There’s a Name for That

Experiencing unpleasant intrusive thoughts is a common, and unthreatening, phenomenon, but how we deal with it can be dangerous.

Stuck inside our heads, we all know how much we're watching others, but fail to grasp just how much everyone else is watching us.

And it's called hostile attribution bias.

And it's called Campbell's Law.

And it's called the Diderot effect.

And it's called stereotype threat.

A phenomenon discovered by oil engineers after they spent too much on tracts of land in the Alaskan tundra also applies to all of those eBay bidding wars you've been participating in.

You might also recognize it in the subway, library, restroom, and other public spaces where people aren't typically very social.

There's a name for that: the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

There's a name for that.

There's a name for that.

When a thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere.

Ever found yourself at odds with what you thought was the majority opinion? There's a name for that.

Why do Burger King and McDonald's start to sell the same salad? There's a name for that phenomenon.