13 psychological effects that change the understanding of the psyche

In this article we will talk about what psychological effects are and how they are reflected in human life and society. We will consider various features of the impact of psychological effects through interpersonal communication and mass communication. We will also learn about many effects of perception that manifest themselves in communication, work, gaming and other areas of people’s lives.

So, what is this phenomenon - psychological effects?

What are the psychological effects?

Psychological effects (socio-psychological effects) are stable and easily detectable patterns that reflect the interpersonal characteristics of people’s relationships in society and reveal the features of those processes that reflect the parameters of their communication and interaction. Simply put, psychological effects are frequently repeated phenomena that occur during human communication and human interaction with society.

Based on psychological effects, many specialists build their theories and conclusions, and ordinary people, even without special knowledge, can draw their own conclusions and identify interesting features in the life of an individual, groups of people and society as a whole. These phenomena are quite often observed in everyday life. Knowledge about psychological effects allows us to better understand the nature of man and the characteristics of his psyche. And the application of this knowledge in practice contributes to self-development, personal growth, improving relationships with others and improving the quality of life.

Below we give examples of the most famous and common psychological effects.

Placebo effect
Veblen effect
Zeigarnik effect
Cold reading
Pygmalion effect
Barnum effect/Forer effect
Audience effect
Sequence effect
Hawthorne effect
Doctor Fox Effect
First impression effect
Bystander effect
Halo effect

Placebo effect

You can check how true the information provided is from your own experience. The simplest example: probably one of your family or friends occasionally experiences headaches, stomach discomfort, or something similar. When an illness occurs, tell the person that in a minute you will bring medicine - a tablet dissolved in water. Let the person wait. Go somewhere, pour a glass of water and stall for time, pretending to add medicine to the water. Then let the person drink this water, reminding once again that the medicine is very good and very soon the condition will return to normal. The probability that this person will feel better after a short period of time is 80%, despite the fact that he drank a glass of ordinary water.

You can learn more about the placebo effect here.

Veblen effect

You can clearly see the impact of the Veblen effect on the human psyche simply by paying attention to the people around you. Young people are most susceptible to its influence. Nowadays, there are a huge number of different companies, brands, and trademarks. And each of them has its own army of fans. Pay attention to what young boys and girls buy: shoes and clothes that are completely simple in appearance, but are quite expensive. Or phones that cost many thousands of rubles, although there are many budget analogues. And, as a rule, the more expensive new items are, the more people will want to buy them. But there’s nothing you can do about it, because this is the influence of fashion. In addition, in our time, unfortunately, there is a widespread misconception: the more expensive a person’s things and the more of them, the more significant his person is. Good advice for parents: instill in your children a healthy attitude towards material values.

More information about the Veblen effect can be found here.

Are you sure this is not just another hype?

If you still think that professional burnout is mostly talked about by pampered zoomers, here are some hard statistics for you. According to a survey conducted in the United States by Eagle Hill Consulting, 45% of American employees consider themselves burnt out to one degree or another. A quarter of them are sure that the situation has worsened with the transition to a remote work format. All this leads to real financial consequences: the country's economy loses up to $300 billion a year due to the stress of burnout alone.

A similar picture is observed in Russia. A study by the analytical company Hays, the Habr Career service and the recruiting company FutureToday showed that about 25% of employees of Russian companies experience professional burnout. Another similar survey - this time authored by HeadHunter and the Doctor Nearby service - already speaks of 50% of Russians who find themselves in a state of emotional burnout after the events of 2021.

It is noteworthy that the number of respondents on both sides of the ocean included not only ordinary employees, but also middle and senior managers. In their case, burnout poses the greatest danger, since the emotional state of the business owner/manager directly affects the performance of the entire team.

Zeigarnik effect

The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological phenomenon in which people tend to remember suddenly interrupted activities and tasks better than those they managed to complete. Data on this effect were obtained experimentally: several experiments were conducted in which schoolchildren and students were participants. During these experiments, subjects completed some tasks and interrupted others. At the end of the experiments, the results were summed up, where the result was always a higher percentage of remembered unfinished tasks than completed ones.

You can even try the Zeigarnik effect on yourself. Take on some task that you have chosen that is not very easy for you and see it through to the end. Take a short break. Then take a piece of paper and a pen and write down all the details of the implementation process. After that, choose another task for yourself. Bring it to half readiness and stop. After a similar pause, write down all the details of the process. You will notice that what you did not have time to finish is recreated in your memory much easier and more clearly than what you finished. This, so to speak, technique is very practical to use to control the completion of any tasks and increase efficiency. If you get tired doing something, take a break and rest. Afterwards you will be able to continue with renewed vigor, and remembering exactly all the details of what you did.

