Being Watched Makes You Better at Simple Tasks and Worse at Hard Ones

Social facilitation theory, demonstrated in hundreds of studies since the 1890s, shows that an audience improves performance on well-practiced tasks but impairs performance on complex or unfamiliar ones. The mere presence of others changes your brain chemistry.

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Your Brain Uses the Same Circuits for Physical and Social Pain

Neuroimaging studies show that social rejection activates the anterior cingulate cortex and insula — the same brain regions that process physical pain. This is why heartbreak and exclusion literally hurt.

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The Dunning-Kruger Effect Shows Incompetent People Cannot Recognize Their Incompetence

People with low ability in a domain tend to dramatically overestimate their competence, while experts tend to underestimate theirs. The very skills needed to produce correct judgments are the same skills needed to recognize what correct judgments look like.

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Your Brain Makes Decisions Up to 10 Seconds Before You Are Aware of Them

Neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes used fMRI scans to show that brain activity predicting a decision can be detected up to 10 seconds before a person consciously feels they have decided. The unconscious brain appears to choose first, and consciousness follows.

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You Are More Creative When You Are Tired

Research published in Thinking and Reasoning found that people solve insight-based creative problems better during their non-optimal times of day. Morning people are more creative at night, and night owls are more creative in the morning.