Please, get in my way so that I can be more efficient!

Social traps are negative situations where people get caught in a direction or relationship that later proves to be unpleasant, with no easy way to back out of or avoid. The concept was orignally introduced by John Platt who applied psychology to Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons", where in New England herd owners could let their cattle graze in the common ground. This situation seems like a good idea, but an individual could have an advantage. If they owned more cows, the larger...

Researchers have tested many persuasion strategies, including the foot-in-the door and the door-in-the-face techniques, in a variety of contexts. Ultimately, the principles are effective in selling products and changing people’s attitude, ideas, and behaviors (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).

The term momentum is used in various ways in everyday language, most of which are consistent with the precise scientific definition. Generally, momentum implies a tendency to continue on course—to move in the same direction; we tend to speak of sports teams or politicians gaining and maintaining the momentum to win.  Momentum is also associated with great mass and speed and is often considered when talking about collisions. For example, when rugby players collide and fall to the ground, their...

Newton's second law is closely related to his first law of motion. It mathematically gives the cause-and-effect relationship between force and changes in motion. Newton's second law is quantitative and is used extensively to calculate what happens in situations involving a force. All external forces acting on a system add together to produce a net force Fnet. A larger net external force produces a larger acceleration. This acceleration is directly proportional to, and in the same direction as,...

The human brain processes information for decision-making using one of two routes: an intuitive system and a rational system (Epstein, 1994; popularized by Kahneman, 2011 as System 1 and System 2, respectively). The intuitive system is quick, impulsive, and operates with minimal effort, relying on emotions or habits to provide cues for what to do next, while the rational system is logical, analytical, deliberate, and methodical. Research in neuropsychology suggests that the brain can only use...

Net production efficiency (NPE) is the efficiency at which organisms assimilate energy into biomass for the next trophic level. Due to low metabolic rates and less energy spent on thermoregulatory processes, the NPE of ectotherms (cold-blooded animals) is 10 times higher than endotherms (warm-blooded animals).