Interesting data on the Zeigarnik effect can be found at this link.

Cold reading

A striking example of cold reading is fortune telling on the street. Many people have found themselves in situations where a person comes up on the street and says that he can tell fortunes, predict the future, remove the evil eye, damage, etc. Stopping only for a minute, the person addressed begins to listen from a complete stranger to the details of his biography, a description of some moments of his life, personal events, and so on. The person is surprised and begins to experience a kind of awe and reverence before the “magician”. Often, “readers” use their cold reading skills for the purpose of deception and extortion. Therefore, if suddenly a stranger begins to surprise you with his “magical” abilities, do not give in to provocations and remember that, most likely, this person is a very good psychologist and “reads” you like an open book, and all his “magic” is just a honed skill . Be carefull.

You can find out more about cold reading at this link.

New in blogs

Human life is very complex and multifaceted. And if we consider it from a purely psychological point of view, even more so. Each person has only his own unique traits and qualities, inner world, mental organization and specific mental properties. People communicate with other people and interact with society every day, engage in some activity, perform certain functions and achieve results. And often, observing the process of life, you can notice certain patterns in the life of a person and society - socio-psychological phenomena that characterize the peculiarities of relationships between people. It is these patterns that the presented material is devoted to. In this article we will talk about what psychological effects are and how they are reflected in human life and society. We will consider various features of the impact of psychological effects through interpersonal communication and mass communication. We will also learn about many effects of perception that manifest themselves in communication, work, gaming and other areas of people’s lives.

So, what is this phenomenon - psychological effects?

What are the psychological effects?

Below we give examples of the most famous and common psychological effects.

Placebo effect

In general, the term “placebo” refers to any substance that does not have medicinal properties, but is used as such.
And the healing effect caused by this substance is associated with the patient’s belief that he is not taking a “dummy” but a real medicine. In psychology, the placebo effect is a great example of how what we tell people affects their perceptions. After all, the placebo effect is based on suggestion. A person is simply informed that, for example, a certain drug has a certain effect, and he begins to expect this effect. As a result, as a result of suggestion, the expected effect occurs. You can check how true the information provided is from your own experience. The simplest example: probably one of your family or friends occasionally experiences headaches, stomach discomfort, or something similar. When an illness occurs, tell the person that in a minute you will bring medicine - a tablet dissolved in water. Let the person wait. Go somewhere, pour a glass of water and stall for time, pretending to add medicine to the water. Then let the person drink this water, reminding once again that the medicine is very good and very soon the condition will return to normal. The probability that this person will feel better after a short period of time is 80%, despite the fact that he drank a glass of ordinary water.

You can learn more about the placebo effect here.

Veblen effect

The Veblen effect is an economically unjustified increased demand for high-price goods.
Moreover, the higher the price rises, the higher the demand for goods. This effect is typical mainly for goods that are inaccessible to most people due to their high prices. And this, in turn, emphasizes the social status of the owners of such things. The Veblen effect is characteristic mainly of people who value the status of goods and are committed to a particular brand or brand. Sometimes people who move one step higher on the social ladder (career growth, more prestigious place of work, etc.) succumb to this effect. Also, the Veblen effect is an indicator that the psyche of people susceptible to it is dominated by the motives of striving for luxury and prestige. You can clearly see the impact of the Veblen effect on the human psyche simply by paying attention to the people around you. Young people are most susceptible to its influence. Nowadays, there are a huge number of different companies, brands, and trademarks. And each of them has its own army of fans. Pay attention to what young boys and girls buy: shoes and clothes that are completely simple in appearance, but are quite expensive. Or phones that cost many thousands of rubles, although there are many budget analogues. And, as a rule, the more expensive new items are, the more people will want to buy them. But there’s nothing you can do about it, because this is the influence of fashion. In addition, in our time, unfortunately, there is a widespread misconception: the more expensive a person’s things and the more of them, the more significant his person is. Good advice for parents: instill in your children a healthy attitude towards material values.

More information about the Veblen effect can be found here.

Zeigarnik effect

The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological phenomenon in which people tend to remember suddenly interrupted activities and tasks than those that they managed to complete.
Data on this effect were obtained experimentally: several experiments were conducted in which schoolchildren and students were participants. During these experiments, subjects completed some tasks and interrupted others. At the end of the experiments, the results were summed up, where the result was always a higher percentage of remembered unfinished tasks than completed ones. You can even try the Zeigarnik effect on yourself. Take on some task that you have chosen that is not very easy for you and see it through to the end. Take a short break. Then take a piece of paper and a pen and write down all the details of the execution process. After that, choose another task for yourself. Bring it to half readiness and stop. After a similar pause, write down all the details of the process. You will notice that what you did not have time to finish is recreated in your memory much easier and more clearly than what you finished. This, so to speak, technique is very practical to use to control the completion of any tasks and increase efficiency. If you get tired doing something, take a break and rest. Afterwards you will be able to continue with renewed vigor, and remembering exactly all the details of what you did.

