Here are 50 facts from FunFact's “Psychology” topic, all checked. Each one cites its source (doi.org, apa.org, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov…) and the date it was checked. This topic is part of FunFact Premium.
A 2018 study (Hartshorne, Tenenbaum, Pinker) of about 670,000 English speakers: the ability only declines clearly after age 17-18.
Perfect mastery becomes rarer afterward, probably because of changes in circumstances (school, social life). You can learn at 40, but starting young is still an advantage.
Source: Cognition (Hartshorne et al., 2018) · Checked on October 24, 2026
In 1978, after wisdom tooth extraction, naloxone, which blocks opioids, brought back the pain of patients who responded to the placebo.
It was one of the first pieces of evidence that the placebo is not “in the head” in the sense of being imaginary: it triggers a real biological reaction. That reaction remains limited to symptoms like pain: a placebo does not cure an infection or a cancer.
Source: The Lancet (Levine, Gordon, Fields, 1978) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Warneken and Tomasello (Science, 2006): 18-month-old babies, before or at the very start of language, helped an adult in several situations without being asked.
When the adult wasn't looking for the object, the babies didn't bring it to them. This suggests an early tendency to cooperate that doesn't come solely from upbringing.
Source: Science (Warneken et Tomasello, 2006) · Checked on October 24, 2026
This is learned helplessness, first observed in dogs in the 1960s.
When we are deeply convinced that our actions won't change the outcome of a problem, the brain stops all effort to resist or innovate.
Source: Journal of Abnormal Psychology — Learned Helplessness · Checked on October 24, 2026
Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon designed it at the request of France's Ministry of Public Instruction, to identify children who needed extra help at school.
Binet believed intelligence is variable and that a score doesn't fix it. “IQ” as a single number came later: the term comes from William Stern (1912), and Lewis Terman's American version then popularized it.
Source: Larousse — Test de Binet-Simon · Checked on October 24, 2026
General statements (“you sometimes doubt yourself”) strike us as very personal.
Psychologist Bertram Forer showed this in 1948: he gave his students the same text, and each one judged that it described them very well.
Source: Journal of Consulting Psychology — Forer Effect · Checked on October 24, 2026
There aren’t more of them than before: your attention has changed.
Your brain filters information, and whatever becomes important is spotted more easily. It is also called the “Baader-Meinhof effect,” a name that came from a reader’s letter to a Minnesota newspaper in 1994.
Source: Cognitive Science Society — Frequency Illusion · Checked on October 24, 2026
Documentary “Le Jeu de la mort” (The Game of Death), on the French channel France 2 in 2010: a re-creation of Milgram's experiment with a fake host and an audience.
The shocks were simulated by an actor. Here the pressure came from television and the audience rather than from a scientist in a lab coat. The documentary caused controversy in France.
Source: Télérama — La télé fait-elle de nous des bourreaux ? · Checked on October 24, 2026
Hearing an inaccurate account after an event durably alters our own memory of it.
Eyewitnesses questioned with leading questions (“Was the blue car going fast?”) end up building an imaginary blue color into their memory.
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology — Misinformation Effect · Checked on October 24, 2026
Study by Bushman (2002): volunteers who hit a bag while thinking of someone who had provoked them were more aggressive afterward than those who stayed calm.
The idea of “catharsis” remains popular, but these experiments show that acting out anger feeds it. A calm or distracting activity soothes better.
Source: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Bushman, 2002) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Study by Mampe et al. (Current Biology, 2009) of 30 French and 30 German newborns aged 3 to 5 days, analyzed by French and German researchers.
A baby hears its mother's voice in the womb from the last trimester. The authors think its cry melody reflects this exposure. A few days after birth, it is already marked by the language of its family.
Source: Current Biology (Mampe et al., 2009) · Checked on October 24, 2026
If someone is late, they’re lazy; if we are, it’s because of traffic.
We explain other people’s mistakes by deep personality flaws, but our own slip-ups by bad luck or outside pressure.
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — Fundamental Attribution Error · Checked on October 24, 2026
Van Boven and Gilovich (2003): surveys and an experiment showed that experience purchases made people happier than material purchases. A 2020 meta-analysis confirms the effect while estimating that about a third might come from publication bias.
