Just-World Hypothesis: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Lerner's just-world hypothesis in plain English: the defensive cascade, the BJW-self vs BJW-others split, moderator-dependent victim derogation, and…
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The Blog
Ideas on motivation, behavior & design.
Deep dives on the psychology behind why people do what they do — from Yu-kai Chou, creator of the Octalysis Framework. Pick the topic that matters to you.
Social Comparison Theory: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Show me a leaderboard and I will show you Leon Festinger’s 1954 paper grafted onto a database table.…
Stereotype Threat: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Hand a Black Stanford undergrad a difficult verbal-reasoning test and call it a “diagnostic measure of intellectual ability”…
Social Identity Theory: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Tajfel & Turner's Social Identity Theory in plain English: minimal group paradigm, in-group bias, the SCT correction, and…
Deindividuation: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Every online community you have ever shipped (every Discord, every multiplayer lobby, every comment section, every anonymous-feedback channel…
Pygmalion & Golem Effects: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Short answer: The Pygmalion Effect is the finding that what a rater expects of someone moves that person’s…
Social Loafing: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Short answer: Social loafing is the tendency for people to put in less effort when their output is…
Psychological Safety: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
Short answer: Psychological safety is the shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk taking, such…
Asch Conformity Experiment: An S-Tier Behavioral Designer’s Guide
If you have ever sat in a meeting and quietly nodded along with a decision you privately thought…