We are used to thinking that our thoughts belong to us and only to us. This means that we make all decisions on our own. There are at least 8 pieces of evidence that this is not the case.
1. Facebook manipulates your mood
The largest social network on the planet recently conducted an experiment on people. The Facebook team tweaked the EdgeRank settings so that some users saw predominantly negative posts and others positive. It turned out that the emotions of other people, whose posts we read on Facebook, strongly influence our mood. Researchers believe that online social media posts to a large extent shape the emotional background in which their active users live.
2. Stories are more convincing than facts
Experienced scammers know: if you want to convince someone that you are right, tell a story. They are better remembered than fact sheets and have a greater impact on listeners and readers. Researchers also know that science fiction has a greater impact on us than scientific journal articles, for this very reason.
And it is for this reason that we refuse to quit smoking, despite all the arguments of the doctors, because our grandfather smoked all his life and lived for 90 years.
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3. Subliminal messages work
It is worth occupying our minds with some interesting content, as we already hardly know how to filter messages in creeping lines, banners and all kinds of advertisements. Subliminal messages work great, researchers in the Netherlands have proven.
4. The smartest of us always trust authoritative sources
The smarter a person seems to himself, the easier we trust information from sources that we consider authoritative. For this reason, it is easy to deceive people if a "professor", "doctor", "priest" or "expert" speaks about certain facts from the screen.
Social psychologist Stephen Greenspan is convinced that the intellect of any person is strongly influenced by social pressure. If a lot of people consider someone to be authoritative, we are more likely to consider him as such.
Another good way to gain people's trust is to instill in them that by using new information or supporting a new idea, they will become richer.
5. Fonts inspire trust
In 2012, NewYork Times columnist Errol Morris proved that people tend to trust more information that reaches them in the form of text with good fonts. It may sound strange, but the handwriting and font of the message really affects whether people believe the message or not.
6. We tend to commit crimes that our friends and neighbors do
It's simple: there is strong evidence that the crime rate is growing faster in areas where it is above average. It is easier for a teenager to break another window in the house if he sees broken glass in the neighborhood. In areas where graffiti appears, new drawings on the walls appear after a few weeks if no one has painted them over.
The same thing, by the way, happens when we harm ourselves. A slightly broken or even scratched cover on the phone will make us subconsciously want to destroy it as quickly as possible.
7. The size of the plate affects the amount eaten
The larger the plate we eat with, the more we usually eat. People who are accustomed to large cutlery eat almost 13% more on average at lunch than those who eat from small plates. The average American plate size has grown by 25% over the past 15 years, coinciding surprisingly with the obesity epidemic in developed countries.
8. Colors affect everything
Experienced marketers and business people know that consumer behavior in a store can be seriously influenced by simply repainting the walls of the store interior. Warm colors like brown and red make us physically feel more secure. If the walls of the hypermarket are of these colors, there is a high probability that you will buy more than necessary. Or at least spend more time indoors than you planned.
The use of cool colors for interior decoration saves on air conditioners. If the plate is the same color as the main course, you will eat more.
In 2000, an experiment was carried out in Glasgow to replace the usual light of street lamps with lanterns that give off a blue tint. Blue is said to have a calming effect. Crime in the areas where the lamps in the lanterns were replaced has dropped dramatically. Japan followed this example. They even calculated that the blue color of street lamps reduces the number of violent crimes by 9%.
Blue lights in the subway on the train platform reduce suicide rates.