Interesting Psychological Facts About Life

1.   If We Have a Plan B, Our Plan A is Less Likely to Work

When you realize you have more options, your motivation for succeeding in plan A drops.

2.     "Catching" a Yawn Could Help us Bond

There are a few theories about why yawning is contagious, but one of the leading ones is that it shows empathy.

3.     It Takes Five Positive Things to Outweigh a Single Negative Thing

Our brains have something called a "negativity bias" that makes us remember bad news more than good, which is why you quickly forget the good but keep dwelling on the bad.

4.     We'd Rather Know Something Bad is Coming Than not Know What to Expect

 It's less stressful to know something negative is about to happen, than when we don't know how things will work out.

5.     When One Rule Seems too Strict, we Want to Break More

A phenomenon called reactance: When people perceive certain freedoms being taken away, they not only break that rule, but they break even more than they otherwise would have. This could be one of the best psychology facts to explain teenager behavior.

6.     Our Favorite Subject is Ourselves

It’s just the way the brain is wired. The reward centers of our brains light up more when we're talking about ourselves than when we're talking about other people.

7.      There's a Reason we Want to Squeeze Cute Things

That's called cuteness aggression. When we're feeling overwhelmed by positive emotions a little bit of aggression helps us balance out that high.

8.     Our Brains Try to Make Boring Speeches More Interesting

Our brains also "talk" over boring speeches. If someone is speaking uninterestedly, we'll subconsciously make it more vivid in our heads.

9.     Some People Enjoy Seeing Anger in Others

People with high testosterone remember information better when it was paired with an angry face than a neutral one or no face, indicating they found the angry glare rewarding.

10. We're Convinced that the Future is Bright

Known as an "optimism bias" that convinces us the future will be better than the present. Might not be realistic for everyone, but there's no harm in dreaming.

11.   We (unintentionally) Believe What we Want to Believe

Humans are victims of something called confirmation bias: the tendency to interpret facts in a way that confirms what we already believe. It's one of the psychological facts you'll just have to accept that you can't change.

12.  Our Brains Want Us to Be Lazy.

Evolutionarily speaking, conserving energy is a good thing. A small study published in Current Biology found that when walking on a treadmill, volunteers would automatically adjust their gait to burn fewer calories.