The freedom of choice has become deeply ingrained in our social fabric. The ‘satisficing’ concept was first proposed by Herbert A. Simon, who created the portmanteau by combining the words ‘satisfying’ and ‘sufficing’. He developed the idea in 1956 as a way of explaining a particular form of decision-making known or cognitive heuristic. Simon believed that when satisficers are presented with …
Why Do We Continue to Believe False Information Despite Learning of Its Inaccuracy?
We come across various sources of information in our day to day lives that help us establish our beliefs and opinions. However, do we always stop to assess the accuracy of the information being provided to us? We make sense of the information given to us and assume it to be true. When we receive a piece of information, we ...
So, what’s your story?
I was attending a farewell function at a university when graduating students were called upon to share a few words about their journey. Some recalled of moments when they first entered the college premises, while some went back to their childhood ambitions and how they landed up in this college. Listening to them recounting their experiences, one thing was apparent ...
The Minacious Trap of Seeking Excessive Social Approval
Do you find yourself pleasing others sometimes at the cost of your own personal preferences and happiness? Do you feel utterly dejected when faced with criticism? Do you find buying yourself gadgets and products not because they cater to your senses but because they are in trend? Do you engage in endorsing religious or moral content in virtual space, not ...
Self Talk
How do you talk to yourself? By that, I don’t mean talking out-loud while walking down the street, or sitting alone, I mean, what is the tone of your inner dialogue: the conversations we have with ourselves in the privacy of our own mind? The words we use to speak to ourselves can have a huge impact on us. If ...
Optimism Bias (Unrealistic Optimism & the Illusion Of Invulnerability)
Optimism Optimism can be one’s biggest strength. It acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy, helps us take risks, learn more & succeed, reduces stress & anxiety, elevates our mood and happiness, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease/death & thus improves health and wellbeing, just to name a few benefits. ("The Optimism Bias: Imagining A Positive Future", n.d.) Optimism has ...
A Psychoanalytic Approach to understand the ‘why’ of Suicide
The human mind, at times, behaves strangely. The more one decides not to think about something, the more it thinks. Hearing of suicide, be it of someone known to us personally or someone completely unknown, creates a deep void, feeling of helplessness and questions with difficult or no answer. The person who commits suicide is gone, but the ones left ...
Neuro-psychology Of Complaining & What We Can Do
According to the Cambridge dictionary, complaining is the act of saying that something is wrong or not satisfactory. An average person complains 30 times a day. (Will Bowen, leading author & speaker on the topic, founder of ComplaintFreeWorld) We can complain to start/ end a conversation, we complain when we feel powerless, frustrated, complain out of habit, to avoid responsibility, ...
Engaging in Stereotype – not right!
Wow! What a critical point he has brought in the discussion. Oh! He is a Banerjee, a Bengali. They eat fish every day, and this is the result, sharp memory. Mr Banerjee could not help but silently chuckle to himself. This was not the first time he had heard a remark like this. He was, in fact, in deep reflection ...
The Secret Lives of Indian Men & Women, Unveiled Through Two Consecutive Crises
Tweet It has been several years now that I live and work in India, and that India became a sort of fieldwork space for my psychological research. I wasn’t specifically drawn to India, I am neither an Anthropologist, nor an Ethnographist much less an Indologist, but being a Psychologist – India was to me just like any other country, like ...