One proposed explanation: experiences are more a part of our identity and lend themselves better to positive reinterpretation than objects do. The effect varies by purchase: a heavily used, shared object can also bring happiness.
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Van Boven et Gilovich, 2003) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Austria presumes consent unless people opt out; Germany requires explicit agreement. Data from Johnson and Goldstein (Science, 2003).
Actual donation rates also depend on other factors (hospital organization, family). In France, consent to donation is presumed (law of 1976, strengthened in 2016).
Source: Science (Johnson & Goldstein) — Do Defaults Save Lives? (author copy) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Aknin et al. (2013): in 136 countries, spending money on others was associated with more happiness, in poor countries and rich ones alike.
A 2008 experiment by Dunn, Aknin and Norton tested it: participants received a sum of money and were randomly assigned to spend it on themselves or on someone else; those who had to spend it on others were happier.
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Aknin et al., 2013) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Beilock and Carr (2001): under pressure, experienced golfers putted worse, while their performance on a less automated task (math) didn't drop.
Thinking about each movement disrupts an action that had become automatic. In the study, self-awareness training (getting used to being watched) eliminated that drop in performance.
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (Beilock et Carr, 2001) · Checked on October 24, 2026
A study published in Current Biology three months after the buzz, with about 1,400 people: the brain guesses the lighting, and not everyone guesses it the same way.
The dress is actually blue and black. Those whose brains assume a bluish shadow see it as light; those who assume yellow light see it as darker.
Source: Current Biology (PMC) — Striking individual differences in color perception uncovered by 'the dress' · Checked on October 24, 2026
Discussing among like-minded people radically strengthens initial convictions.
Instead of moderating views, debate within a homogeneous group encourages each member to outdo the others, radicalizing the decisions made collectively.
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — Group Polarization · Checked on October 24, 2026
According to surveys at the time, a large share of French companies used it. Validity studies find a near-zero link with job performance.
When the graphologist sees only the handwriting, their predictions are no better than chance. A French law of December 31, 1992 requires candidates to be informed of the assessment methods used and allows only relevant methods.
Source: Encyclopædia Universalis · Checked on October 24, 2026
An exhausted brain favors immediate rewards while completely ignoring dangers.
Brain imaging shows that lack of sleep switches off the control areas of the prefrontal cortex, making the gambler or investor more impulsive.
Source: Journal of Neuroscience — Sleep Deprivation and Risky Choices · Checked on October 24, 2026
A tragedy affecting a single person moves us more than a global humanitarian disaster.
The human brain is wired to connect with faces and singular fates (the identifiable victim effect), but it goes numb in the face of cold figures.
Source: Judgment and Decision Making — Identifiable Victim Effect · Checked on October 24, 2026
Disaster studies (fires, attacks, evacuations) mostly describe mutual aid and relative calm, with general panic being the exception.
When people die, it is often the physical pressure of a dense crowd that crushes them, not people pushing out of selfishness. The image of the mad crowd comes from French thinker Gustave Le Bon, who wrote in 1895 that the crowd makes people irrational.
Source: British Psychological Society — Police and safety professionals fall for myths about people's behaviour in emergencies · Checked on October 24, 2026
MIT study of 126,000 stories (2006-2017): a false piece of information is about 70% more likely to be retweeted than a true one.
True information rarely reached more than 1,000 people, whereas the most viral false stories reached as many as 100,000. The researchers suggest a novelty effect. Bots spread true and false equally.
Source: Science (Vosoughi, Roy, Aral, 2018) · Checked on October 24, 2026
This mechanism, reconsolidation, was demonstrated in rats in 2000 by Karim Nader's team.
So remembering isn't reading a file again: we reconstruct, and the version stored afterward may have changed. It's a lead for easing traumatic memories, but results in humans remain mixed.
Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience — Molecular mechanisms of memory reconsolidation · Checked on October 24, 2026
Max Ringelmann, a French agricultural engineer (measurements from the 1880s, published in 1913): according to Moede's account (1927), average individual effort fell to about 49% with eight people.
Part of the drop comes from poor synchronization, part from slacking off: people feel less responsible. This “social loafing” has since been found in many other tasks.
Source: Kravitz et Martin (1986), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · Checked on October 24, 2026
Conversely, when we win, we become cautious to protect our gains.
