Social proof is a form of persuasion based on comparison and conformity. People compare their behavior and actions to what others are doing and will change to conform to do what their peers do.

Newton's third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Consider a swimmer pushing off the side of a pool. They push against the wall of the pool with their feet and accelerate in the direction opposite to that of their push. This occurs because the wall exerts an equal and opposite force on the swimmer. Here, the forces do not cancel out each other as they are acting on different systems. In this case, there are two systems: the swimmer and the wall. If we select...

The innovation of touch-tone telephony revolutionized the telecommunications industry by replacing the traditional rotary dial with a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling system. This system uses a matrix-style keypad with buttons arranged in four rows and three columns, creating 12 distinct signals each assigned to a pair of frequencies. Each button press results in a simultaneous generation of two sinusoidal tones – one from a low-frequency group (697 to 941 Hz) and one from a...

There are many research methods available to psychologists in their efforts to understand, describe, and explain behavior and the cognitive and biological processes that underlie it.

Information is everywhere and its presentation—such as how and when items are presented—can impact our perceptions and decisions surrounding the info. This broad concept umbrellas framing effects—influences that occur due to the way information is framed in its appearance, whether it’s purely the order or the specific wording of a message. Let’s take a look at numerous ways in which two versions of something can objectively say the same thing, yet we respond in...

Solving problems that involve forces is easy using free-body diagrams. A free-body diagram is a sketch showing all the external forces that are acting on an object or system. The object or system is represented by a single isolated point (or free body). Only those forces acting on it that originate outside of the object or system—the external forces—are shown. The forces are represented by vectors extending outward from the free body. Imagine a person sitting on a chair. Here, the...