Two Minds Blog

We're leery of people lying to us, and often we are well-aware that we can have trouble sorting fiction from truth. That's in part because humans are social animals, highly attuned to what others might think of us, with corresponding pressure to get along and not question the honesty of others in our group. Con men and women are well aware of these facts, and rely on our credulity to take advantage of us, using various persuasion strategies that get around our rational decision-making capabilities. We worry that someone will take advantage of us in this way, and therefore we are highly motivated to detect dishonesty. Penalties for lying can sometimes be extreme, because a lie threatens to undermine the social order of the group. There are lots of proposed ways of detecting a lie, including the idea that someone who looks to one side when speaking isn't telling the truth, the proposal that people who seem hesitant aren't being honest, or the more scientific-sounding appr

It's great when you are able to successfully make a change in a healthy behavior, like getting more sleep , improving your diet , or reducing your alcohol use. But what happens when you hit a bumpy spot, and things stop going so well for a while? One of the great paradoxes of behavior change is called the abstinence violation effect , also sometimes known as licensing , or simply feeling like you have permission to indulge yourself in an unhealthy behavior. The problem is that when people stop  a new, healthy pattern (for whatever reason), they sometimes really  let things go, and it can be even harder to get back on track than it was to initiate the new behavior in the first place. Let's look at each step in the sequence : First, people work hard to initiate a new behavior. This can take up to 3-6 months of conscious effort before the new habit becomes fully ingrained and automatic, and there are lots of opportunities to get lost along the way. People work hard at changing dur