   — shanereid1






7. Just smiling whether there's a reason or not will make your body produce more dopamine thus making you happier.
   — HeavyUnderwear


8. Cognitive dissonance. Its the mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. The occurrence of cognitive dissonance is a consequence of a person performing an action that contradicts personal beliefs, ideals, and values; and also occurs when confronted with new information that contradicts said beliefs, ideals, and values. We have all met someone who can't handle being told something they can't handle so they start to act like children by covering their ears and shouting.
   — jerzeypipedreamz


9. you can be worn down by hundreds and thousands of statements of a lie and then say you believe it just in the hope it will go away. another one is the "anchor" number effect in negotiations of pricing. edit: fixed bad typing.
   — bsd8andahalf_1






10. The difference between hallucinations and delusions. It's perfectly normal to see things every once in a while, when you're tired or just out of the corner of your eyes...what *isn't* normal is the delusions that it's real, or that something is true when it is in fact not. Because of people mixing them up, you get a lot of people wondering whether or not they're crazy for having "experienced" something no one else did.
    — Mucheng


11. We are all capable of *more* than we think.
    — Back2Bach


12. Emotion vs Logical thinking. If you're emotional about something, your logical reasoning gets thrown out the window and vise versa.
    — DarkGlowParadox