Sociology

86 ideas, each explained on one page with a 60-second lesson you can play right there.

Asch Conformity Experiment Solomon Asch tested group conformity using line lengths, finding that a single dissenting voice can drop conformity by 80 percent.
Attachment Styles Attachment styles describe patterns infants use to stay close to caregivers, shaping expectations in future relationships.
Attention Economy When information becomes abundant, human attention becomes the scarce resource that platforms and advertisers compete to capture.
Authority bias Authority bias is the tendency to assume an opinion or order is accurate simply because it comes from an authority figure.
Averageness Averageness is the physical beauty that occurs when blending human facial features into a mathematical mean.
Bandwagon effect The bandwagon effect is a cognitive bias where people adopt ideas, styles, or actions simply because others are doing it.
Barnum effect The Barnum effect explains why people believe vague personality profiles apply uniquely to them, powering astrology and cold reading.
Barter Barter is a system of exchange where people trade goods or services directly for other goods or services without using money.
Behavioral addiction Behavioral addiction is a compulsion to repeat a rewarding action despite real harm, sharing the same brain adaptations as drug addiction.
Behavioral Economics Behavioral economics combines psychology and economics to study how human cognitive limits and biases distort rational decision-making.
Brainwashing Brainwashing was coined during the Korean War to explain POW confessions, but scientists and courts found the theory has no scientific merit.
Burnout (psychology) Occupational burnout stems from unmanaged workplace stress.
Bystander Effect The bystander effect occurs when the presence of other people discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency.
Codependency Codependency is a relational pattern where one person enables another's self-destructive behavior through high self-sacrifice and control.
Cognitive Bias A cognitive bias is a predictable, systematic pattern where human judgment veers away from objective logic or probability.
Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort you feel when you hold conflicting beliefs, or when your actions clash with your values.
Cold reading Cold reading uses high-probability guesses and subtle body language cues to make strangers reveal their own details while believing the reader knew them.
Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias leads people to seek, interpret, and remember evidence that fits their prior beliefs while ignoring contrary facts.
Conformity Conformity is the act of changing your beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors to match the norms of a group.
Conspicuous consumption Conspicuous consumption is buying expensive goods or services beyond practical need to publicly display wealth, income, and social status.
Controlled Substances Act The Controlled Substances Act established the federal five-tier drug scheduling system and unified US drug regulation under the DEA and FDA.
DARVO DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.
Doomscrolling Doomscrolling is the habit of continuously consuming distressing digital content.
Dunbar's Number Dunbar's number is the cognitive limit of roughly 150 stable relationships a human can maintain, predicted by neocortex size.
Echo chamber (media) An echo chamber is a closed media system where repeated beliefs amplify preexisting views and insulate people from opposing facts.
Escalation of commitment Why people double down on failing projects to protect their own past choices, violating standard cost-benefit reasoning.
Facial Symmetry Facial symmetry is the structural balance between the left and right sides of a person's face.
False confession A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime that the person did not actually commit.
Filter Bubble How algorithms use browsing history, location, and clicks to create personalized web bubbles that isolate users from opposing viewpoints.
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) FOMO is the anxiety that others are having rewarding experiences without you, intensified by social feeds into constant psychological distress.
Foot-in-the-door technique The foot-in-the-door technique wins a big yes by asking a small favor first.
Friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people that is stronger than an acquaintance or casual association.
Fundamental attribution error The fundamental attribution error makes us blame people's character for their actions while ignoring their circumstances.
Gambling Gambling is the wagering of money or something else of value on a random event with the intention of winning a prize.
Game Theory Game theory uses mathematics to model strategic choices between multiple players whose decisions and payoffs affect each other.
Gaslighting Gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person into questioning their own perception of reality.
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn lasting from 1929 to 1939.
Groupthink Groupthink is a psychological pattern where members of a tight-knit group prioritize getting along over critically testing ideas.
Habit A habit is a routine behavior that is repeated regularly and occurs with little to no conscious thought.
Ikigai Ikigai is a Japanese concept that refers to a person's reason for living or what makes life feel worth it.
Illusory truth effect The illusory truth effect is the cognitive tendency to believe false information is true after hearing it repeated multiple times.
In-group and out-group An in-group is any social circle, team, or category you feel you belong to, while an out-group is everyone else.
Interpersonal ties Interpersonal ties are the information-carrying connections between individual people in a social network.
Laziness Laziness is the emotional reluctance to act or exert effort even when you have the physical or mental capacity to do so.
