Were the grapes really sour? — Understanding Cognitive Dissonance

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The fear of missing out — Part 1: The Loss Aversion

And I did the unthinkable: subscribe myself for promotional emails, despite knowing they are mostly spammy.

I was subscribing to Netflix membership. As most services, Netflix too presented me with an option to subscribe to emails informing me of…

Recognising the ‘Anchors’ of my Life

I often wondered how some people around me with similar income levels as mine, were comfortable…

Understanding the Low-ball

I was thinking of buying a good pair of shoes from a long time. However I had never pushed myself for it because my current pair of Nike shoes was still in good condition. Somedays back I was a bit bored and was simply looking into shoes on India’s fashion oriented, app only, E-commerce…

Social Proof can backfire

It is well recognised that we have a tendency to follow actions and behaviours of the majority, especially in ambiguous situations and in situations where we ourselves do not have strong knowledge or opinion. Behaviour practitioners exploit this tendency under the technique called…

How are you ‘packaging’ yourself?

If two randomly formed groups of people had to judge how good below shown interfaces are, each group rating one of the designs, I propose that second picture shall score higher than the first on an average scale. It will be especially true if people make snap judgements and do not have…

What you Think is what you See

There seemed lot many Volkswagen Polo cars on Bangalore roads. I was gravitating towards buying a Polo hatchback. And then, during a walk on a weekend evening, my friend casually remarked that she sees many Maruthi WagonR cars around her. She had just bought a WagonR. I was flabbergasted…

Before you answer How You Are Doing

“I am doing okay…”, I replied rather pessimistically, as I writhed my neck, when a good old friend asked how I was…

Pattern Seeking Machines — I

On a rare evening walk around a lake, my friend asked if I believed in superstitions. She said that she…