Psychologyspeaking topic
Zero-risk bias: why do we give up on reducing big risks in order to completely eliminate a small one? Why do we prefer the feeling of 'perfectly safe' over actual benefit?
— zero-risk bias
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The Michelangelo effect: the right partner, like a sculptor freeing the statue from the marble, shapes you into the person you want to become. Is a relationship 'good' because it makes you happy, or because it moves you closer to your ideal self?
- At a certain moment in a song your skin prickles and a shiver runs down your spine. Why does the brain respond to a sequence of sounds, with zero survival stakes, using the same bodily alarm as real danger? Why does music scare us in a good way?
- The dress photo split the internet between blue and black and white and gold. What did that moment teach us about perception, and about arguing with people who literally see differently?
- To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.
- Reaction formation: being excessively polite to someone you can't stand. Can an exaggerated show of affection be covering up a hidden hostility?