Stephen Colbert, an American political satirist, coined the term “truthiness” during the pilot of his program The Colbert Report. Colbert described truthiness as knowing in your gut that something is true as opposed to knowing through facts, logic, or evidence. The word “truthiness” caught on—…

In the 1970s and 1980s Xerox Parc was a center for research on human behavior that impacts technology design. One of the research questions was how do people behave in physical environments, and how should that impact the design of computer technology? Xerox Parc researchers…

Autobiographical and flashbulb memories are subject to change, but other kinds of memories resist change if they’re repeated enough. Memorizing Facts Semantic memory is memory of facts. “Is Paris the capital of France?” is a question that uses semantic memory. So is “What is 9…

Think back to when you were last at a family gathering or an annual work celebration. You run the event back in your mind, and it almost seems like you’re watching a movie. People tend to think that memories like this are stored in their…

In the previous section we covered System 1 and System 2 thinking. Since most people are in System 1 thinking most of the time, this means that most people are actually not paying that much attention to what is going on around them most of…

Three opportunities to learn in 2024: Smashing is hosting our workshop in Behavioral Design in May:https://smashingconf.com/online-workshops/workshops/behavioral-design-susan-guthrie-weinschenk/ In-person Behavioral Design workshop, May 16th in Columbus Ohio: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/behavioral-design-workshop-tickets-769809008467?aff=oddtdtcreator In-person UX Leadership workshop, June 4th in Columbus Ohio: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ux-leadership-workshop-tickets-776626299167?aff=oddtdtcreator

Try for 30 seconds to multiply these two numbers in your head, not using pen and paper or a calculator: 17 x 24 It’s difficult to do in your head—most people I ask this of give up after a few seconds. Here’s another task. Look…

In-Person Workshops are back! We’re excited to announce that we are having an in-person Behavioral Design Workshop in Columbus Ohio open to the public on May 16, 2024. Learn how to apply recent research in brain and behavioral science to engage, encourage, and persuade the…