​Mind Blowing: ​10 Facts Learned from Psychological Documents and Studies

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​Why should you be weary of the car in front if it has a bumper sticker? Why did Swedes call into work ‘feeling a bit gay’ in 1979?
​Why shouldn’t you tell your child they are smart? Which emotion is indistinguishable from a severe case of obsessive-compulsive disorder?
​Read on to find out…
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​1. According to The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-V handbook caffeine withdrawal is classified as a mental disorder. 
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​2. Highlighted in a book by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, spending money on other people can make you happier than spending it on yourself. 
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​3. The University of Colorado found that drivers of cars with bumper stickers, private number plates or any other decals on are more likely to exhibit road rage than those without. This is because aggressive people are more likely to mark their territory, and therefore are likely to personalise their cars more than others. 
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​4. A study in 2009 found that men could become “cognitively impaired” while interacting with attractive women. Further studies discovered that simply thinking about talking to a woman they were attracted to can decrease their ability to maintain intelligent conversation.
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5. In 1979 Swedes protested the classification of homosexuality as an illness in their country by calling in to work sick, claiming they felt a bit gay.

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​6. The U.S. Army attempted to develop a telepathic device in 1998 so that “words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word, except that it could only be heard within a person’s head.”

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​7. Studies by psychologist Carol Dweck and her team at Columbia University suggest that telling children they are smart is less effective than complimenting their work. Apparently, if told they are clever then they commit to maintaining the appearance of being intelligent, while if it is the product of their efforts that is praised then they are more likely to endeavour at actually being smart. ​

​8. Donatella Marazziti has won an Ig Nobel prize for chemistry by discovering that romantic love can be indistinguishable from a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
 
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9. The sensation that your phone is vibrating in your pocket has come to be known as Phantom Phone Vibration Syndrome, and according to one study is experienced by about 68% of people. 
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10. A study by Harvard found that sarcasm can boost creativity in both those dispensing it and those on the receiving end of it.
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