What is the Psychology of Behavior?
Let's describe the psychology of behavior. The analysis of the relationship between our minds and our actions is behavioral psychology. You can hear behavioral psychology referred to as behaviorism occasionally. Researchers and psychologists researching behavioral psychology strive to explain why we act the way we do and how we discover trends in our attitudes and behaviors. The dream is that we will construct healthier behaviors as people, produce better goods as enterprises, and grow better living spaces as cities if we can use behavioral science to help us anticipate how humans will act.
As a logical person, I like to think of myself, but I'm not one. The good thing is that it's not just me — or you. All of us are irrational and all of us make behavioral mistakes.
Researchers and economists have long assumed that people have made rational, well-considered choices. However, scholars have discovered a vast spectrum of behavioral mistakes in recent decades that derail our thought. We make sensible decisions often, but there are also occasions when we make choices that are subjective, unreasonable and frustrating.
These multiple mental errors are what psychologists and behavioral analysts want to nerd out about. There are hundreds of them, and they all have fancy names like "mere consequence of exposure" or "fallacy of narration." But today I don't want to get lost in the science jargon. Alternatively, let's learn about the behavioral mistakes that happen most commonly in our lives and break them down in easy-to - understand terms.
Bias Survivorship.
These days, almost every prominent online media source is packed with survivorship prejudice. Survivorship bias refers to our propensity to reflect on a single field on the winners and attempt to learn about them while forgetting entirely about the losers who use the same tactic.
Aversion of Failure.
Aversion of losing applies of our propensity to actively favor loss prevention to making benefits. Research has found that you will experience a small increase in happiness if anyone sends you $10, but if you lose $10, you will experience a significantly larger reduction in happiness. Yeah, the answers are opposite, but in degree, they are not comparable.
Our ability to prevent loses leads us to make foolish choices and modify our acts merely to retain the things we already own. In contrast to the alternatives, we are programmed to feel defensive of the objects we own and that can drive us to overvalue these products.
If you purchase a new pair of sneakers, for example, it will offer a slight rise in enjoyment. However, even though you never wear your sneakers, it might be extremely difficult to throw them up a few months back. You never need them, but you really can't bear parting with them for some reason. Aversion of Failure.
Similarly, as you breeze through green lights on the way to work, you may feel a little bit of excitement, but when the car in front of you stops at a green light and you lose the chance to make it through the intersection, you can get downright furious. It is much more difficult to miss out on the ability to make the light than the joy of reaching the green light from the start.
The Heuristic of Supply.
The Availability Heuristic refers to a common error that our brains make by thinking that the most relevant or prevalent items are often the examples that come to mind quickly.
Steven Pinker 's study at Harvard University, for instance, has shown that we are now living in the least violent moment in history. Right now, there are more people living in peace than ever before. Homicide, homicide, sexual harassment, and child abuse numbers are all declining.
When they hear these numbers, most people are surprised. Some still refuse to trust them. If this is history's most prosperous moment, there are there many wars going on right now? Why do I learn, every day, about rape and murder and crime? Why are so many acts of crime and devastation being spoken about by everyone?
Bias of Confirmation.
Confirmation bias refers to our propensity to look for and favor evidence that supports our views while denying or devaluing evidence that undermines our views at the same time.
Person A, for instance, claims that climate change is a major concern and only looks and reads articles about conservation of the atmosphere, climate change and renewable energy. As a consequence, their existing views continue to be affirmed and accepted by Individual A.
Person B, meanwhile, does not accept that climate change is a major concern, and only looks and reads articles that speak about how climate change is a hoax, why scientists are mistaken, and how we are all being misled. As a result, their existing beliefs continue to be affirmed and supported by Individual B.
It is tougher to change your mind than it seems. The more you feel that you know something, the more you filter all information to the contrary and dismiss it.
You may apply this pattern of thinking to virtually every subject. If you've just purchased a Honda Accord and you think it's the best car on the market, then you'll read every report you find that praises the car, naturally. In the meantime, if another publication mentions another car as the best range of the year, you automatically reject it and conclude that the editors of that particular publication had it wrong or were hoping for something other than what you were looking for in a car.