Yea, you read it right. Its about psychology. I've been reading on Quora and found this interesting topic with lot many answers. I mean, I really felt some of them, but never knew the exact reason of feeling the same.
So here are some of the psychological facts that may get you into thinking why you've done something instead of something else [hehe, confusing..!! Even I got confused while writing this. So deal with it, its really gonna be little more difficult to understand certain things in this article.]
Topic #1:
The paradox of choice - which I believe is both the blessing and the bane of our generation (Gen Y).
To put it simply, the paradox of choice states that the more choices one is given when making a decision, the less happy they tend to be about the decision they make (even if the selection is objectively better). This is driven by many factors, namely:
In affluent societies, youth is presented with an overwhelming selection of options whether for small less significant decisions (e.g., 87 types of toothpastes) or for more significant decisions (e.g., university degrees, career paths). I believe theparadox of choice is one of the underlying reasons why so many of us (including myself) are increasingly indecisive and anxious about these so called "life decisions". But that's a different topic...
Topic #2:
People don't notice you or your screwing up as much as you think they do.
The belief that people are constantly scrutinising your behaviour and the resultant paranoia and self-doubt that arises from it is called the spotlight effect.
Even if you do something embarrassing, like spilling a drink down your front or falling flat on your face, other people don't notice/criticise you as much as you think they do.
In an experiment conducted by Thomas Gilovich et al, test subjects were made to wear embarrassing T-shirts and asked to estimate how many people giggled about it behind their back (read: noticed that they had an embarrassing T-shirt on). The subjects overestimated the number of people they thought had observed their clothing- their predictions were twice as big as the actual number.
So what can you learn from this? Take a deep breath and look around. You are surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people who are more or less just like you. Nobody is paying specific attention to you, waiting for you to slip up so that they can make fun of you.
Get over it.
This also means that the positive things you do will be forgotten over time, but oh well...the spotlight doesn't shine on any of us no matter what we do.
Hope you enjoyed [what...?? Are you kiddin' me..?] the article..
Keep learning. Keep sharing, Keep Improving.
.....Later folks. :)
So here are some of the psychological facts that may get you into thinking why you've done something instead of something else [hehe, confusing..!! Even I got confused while writing this. So deal with it, its really gonna be little more difficult to understand certain things in this article.]
Topic #1:
The paradox of choice - which I believe is both the blessing and the bane of our generation (Gen Y).
To put it simply, the paradox of choice states that the more choices one is given when making a decision, the less happy they tend to be about the decision they make (even if the selection is objectively better). This is driven by many factors, namely:
- Additional effort and psychological stress associated with evaluating multiple options
- Increased opportunity cost(the way in which we value things depends on what we compare them to. It's thus easier to imagine the attractive features of rejected options, the features we did NOT choose)
- Greater "buyer's remorse" (with so many alternatives, it's easier to imagine how another choice would have been better)
- Increased expectations from options ("with 87 options I have to find the perfect option for me")
- Finally, we are more likely to blame ourselves when our choices don't meet our expectations ("I had all these options, it's obviously my fault, I should have picked better" vs. "I was only presented with 2 options, not enough to make the right decision")
In affluent societies, youth is presented with an overwhelming selection of options whether for small less significant decisions (e.g., 87 types of toothpastes) or for more significant decisions (e.g., university degrees, career paths). I believe theparadox of choice is one of the underlying reasons why so many of us (including myself) are increasingly indecisive and anxious about these so called "life decisions". But that's a different topic...
Topic #2:
People don't notice you or your screwing up as much as you think they do.
The belief that people are constantly scrutinising your behaviour and the resultant paranoia and self-doubt that arises from it is called the spotlight effect.
Even if you do something embarrassing, like spilling a drink down your front or falling flat on your face, other people don't notice/criticise you as much as you think they do.
In an experiment conducted by Thomas Gilovich et al, test subjects were made to wear embarrassing T-shirts and asked to estimate how many people giggled about it behind their back (read: noticed that they had an embarrassing T-shirt on). The subjects overestimated the number of people they thought had observed their clothing- their predictions were twice as big as the actual number.
So what can you learn from this? Take a deep breath and look around. You are surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people who are more or less just like you. Nobody is paying specific attention to you, waiting for you to slip up so that they can make fun of you.
Get over it.
This also means that the positive things you do will be forgotten over time, but oh well...the spotlight doesn't shine on any of us no matter what we do.
Hope you enjoyed [what...?? Are you kiddin' me..?] the article..
Keep learning. Keep sharing, Keep Improving.
.....Later folks. :)
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