Did you ever talk to your television? Have you ever given your computer a good angry whack because it didn’t behave? Fear not. You are not alone. In general, people treat media like computers and televisions as if they were dealing with other people, not dumb electronic devices. This is because media are complex enoughContinue reading “Why People Are Polite Towards Their Computer”
Category Archives: Fragments of knowledge
For The Puzzle Fans
Excellent website if you like puzzles and mindteasers. Some are very simple, others are highly advanced. The Grey Labyrinth Here’s a simple puzzle, requiring lateral thinking: The Three Lights And here’s some other ones that seem to defy logic: Monty Hall How Many Threes? Mixology
The Art of Manipulation
In his book Influence: Science and Practice, Robert Cialdini gives a lot of fascinating examples of how you can manipulate people. One of the best is the beggar experiment. If you approach people on the street and ask them for 5 dollars, your chances of getting them are fairly low. But what Cialdini found wasContinue reading “The Art of Manipulation”
Memories: Good or Bad?
It seems that our memory is not entirely reliable when it comes to remembering whether a particular experience was good or bad. According to Barry Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice, the quality of our memories of an event are determined by two things. One thing is the most intense emotion you felt during theContinue reading “Memories: Good or Bad?”
Wedellsblog Fragments Goes Live
There are mountains of fascinating facts and research findings out there. The bad news is, it is dispersed all over the world, in tiny fragments of knowledge. In this blog, I will try to collect all of the interesting facts that I encounter. My primary interests lie with human behaviour, but I stick to noContinue reading “Wedellsblog Fragments Goes Live”