Faced with the risk of losing, the brain makes senseless bets in hopes of getting back to even, whereas it quickly cashes in a small profit to be safe.
Source: Econometrica — Prospect Theory · Checked on October 24, 2026
The next day, the press spoke of thousands of terrified people, yet few people were listening to the show and evidence of mass panic is scarce.
Newspapers, rivals of radio, had an interest in portraying it as irresponsible. Historians (Jefferson Pooley, Michael Socolow) found few traces of real panic: a few worried listeners did call the police or the newspapers.
Source: Slate — The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic · Checked on October 24, 2026
Whillans et al. (PNAS, 2017): more than 6,000 people in 4 countries, including the Netherlands and Denmark, and an experiment in which people spent $40.
Saving time reduces the stress of time scarcity, which would explain this effect. It was observed in large, varied samples from four countries and in a field experiment with working adults.
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Whillans et al., 2017) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Rosenhan claimed that healthy people, pretending to hear a voice, were admitted without being detected. A 2019 investigation found inconsistencies.
The article, published in Science, influenced the reform of American psychiatric hospitals. Journalist Susannah Cahalan found contradictions between Rosenhan's notes and the published article. The study's veracity therefore remains much debated.
Source: NPR via WFAE — 'The Great Pretender' Seeks The Truth About 'On Being Sane In Insane Places' · Checked on October 24, 2026
Speakers of Guugu Yimithirr (northern Queensland) use cardinal directions even to place a cup on a table or an object near themselves.
Researchers (John Haviland, Stephen Levinson) observed that these speakers know where north is at every moment, even indoors. So the language builds a mental habit, without locking thought in place.
Source: Ethos — Guugu Yimithirr Cardinal Directions · Checked on October 24, 2026
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), they affect more women than men, often begin in childhood or adolescence, and only about 1 in 4 people is treated.
Effective treatments exist (cognitive behavioral therapy, medication). If anxiety disrupts daily life for several weeks, talking to a doctor is the first step.
Source: Organisation mondiale de la santé · Checked on October 24, 2026
Since 2019 it has appeared in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) with three signs: exhaustion, mental distance from one's job, and reduced effectiveness.
According to the WHO, the term applies only to the workplace context: it shouldn't be used to describe other areas of life. It is distinct from depression, which is a mental disorder in its own right.
Source: Organisation mondiale de la santé (2019) · Checked on October 24, 2026
In 1848, an iron rod went through his skull in a construction-site accident in Vermont. He lived almost twelve more years.
The story of a man who became violent and unable to work comes from late, exaggerated accounts. His case remains important for linking frontal lesions to behavior, but his after-effects were partly compensated over time.
Source: Slate.fr — La véritable histoire de Phineas Gage · Checked on October 24, 2026
Our brain would keep unfinished projects in the back of its mind to remind us of them.
According to Bluma Zeigarnik’s study (1920s), we would remember interrupted tasks better. But this result has not always been replicated: a 2025 meta-analysis found no memory advantage, only a tendency to resume them.
Source: Ghibellini & Meier (2025) — méta-analyse sur l'effet Zeigarnik (Humanities and Social Sciences Communications) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Even a specialist can overestimate the accuracy of their forecasts.
Paradoxically, expertise can bring an excess of assurance that sometimes blinds people to unexpected evidence contradicting established theories, including in forecasts within their own field.
Source: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes — Overconfidence · Checked on October 24, 2026
A 2005 study in Nature showed that the silbo of La Gomera activates language areas in whistlers' brains, not just sound-processing ones.
The silbo can be heard several kilometers (a few miles) away across ravines. Taught in schools since 1999, it has been on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2009.
Source: Editorial Interinsular Canaria — El silbo gomero: análisis lingüístico · Checked on October 24, 2026
Getting hit with a big refusal first makes the other person far more willing to agree afterward.
If you ask to borrow €100 (refused), then asking for €10 will seem like a trifle, granted easily as a compromise, since the first refusal makes the second request seem far more modest.
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — Door-in-the-Face · Checked on October 24, 2026
In a 2001 study in Bordeaux (Morrot, Brochet and Dubourdieu), tasters sampled a white wine colored red with a tasteless dye: they used the vocabulary of red wines.
Sight and expectations therefore weigh heavily on perceived taste and smell, even in people trained in wine tasting.
