Sociology

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

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.
Behavioral addiction Behavioral addiction is a compulsion to repeat a rewarding action despite real harm, sharing the same brain adaptations as drug addiction.
Burnout (psychology) Occupational burnout stems from unmanaged workplace stress.
Codependency Codependency is a relational pattern where one person enables another's self-destructive behavior through high self-sacrifice and control.
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.
Conspicuous consumption Conspicuous consumption is buying expensive goods or services beyond practical need to publicly display wealth, income, and social status.
DARVO DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.
Doomscrolling Doomscrolling is the habit of continuously consuming distressing digital content.
Escalation of commitment Why people double down on failing projects to protect their own past choices, violating standard cost-benefit reasoning.
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 gets people to agree to a huge request by securing a tiny yes first.
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.
Gaslighting Gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person into questioning their own perception of reality.
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.
Lifestyle creep Lifestyle creep occurs when higher income leads to higher spending at the same rate, turning optional luxuries into perceived daily necessities.
Love Bombing Love bombing is the act of overwhelming someone with intense affection, flattery, and attention to influence them.
Martyr complex A martyr complex is a behavioral pattern where a person actively seeks out or holds onto suffering instead of solving it.
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.
Parkinson's law Parkinson's law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Problematic smartphone use Problematic smartphone use describes compulsive phone habits and distress without requiring a formal addiction diagnosis.
Procrastination Procrastination is an avoidance coping behavior where people needlessly delay tasks despite knowing the delay will cause negative consequences.
Reciprocity (social psychology) Reciprocity is the learned social norm of returning favors and harms.
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-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.
Social proof Social proof occurs when people copy others to determine correct behavior during uncertain situations, often leading to genuine belief.
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.
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.