The Neurosphere

     Have you ever looked at the front of a car and seen a face staring back at you? Or seen a cloud that looks just like a bird? This phenomenon is called  pareidolia,  which is the tendency of human brains to interpret a vague stimulus as something familiar. Pareidolia is not solely a visual tendency, however: it is simply classified by an interpretation of any vague stimulus as something meaningful to the observer. Non visual examples of pareidolia include hearing sinister messages in reversed music or interpreting a headache as a brain tumor.      Humans naturally seek to find meaning where meaning is unclear. In fact, this habit is reinforced in schools through activities like literary analysis and interpreting the data recorded after a lab in science class. B ecause of the superfluity of pareidolia and the extensive interpretations it can offer an observer, pareidolia can often times be harmful.     Interpreting vague stimuli can b...

      True crime is having a loud cultural moment right now. From new Netflix documentaries to chart-climbing podcasts, millions of everyday people are consuming this "dark" content. This raises the question--what makes this violent content so compelling to normal, non-violent people?      Psychologists point to several theories on why people might be so entranced by true crime. A key explanation lies in morbid curiosity , an adaptive interest in learning about threats. It is in human nature to anticipate and perceive potential threats--this can be done by watching true crime and learning about documented violence. True crime offers a safe venue where people can observe dangers from a distance.     Another reason true crime hooks people is because of the human desire to solve puzzles. Many true crime documentaries are structured in a way that leaves watchers guessing and theorizing about the cases. This process of making hypotheses and then typica...

    When people hear the word "addiction," they often picture things that are extreme and obviously harmful like gambling and drugs. However, addiction does not always come in such dramatic forms--in fact, most people exhibit several if not all of the symptoms of addiction in certain aspects of their lives.      According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychological disorders, one of the primary distinctions between an impulse and an addictive disorder is the presence of a craving that precedes a relapse or indulgence in the given substance or activity. The discovery that addicted gamblers have physical cravings is what eventually led gambling to being moved from the impulse control disorders category to the addictive disorders category. Impulse control disorders (like pyromania, for example) are also categorized by more sporadic behavior, while addictive behaviors like drinking and smoking often function as coping strategies.      I...

    Nearly everyone has experienced a group project setting where they have been overly attached to their own ideas and contributions despite apparent dissatisfaction from partners or teachers. Why is it that we are so attached to our projects and ideas and have such difficultly with criticism? Named after the Swedish furniture giant, This phenomenon is called the " IKEA effect ."          The IKEA effect describes how people are more likely to value something if they put time and effort into it. For example, someone may be more hesitant to donate a piece of furniture that they built on their own compared to a piece of furniture that was installed for them. This idea piggybacks off of the sunk cost fallacy , a cognitive bias that describes the tendency for people to fully commit to something if they have spent time and money on it. These two biases often work together to influence decision making. Another key mechanism behind the IKEA effect is the end...

    Many of us have heard and used the phrase "in the flow" when referring to someone or ourselves performing extremely well in a given activity, but few people are familiar with the actual psychological concept of " flow ." Despite its frequent references in mainstream culture, flow is more than just a common saying: flow is a psychological phenomenon that has been studied for decades. The question is, what is flow, and how do we achieve it to unlock peak performance?     Psychologist  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi--one of the fathers of positive psychology--defines "flow" as a mental state where one is fully immersed and skillfully engaged in a task at hand. In an interview with Wired magazine, he describes the phenomenon in detail:  “…being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re...

    We have all wanted to "win" at something, whether it be larger wins like an academic award or placing in a sport, or a smaller win, like receiving a compliment on a hairstyle or outfit you spent a lot of time putting together. For some people, "wins" in certain areas of their lives come easier to them than others. You may be one of these people. However, being exposed to constant "wins" may not always produce a positive overall association with the given activity, and many can relate to feeling devastated following a loss and indifferent after a success. In order to examine this concept and why humans experience winning this way, it is important to understand the hedonic treadmill.      The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to swiftly return to a stable level of happiness after an extremely positive (or negative) experience. To apply this theory to a real-life scenario in order to explain how this c...