Source: Brain and Language — The Color of Odors · Checked on October 24, 2026
Contempt and a visible lack of confidence destroy learners’ motivation.
A student who is constantly put down or seen as incapable will end up internalizing that negative view and cut back their effort, confirming the pessimistic predictions of those around them.
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology — Golem Effect · Checked on October 24, 2026
Group anonymity switches off individual responsibility and unleashes extreme behavior.
Hidden in the crowd (in a stadium or online), people feel a sense of impunity that leads them to commit acts they would flatly refuse to commit in plain sight.
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — Deindividuation · Checked on October 24, 2026
Benjamin Libet (1983): the readiness potential began about 550 ms before the movement, the awareness of wanting to move about 200 ms before.
Some saw this as the end of free will. In 2012, Aaron Schurger proposed that this signal reflects random fluctuations in the brain, not a decision already made. The method (reading the time on a clock) is also questionable.
Source: The Behavioral and Brain Sciences — Unconscious Cerebral Initiative and the Role of Conscious Will in Voluntary Action · Checked on October 24, 2026
Study by Salimpoor et al. (Nature Neuroscience, 2011): dopamine is released in the striatum during favorite passages.
The release begins several seconds before the peak moment, which explains the pleasure of anticipation. The same circuits are used for food and other rewards. A small study of 8 people.
Source: Nature Neuroscience (Salimpoor et al., 2011) · Checked on October 24, 2026
Continuing to pay for a bad investment out of fear of losing the money already spent.
Rather than accept an immediate outright loss, the brain reasons wrongly, wanting to “get a return” on an effort or capital already sunk.
Source: Journal of Business Research — Sunk Cost Fallacy · Checked on October 24, 2026
NASA study from the 1990s on long-haul pilots: performance also rose 34%, on top of the alertness gain.
Pilots could sleep up to 40 minutes in flight and slept 26 minutes on average. Beyond half an hour, you risk waking up groggy (sleep inertia).
Source: Sleep Foundation — NASA Nap: Benefits and How to Do It · Checked on October 24, 2026
Danziger et al. (2011) observed favorable rulings dropping before breaks; Glöckner (2016) showed that so strong an effect is unlikely.
Cases weren't assigned at random: prisoners without a lawyer came at the end of a session and had their requests rejected more often. So we can't conclude that people make worse decisions on an empty stomach.
Source: German Law Journal — Beware the Lure of Narratives: Hungry Judges Should Not Motivate the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Law · Checked on October 24, 2026
Meta-analysis by Bond and DePaulo (2006) covering 206 documents: 54% correct on average, versus 50% by chance.
Neither shifty eyes nor nervousness are reliable clues. Professionals (police officers, judges) don't do clearly better, perhaps because they rarely get feedback on their mistakes.
Source: Personality and Social Psychology Review (Bond et DePaulo, 2006) · Checked on October 24, 2026
A synthesis of 92 studies following people over time (Roberts et al., 2006) shows these traits increase mainly in young adults.
This is the “maturation principle”: a job, a relationship, responsibilities. These are averages: some people change little, others a lot. So “people don't change” is wrong, at least in part.
Source: PubMed (Psychological Bulletin) — Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course · Checked on October 24, 2026
Simons and Levin's 1998 experiment: two workers carry a door between the passerby and the stranger, who is then swapped. About half saw nothing.
The two men wore different clothes and had different voices. Our brain keeps a rough representation of the scene: as long as the conversation continues, it doesn't compare the details.
Source: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (Simons et Levin, 1998) · Checked on October 24, 2026
A 2015 study of more than 20,000 people in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany found no effect of birth order on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness or imagination.
The only clear effect: firstborns have a very slight edge on intelligence tests (and rate themselves as a little more “intellectual”). Stereotypes about the rebellious younger child or the serious eldest don't hold up in large surveys.
Source: PNAS (Rohrer et coll., 2015) · Checked on October 24, 2026
While walking on a treadmill, 81% of participants did better on a test of original ideas than when they were seated.
The effect applies to new ideas, not to solving problems with a single answer (23% better). Walking outdoors gives the best analogies. This is a single study, not a universal law.
Source: Étude Oppezzo et Schwartz (2014) · Checked on October 26, 2026
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