Lifestyle creep Lifestyle creep occurs when higher income leads to higher spending at the same rate, turning optional luxuries into perceived daily necessities.
Limerence Limerence is an overwhelming mental state of obsessive infatuation with someone when you do not know if they return your feelings.
Loneliness Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional reaction to perceived or actual social isolation.
Love Bombing Love bombing is the act of overwhelming someone with intense affection, flattery, and attention to influence them.
Marshmallow Test The Marshmallow Test is a classic psychology experiment where children choose between one immediate treat or two if they wait alone for 15 minutes.
Martyr complex A martyr complex is a behavioral pattern where a person actively seeks out or holds onto suffering instead of solving it.
Mattachine Society The Mattachine Society was one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the United States, founded in Los Angeles in 1950.
Matthew effect The Matthew effect explains how initial advantages in wealth, fame, or credit snowball over time, concentrating future gains among top performers.
May 68 How a French student protest against university rules sparked a 10-million-worker general strike that nearly toppled Charles de Gaulle.
Mere-exposure effect Repeated exposure makes people prefer words, faces, shapes, and sounds, even without conscious awareness or rational reasons.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified flow, the state of deep absorption where challenge matches high skill.
Milgram Experiment Stanley Milgram tested obedience to authority, finding 65% of participants willing to administer what they believed were fatal electric shocks.
Motivation Motivation is an internal state that drives people and animals to start, continue, or stop a specific behavior.
Narcissism Narcissism is a self-centered personality style marked by an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others.
Nostalgia Nostalgia is a bittersweet emotional longing for past events, people, or places that cannot be recovered.
Obedience Obedience is a form of social influence where a person follows direct orders from an authority figure.
Online dating Online dating uses digital profiles to connect romantic partners, revealing stark patterns in how age, race, and education affect attraction.
Parkinson's law Parkinson's law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Physical attractiveness Physical attractiveness is the degree to which a person's bodily and facial features are seen as aesthetically pleasing or desirable.
Platonic Relationship A platonic relationship is an affectionate, non-sexual bond originally conceived by Plato as an ascent toward absolute beauty.
Problematic smartphone use Problematic smartphone use describes compulsive phone habits and distress without requiring a formal addiction diagnosis.
Procrastination Procrastination is needless delay to dodge a task's bad feelings; the relief keeps it going.
Proximity principle The proximity principle explains why people form relationships with those physically nearby due to familiarity and repeated passive contact.
Psychological Manipulation Psychological manipulation is underhanded influence used for personal gain at another person's expense, exploiting vulnerabilities and biases.
Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior in both humans and nonhumans.
QAnon How an anonymous 4chan poster created QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory that unified internet falsehoods into real-world action.
Radicalization Radicalization is the gradual shift from mainstream views to extreme beliefs, acting as a social trap that can lead to violent action.
Reciprocity (social psychology) Reciprocity is the social norm of returning favors and harms in kind.
Scarcity (social psychology) Scarcity causes people to place higher value on limited items, driving panic buying, impulse purchases, and biased decisions.
Self-Control Self-control is the ability to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behavior when facing immediate temptations and impulses.
Self-disclosure Self-disclosure is the communication process where one person shares private information about themselves with another person.
Self-efficacy Self-efficacy is an individual's belief in their ability to act in the ways necessary to achieve a specific goal.
Self-serving bias Why we attribute our successes to personal skill and blame our failures on outside factors to protect our self-esteem.
Sexual repression Sexual repression occurs when internal shame, religious dogmas, or legal mandates prevent people from expressing their sexuality.
Social Norms A social norm is a shared standard of acceptable behavior within a group.
Social proof Social proof occurs when people copy others to determine correct behavior during uncertain situations, often leading to genuine belief.
Social Psychology Learn what social psychology is, how it uses experiments to study group influence and attitudes, and how it differs from sociology.
Spotlight effect The spotlight effect causes people to overestimate how much others notice their appearance, mistakes, and nervous feelings.
Subjective well-being Subjective well-being measures personal evaluations of life through emotional moods, life satisfaction, and meaning rather than external wealth.
Tinder (app) Tinder is a geosocial dating and networking app where people browse nearby profiles by swiping right to like or left to pass.
Traumatic bonding Traumatic bonding is a psychological attachment that an abused person develops toward their abuser, not toward other victims.
Work–life balance Work–life balance is the equilibrium between a person's job and their personal life, including family, leisure, and health.