Psychology Short Collection: Social Dynamics - The Hidden Rules

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The invisible algorithms running human interaction. Short reads on how people actually work.

The Benjamin Franklin Effect

Want someone to like you?

Don’t do them a favor. Ask them to do YOU a favor.

Counterintuitive. Proven.

The story: Benjamin Franklin had a rival in the Pennsylvania legislature who disliked him.

Franklin didn’t try to win him over with kindness.

Instead, he asked to borrow a rare book from the man’s library.

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the early 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar made a curious observation while studying primates.

He found a correlation between the size of a primate’s neocortex (the brain region handling social relationships) and the size of its social group.

Chimps, with smaller neocortices, lived in groups of ~50.

Gorillas: ~30.

Humans, with the largest neocortices, should be able to maintain stable social relationships with about…

150 people.

That’s it. Not 500. Not 1,000. 150.