This idea, popularised by Malcolm Gladwell, is right in suggesting that expertise doesn’t come overnight. But it’s based on one specific example (elite violinists) and isn’t a universal rule. Separate studies have shown that the number of hours to reach master status in chess ranges from 728 hours to 16,120 – meaning some players need 22x more practice hours than others to reach the same skill level.
Psychology & Science
Brand users are 3 times more likely to remember ads than non users. In other words, market leaders (with more users) have an inherent advantage when it comes to getting noticed.
ADHD diagnoses in America spike by 14% on Halloween, compared to the ten weekdays before or after that. Why? The children are examined on the day they get to wear a fun costume and collect bucketloads of candy – suggesting doctors often mistake simple excitement for ADHD.
If you’ve ever picked up a Bang and Olufsen remote you’ll know they’re surprisingly heavy. But that’s nothing to do with function – it’s designed to exploit our assumption that heavier things are better quality.
Many of the principles in Behavioural Science directly contradict one another.
– Are we more likely to remember the first word on a list (primacy) or the last word on a list (recency)?
– Do we prefer trying a new restaurant for dinner (novelty) or sticking with our local favourite (status quo)?
– Does repeatedly hearing a false statement make us believe it (illusory truth effect) or reject it (backfire effect)?
Why do birds have wings? It’s only recently that they’ve been used for flying. They were initially developed for insulation, arranged in multiple layers to preserve heat, before their shape evolved for camouflage and finally for flight.
Being too thin
A brand is rated more favourably by those who buy it than those who don’t – simply because those who buy it have more direct experience with it. So when you’re looking at brand attributes (e.g. “it’s high quality) it’s vital to control for market share, otherwise the biggest brands will always do best.
Actually, bulls are colourblind to red, so it’s not the bullfighter’s cape that makes them angry – it’s the movement of the cape.
Consider these two statements about lung cancer outcomes. 1) The one-month survival rate is 90%. 2) There is 10% mortality in the first month. Although the information is identical, surgery is much more popular in the former frame (84% of physicians chose it) than in the latter (where 50% favored radiation).
After watching a video of a car crash, people estimate the cars to be going much faster (40 mph) when they’re asked about the cars ‘smashing’ into each other, versus ‘hitting’ each other (34 mph). One simple word has a big impact on our memory.
The danger of car collisions isn’t linear. You’re very unlikely to die when going at less than 20 miles per hour. But at 30 miles per hour, about one in five pedestrians will not survive. And at 40 miles per hour, half will not survive.
Carbon footprint
Neutering dogs is considered normal, but it’s seen as barbaric when done to humans.