The Psych Files is a podcast for anyone who wonders why we do what we do. Experienced educator Michael Britt, Ph.D., in an upbeat and friendly style, shows you how ideas from the field of psychology apply to everyday life. If you are a life-long learner, a student or a teacher, you will find his 20-30 minute episodes enjoyable and educational. Over 14 million episodes have been downloaded to date with over 100,000 people listening every month. See what all the talk is about!
http://www.ThePsychFiles.com
Ep 335: Conspiracy Theories - Why So Easy To Believe?
Why do some conspiracy theories seem to have so much evidence to support them? Well, that’s because if you look hard enough at any event, and you don’t have any particular theory before you start looking, you’re eventually going to find something. And you’ll probably think that thing is AMAZING. This is what careful thinkers and researchers have to learn: if you’re going to find something truly amazing, you have to make your predictions FIRST. In this episode I talk about how we can be fooled by conspiracies. I also discuss the idea of self-distancing. Here’s a way to look at things that went wrong in your life and by getting a little distance you can learn valuable lessons and feel less badly about them.
--------------- Want to master the tricks to a great memory? As you know, I’m a huge fan of mnemonics and how useful they can be, so I’ve brought all of my episodes on this topic together, as well as created brand new episodes, to put together a course on how to use memory techniques to improve your memory. Whether you use the info to improve grades on your next exam, improve your ability to remember names (my personal pet peeve) or if you just want to learn more about how memory works, I believe you’re going to find this course really interesting. There are even episodes on how to recall those great jokes you keep forgetting.
Check it out here. http://bit.ly/hippos-llamas-aliens