Stockholm Syndrome is an intriguing psychological phenomenon in which hostages develop positive feelings for their captors during captivity. It sounds confusing. After all, common sense says that we should hate those who forcibly capture us and threaten us with violence. Stockholm Syndrome not only makes victims like their captors. They empathize with them, refuse to […]
Why do certain behaviours make us cringe?
You show your friend a music video from your favourite band, hoping they’ll like it as much as you do. After about a minute into the video, your friend blurts out, “Ugh… the singer makes me cringe!” You feel devastated, wronged, and slightly embarrassed. “Is this supposed to be cringe-worthy? I didn’t realize this was […]
Impostor syndrome: When top achievers feel like frauds
Joe was a brilliant actor who had been nominated for the best actor award in an award ceremony. He had worked hard and his movie had done very well. When the announcer announced that he was the winner, Joe felt a cocktail of emotions- he was joyous, inexplicably sad, relieved and excited all at the […]
Why do people repeat themselves over and over
Have you ever wondered why people keep repeating the same thing in conversations over and over? If you’re anything like me, you can’t ignore the content of conversations because you know that language can be a window to the mind. People repeat what they say for a number of reasons in a variety of contexts. […]
Inattentional blindness: Being blind to what we see
We like to think that we see the world as it is and that our eyes function very much like video cameras recording all the details in our field of vision. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that sometimes we are unable to see objects that are right in front of us. […]
Stereotype psychology: Why do we stereotype others?
Stereotyping means attributing a personality trait or a set of personality traits to a group of people. These traits may either be positive or negative and stereotyping of groups is usually done on the basis of age, gender, race, region, religion, etc. For example, “Men are aggressive” is a stereotype based on gender while “Italians […]
Psychology of dehumanization and humanization
Dehumanization means stripping humans off of their human qualities. Dehumanized humans are viewed as less than human by the dehumanizers, no longer having the same worth and dignity that humans normally ascribe to each other. Researchers have identified two types of dehumanizations- animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization.1 In animalistic dehumanization, you deny human attributes in the […]
What causes homophobia? Exploring the roots of homophobia
What causes homophobia?Why are some people homophobic?What are the psychological and biological drivers of homophobia? This article will attempt to answer these questions. Homophobia is a pervasive phenomenon that has been known to occur since the dawn of human history. It ranges from having antagonistic attitudes toward homosexuals to engaging in violent acts against them. […]
Why people commit suicide (3 major reasons)
Why do people commit suicide?What mental states drive people to take such an extreme step? Once, when I was in my teens, I read a newspaper piece about this politician who’d died in a helicopter crash. He was dearly loved by the people of his region and when they heard of his death, many died […]
Origins of gender stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are pervasive, yes but where do they come from? The knee-jerk answer that people give to this question is ‘Society’. As you’ll figure out in the article, there’s more to the story. Sam and Elena were siblings. Sam was 7 and his sister Elena was 5. They got along well except for some […]