Why We Do What We Do
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Why We Do What We Do
We explain popular and weird, little-known ideas in psychology. Whether you are a little curious about psychology, or a student, or even a professional, we have something for everyone.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
One of the most iconic and well-established horror stories in the world, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a masterpiece of literature. The talented dire...
Mini: 666
We have a fascination with assigning meaning to various numbers. Actually, many cultures enjoy assigning meaning to numbers as well. In western tradit...
I Want To Take You To The Bermuda Triangle
Some spooky topics are geographically creepy. Arguably, the most famous scary geography is lovingly called The Bermuda Triangle. This portion of the w...
Mini: R.I.P.
This is our first Halloween mini of 2025! RIP is a well-wishing, a command, and an indication of your relationship to person or idea being bid farewel...
Variants of Hell
Welcome to our annual month of creepy topics! We are kicking off this year's selection with an overview of various conceptuatlizations of Hell from th...
Mini: Colored Noise
You have probably heard of white noise, but there are a variety of noise patterns that have been assigned a color. Some have proposed hypothetical ben...
Propaganda: How You Are Being Tricked pt. 2
In the last episode, we outlined several specific propaganda strategies. We conclude this discussion by explaining some ways we can attempt to combat...
Mini: Kintsugi
Kintsugi is a Japanese tradition of repairing broken things rather than retiring them, and in doing so making them stronger. It has a nice metaphor fo...
Propaganda: How You are Being Tricked pt. 1
Propaganda is remarkably effective at influencing your behavior, even if you don't recognize that it is happening. Being aware of its strategies can h...
Mini: How Many Faces Can You Remember?
A lot. Unless you have face blindness, you can remember a lot of faces. Is this all in the brian? We do our best to explain the research behind our ab...
Understanding Chiropractic
Once again, we have an idea that has mostly been bogged down in the septic tank of pseudoscience. There seems to be some therapeutic benefit to chirop...
Mini: That Time Humans Loved Radiation
This is another exploration of bad idea history. At one point, humans got really into consuming and surrounding themselves with irradiated materials....
Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a business model that emphasizes extremely high volume, cheap clothing designed to only last a short amount of time. This strategy pro...
Mini: Do Our Pets Understand Us?
We have very special relationships with our pets. We usually try to talk to them. Do they understand what we are saying? Do they know their names? We...
The Importance of Peer Review
One could argue there are two ways of aggregating knowledge: by guessing or by verifying information. The current system for verifying is by checking...
Mini: Victim vs. Warrior
There is a proposal that there is a dichotomy in human activities (specifically the cognitive ones) that can be characterized as a "warrior" mentality...
The Psychology of Pain
Pain can be conceptualized physiologically, neurologically, and behaviorally. We review the physiological and neurological components of pain, and the...
Mini: Magic Eye
Autostereograms, better known as "Magic Eye" puzzles, are a unique 2D art in which repeated images create a 3D image, but you have to focus your eyes...
Punk Rock Legacy
Large musical movements are large cultural movements. Rap, rock, country, and other genres often galvanized or reflected social changes and values. Pu...
Mini: What is a Repertoire?
We often talk about what students can do by referring to their repertoire. But what does it mean to refer to their repertoire? A lot of philosohpy in...
Nostalgia: Board Games
Has it been so long? Abraham discusses his favorite discussion topic: Board games! Also ,there's been new research since that that further supports th...
Mini: Restless Leg Syndrome
Do you ever feel an nearly uncontrollable urge to move your legs? If you do, you probably still don't have RLS, but it may be worth getting tested for...
The Paraphilia Episode
SEX! Now that we have your attention, this episode reviews some of the paraphilias that exist. More importantly, we try to understand with a compassio...
Mini: What is "Learning?"
You would think we would want a full length for this topic. Maybe we still will do one! But for now, we figured we can at least help clear up some mis...
Jonestown pt. 2
This second part completes the story of the tragedy of the murders at Jonestown. In addition, we expand on this conversation by unpacking the mentalit...
Mini: Backseat Driving
We all hate it. Yet, some of us do it. We talk about why people do it, how recipients perceive it, and how passenger commentary/critique/analysis affe...
Jonestown pt. 1
One of the largest mass murders of American citizens in history took place in 1978 in Guyana at the hands of cult leader, Jim Jones. This discussion d...
Mini: Nail Biting
Do you bite your fingernails or know someone who does? Why do we do this weird, self-destructive thing? What can we do to stop it? We quickly explore...
Tipping Point
Tipping is another oddly American tradition that we all pretty universally hate. Perhaps you did not know that the modern conception of tipping arose...
Mini: Learned Helplessness
Some people use this term incorretly, some don't know it at all. To help get everyone on the same page, we are going to review the history of research...
Reframe: A Framework to Developing a Compassionate Care Instructional Model (With Special Guests)
Special guests Jennifer Farris, Meg Solomon, and Dr. Mari Cerda join us to talk about their new book about developing a compassionate care model. They...
Mini: Skeptical All Day
Can you walk around being skeptical all day long? At what point do you need to let your guard down? We suggest that not only can you go about your day...
Head Go Bonk: Bad
There is a unique type of brain trauma that destroys lives and cuts them short and we can't even tell that it has happened until after your death. Chr...
Mini: Why We Twitch
Sometimes we have some random twitches that develop out of nowhere. What is going on with these? Why do they happen? And, what can we do about it? We...
Replacement Theory
Replacement theory is essentially a propaganda campaign engineered to scare gullible people into giving power to autocrats. Versions of this have been...
Mini: Placebo Controls for Vaccines
One of the most common strategies of current right-wing propaganda is to say something that sounds like reasonable words, but when you break it down i...
Golden Goose Awards
Science is not perfect, because it is human. But it is strives for correction, unlike almost any other human institution or endeavor. Much of what sci...
Mini: Scoville Scale
The Scoville scale is a method for measuring the heat of capsaicin-laden food. This is the amount of sugar water needed to entirely dilute the spice....
Makeup
Lots of people smear colored dyes into the skin of their face almost every day. It's so commonplace, we hardly give it a second thought. We explore th...
Mini: Science Cheat-Prevention
A trending strategy to bolster the interpretation of scientific results is to "pre-register" a study. This is publicly declaring your methods and data...