The hottest Human behavior Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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13 Observations on Ritual

The Honest Broker • 30254 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Rituals Technology Community Human behavior
  1. Smartphones are not suitable for genuine ritual as they embody restlessness, which is opposite to the stability needed for rituals.
  2. True rituals are deeply rooted in physical time and space, unlike online experiences that can feel hollow and lack genuine connection.
  3. Memes mimic elements of ritual like repetition and shared meaning but lack the depth and transcendence that true rituals provide.

Get Serious: About Purpose

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 5383 implied HN points • 08 Apr 23
🎭️ Culture Personal Development Psychology Society Human behavior Values
  1. Purpose is declining in society, with traditional values like faith, family, and community involvement losing importance.
  2. True purpose involves a deep belief in something greater than oneself, motivating action and giving a reason to build.
  3. Focusing solely on self-care and self-love may not bring fulfillment; finding a purpose outside oneself is key to combatting modern malaise.
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You Don't Have To Be Nice To Win

The Real Sarah Miller • 314 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Personal Stories Human behavior Social Interactions
  1. Being nice is not always necessary to succeed in certain situations. Sometimes, a more assertive approach might be more effective.
  2. Building connections with others can be a mix of being open and assertive, rather than just trying to please everyone.
  3. It's important to be genuine and authentic in interactions with others, even if it means expressing opinions that may not align with everyone.

The origins of power dynamics, or why chimps can't play baseball

The Garden of Forking Paths • 2122 implied HN points • 05 Jul 23
🔬 Science Evolution Biology Psychology Anthropology Human behavior
  1. Humans can throw objects accurately and at high speeds, shaping our modern power dynamics in society.
  2. Our unique shoulder adaptations allow for precise and fast throwing, giving us a competitive advantage over other species.
  3. The ability to use ranged weapons and throw projectiles from a distance has influenced human social structures and power dynamics.

On Michael Mann's "On Wars"

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 153 implied HN points • 19 Feb 24
🚌 Education Review Analysis War Peace Human behavior
  1. Wars are negative-sum activities where mistakes are made by one or both parties involved.
  2. The book 'On Wars' by Michael Mann explores the history and nature of war, aiming to understand the underlying causes of conflicts and achieve peace.
  3. Chris Blattman's 'Why We Fight' provides a useful sociology of war by identifying key types of mistakes that lead to wars, offering insights to guide toward peace.

Men consume relationships. Women produce them.

Wood From Eden • 720 implied HN points • 31 Aug 23
🎭️ Culture Relationships Gender Social Dynamics Human behavior
  1. Women tend to consider relationships as work, while men view them as leisure.
  2. Men often approach romantic relationships like consumers, while women see them as a project to build and maintain.
  3. There is a difference in the amount of intellectual investment that men and women put into relationships, with women generally devoting more intellectual effort.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Vinay Prasad's Observations and Thoughts • 25 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
📚 Literature Book review Themes Technology Psychology Human behavior
  1. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton addresses important modern themes like privacy, capitalism, conservation, politics, and compromise, making it a significant literary achievement.
  2. The novel skillfully uses technology to delve into human behavior and psychology, showcasing the eternal themes of infatuation, idealism, and ruthlessness.
  3. The book exemplifies an intriguing juxtaposition of characters and themes, illustrating the challenges of modernity and the consequences of trying to mix incompatible ideologies.

The Y Chromosome Bottleneck

Vectors of Mind • 314 implied HN points • 29 May 23
🔬 Science Genetics Evolution Human behavior Anthropology
  1. Men and women think differently, and there may have been a moment in history where men had to 'catch up' on self-awareness and language.
  2. Recent genetic research suggests a bottleneck on the Y chromosome, indicating possible massive selection in the recent past.
  3. The Y chromosome bottleneck coincided with cultural changes and patrilineal competition, shedding light on human male demographic history.

A model of models of probability

Bram’s Thoughts • 78 implied HN points • 23 Nov 23
🔬 Science Probability Models Human behavior
  1. People generally have a simplified internal model of probability with five main categories.
  2. People tend to struggle with accurately gauging differences in expected values within the 40-60% range.
  3. Individuals often display overconfidence in their predictions for probable events and can become overly upset when these predictions fail.

