The Dunning-Kruger effect is the finding that low scorers overestimate their performance. The pattern replicates, but its usual explanation is disputed, and some researchers call it a statistical artifact.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
The placebo effect is improvement after a treatment with no active ingredient, driven by expectation. Its measured strength is modest, mostly for pain and nausea, and varies widely.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
Confirmation bias skews how evidence is gathered, hindsight bias skews how the past is remembered, and motivated reasoning skews conclusions toward what people want to be true.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
Several trials report that openly labeled placebos can ease symptoms such as pain, fatigue and bowel complaints. The studies are mostly small, and how the effect works is unsettled.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
The paradox of choice says more options can lower satisfaction and buying. Reviews find no average effect, but overload appears under certain conditions.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut in which people judge how likely something is by how easily examples come to mind. It is often accurate but produces predictable errors.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
The sunk cost fallacy is the tendency to continue something because of what has already been invested, even when quitting would be the better choice.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
Anchoring is the pull of an irrelevant number on later estimates. Meta-analyses find large average effects, but a well-powered replication found a much smaller one.
Starter thread · AI-reviewed against its sources
