AJ Jacobs The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life As An Experiment quote
from one of the chapters was The Rationality Project where he tries to become a more rational thinker.
Part of the chapter is dedicated to cognitive biases and one section was called The Mirror Effect.
I knew about grocery stores adding the smell of baking bread to make people hungry so that they'd buy more food and other tricks one can play on the human brain to try to influence it. I switched to smaller plates to fool my mind into thinking I was eating bigger more impressive meals.
From this chapter I learned that putting up mirrors will make people behave more ethically because unconsciously you feel like someone is watching you. He put mirrors by his desk to trick himself into being more on task while working. An even better trick - putting up eyes. He cut out pictures of eyes from magazines and taped them around the house. He put stern eyes (Lynne Cheney's) on the cabinet where the snacks are kept. He put a dozen pairs of eyes in the kids' room.
That brings me to my favorite quote from this book - "Is it working? Hard to tell. My son Lucas hasn't thrown a tantrum about sharing his Hot Wheels jeep in a week. But I'd need a more rigorous study to be sure. I do know this: Zane enjoys engaging in staring contests with the eyes. He'll get his face up real close and stare for several minutes, trying, I suppose, to make John Malkovich blink. So that keeps him out of trouble."
Taken from pages 93-95
Part of the chapter is dedicated to cognitive biases and one section was called The Mirror Effect.
I knew about grocery stores adding the smell of baking bread to make people hungry so that they'd buy more food and other tricks one can play on the human brain to try to influence it. I switched to smaller plates to fool my mind into thinking I was eating bigger more impressive meals.
From this chapter I learned that putting up mirrors will make people behave more ethically because unconsciously you feel like someone is watching you. He put mirrors by his desk to trick himself into being more on task while working. An even better trick - putting up eyes. He cut out pictures of eyes from magazines and taped them around the house. He put stern eyes (Lynne Cheney's) on the cabinet where the snacks are kept. He put a dozen pairs of eyes in the kids' room.
That brings me to my favorite quote from this book - "Is it working? Hard to tell. My son Lucas hasn't thrown a tantrum about sharing his Hot Wheels jeep in a week. But I'd need a more rigorous study to be sure. I do know this: Zane enjoys engaging in staring contests with the eyes. He'll get his face up real close and stare for several minutes, trying, I suppose, to make John Malkovich blink. So that keeps him out of trouble."
Taken from pages 93-95