Prospective Memory and UX

UX Psychology • 317 implied HN points • 04 May 23
🔬 Science UX Design Human behavior Research
  1. Prospective memory is the ability to remember to do something in the future. It's crucial for daily tasks like attending meetings or taking medication.
  2. There are two main types of prospective memory: event-based (triggered by cues) and time-based (triggered by specific times). Distractions or cognitive load can lead to failures in remembering to do a task at the right time.
  3. Designing interfaces with visual cues, gamification, habit formation, contextual design, and cognitive offloading can improve users' prospective memory performance and create more engaging experiences.

Understanding the Hawthorne Effect in UX Research

UX Psychology • 138 implied HN points • 06 Feb 23
🕹 Technology UX Research Human behavior User Experience Research Methods
  1. The Hawthorne Effect is when individuals change their behavior because they know they are being observed, impacting various behaviors from dietary habits to research study results.
  2. Possible explanations for the Hawthorne Effect include people conforming to expectations when observed and feeling pressured to perform better.
  3. To mitigate the Hawthorne Effect in UX research, steps like using control groups, minimizing feedback during studies, focusing on cause-and-effect relationships, and creating judgment-free environments can help obtain more accurate data.

Economic Activity in Context

In My Tribe • 1 HN point • 05 Mar 24
💼 Business Economic Theory Human behavior Market Dynamics Economic History
  1. Human interdependence is a key aspect of economic activity, involving psychology, sociology, and anthropology in addition to traditional economic theory.
  2. Specialization and trade, unique to humans, play a vital role in economic activity evolution, with increasing complexity observed over time.
  3. In human interactions, balancing individual, group, and societal level incentives presents challenges, with markets often being efficient at the societal level.

Stories and Structures

Smarter Thinking • 19 implied HN points • 30 Mar 23
📖 Philosophy Human behavior Belief systems
  1. Stories play a crucial role in shaping how individuals and societies perceive and behave in the world.
  2. Structures, both literal and figurative, act as restrictions that influence our actions and behaviors.
  3. Stories and structures are interconnected, with stories creating the foundation for structures to exist and vice versa, guiding our perceptions and behaviors.

Bad ending ruined it all 😤 — Peak-end rule

10x your mind • 39 implied HN points • 28 Jul 22
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Happiness Self-care Physical health Human behavior
  1. The peak-end rule affects how we remember experiences, focusing on extreme moments and endings rather than duration.
  2. We tend to prioritize memories over current experiences, leading to flawed perceptions of happiness and decision-making based on past events.
  3. To be happier, focus on active leisure, spending time with loved ones, being present in the moment, and maximizing activities that bring joy while minimizing those that don't.

Understanding (and) psychology

Apperceptive (moved to buttondown) • 8 implied HN points • 09 Aug 23
🔬 Science Psychology Machine Learning Cognition General Intelligence Human behavior
  1. Understanding what you're measuring is crucial in machine learning and can have implications on race issues.
  2. Machine learning involves supervised learning, which essentially teaches models to predict human responses, making it a form of human behavioral measurement at a large scale.
  3. Psychological experimentation in measuring human behavior and cognition is complex and requires meticulous control and understanding, which is often underestimated in various fields.

People don't want to think more than they have to

UX Psychology • 39 implied HN points • 04 Mar 22
🔬 Science Psychology User Experience Decision-making Human behavior
  1. People prefer to take the path of least resistance and avoid thinking too much, unless necessary.
  2. The principle of least effort influences decision-making and problem-solving by favoring easier, quicker Type 1 thinking over more effortful Type 2 thinking.
  3. In UX design, creating seamless and effortless experiences that align with users' preferences for Type 1 thinking can enhance user satisfaction and engagement.

Curing Cancer for Social Networks: Solving the "Signal-to-Noise Ratio" Problem

Pacheco’s Substack • 10 HN points • 23 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Social Networks Information Flow User Interfaces Human behavior Trust
  1. Understanding the importance of maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio in social networks.
  2. Considering the limitations of human social networks, such as Dunbar's Number and information velocity.
  3. Exploring the potential for a new social network model that prioritizes individual sovereignty, limits global influence, and facilitates meaningful connections.