Interesting data on the Zeigarnik effect can be found at this link.

Cold reading

Cold reading refers to a certain set of techniques used by psychics, mediums, fortune tellers, illusionists, etc.
Cold reading is used to create the impression that the person using it knows a lot of information about another person, despite a very short acquaintance. And the practitioner is really able to learn a lot. This is done by analyzing a person’s physical data: gender, age, clothing style, race, religion and sexuality, place of birth, level of education and other data. Basically, practitioners use guesswork: if the stated assumption finds verbal or non-verbal confirmation, then “probing” the person in the same direction continues. If there is no confirmation, then the guesses are discarded and others are found. Skillful cold reading practices can have a very powerful impact on people. A striking example of cold reading is fortune telling on the street. Many people have found themselves in situations where a person comes up on the street and says that he can tell fortunes, predict the future, remove the evil eye, damage, etc. Stopping only for a minute, the person addressed begins to listen from a complete stranger to the details of his biography, a description of some moments of his life, personal events, and so on. The person is surprised and begins to experience a kind of awe and reverence before the “magician”. Often, “readers” use their cold reading skills for the purpose of deception and extortion. Therefore, if suddenly a stranger begins to surprise you with his “magical” abilities, do not succumb to provocations and remember that, most likely, this person is a very good psychologist and “reads” you like an open book, and all his “magic” is just a honed skill. Be carefull.

You can find out more about cold reading at this link

Pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion effect or Rosenthal effect is a unique psychological phenomenon, which consists in the fact that a person, convinced of the reliability of any information, subconsciously behaves in such a way that this information is confirmed.
The so-called “prophecy” determines the nature of the activity of the person who believes in it. The Pygmalion effect, by the way, is often confirmed in testing paranormal phenomena: supporters are convinced that these phenomena exist, and opponents are convinced that they do not exist. The Pygmalion effect is very effective in application. You can try this, for example, on your child, who should soon find himself in a new environment (new class, school, sports section, etc.). As a rule, many children experience discomfort from the fact that they have to communicate with strangers, think about how they will be perceived, are afraid of not being liked, etc. Tell your child that you have already communicated with the people he will meet, and they are very kind, positive, and friendly towards him, and expect the same attitude in return. Finding yourself in a new environment, but being in a positive mood, your child will involuntarily behave, counting on what you told him. And this, in turn, will fulfill your prophecy. As a result, there is a high probability that the relationship in the new team will be pleasant and will bring pleasure to both your child and those who communicate with him.

Details of the Pygmalion effect can be found here.

Barnum effect/Forer effect

The Barnum effect (also known as the Forer effect or the subjective confirmation effect) is another unique phenomenon, the meaning of which is that people believe in descriptions of their personality that, in their opinion, were created specifically for them, but in fact are of a general nature and can be applied to other people.
The Barnum effect, along with the cold reading discussed above, is often used by various scammers who position themselves as astrologers, palmists, and mediums. They do this for the purpose of deception. In our daily lives, we can see plenty of evidence of the Barnum effect. For example, you may notice that many people believe in the reliability of horoscopes, astrological forecasts, descriptions of their personality in various tests, etc. Try to write a generalized description of several of your work colleagues (all the same), using the most general descriptions of personality traits, and let them read, saying that each characteristic is written individually for each of them. Most people would agree with this description of “themselves.” So if someone suddenly tells you a lot of interesting things about you, think about the fact that this is most likely just a set of general phrases, and they are trying to influence you. You yourself can use this technique to win people over, build trusting relationships, and evoke certain emotions and reactions. But remember that you should not abuse this.

You can learn more about the Barnum effect here.

Audience effect

The audience effect is the influence exerted on a person's activities by the presence of other people.
This influence can be both positive and negative. Thanks to numerous studies, it has been noticed that if a person does an easy and familiar job, then the presence of other people improves his results, because. stimulates the occurrence of correct reactions. If the work is complex and unfamiliar, then the presence of other people worsens the results, stimulating incorrect reactions. You can notice this effect in your daily life simply by paying attention to yourself and those around you. Athletes often perform better when they know there is an audience watching them. Workers faced with a new type of activity make more mistakes if other people (bosses, colleagues) are watching them. Similar analogies can be drawn from any area of life. Using this effect, you can learn to influence people and the results of their activities, simply by observing or not observing them. In the same way, you can influence your personal effectiveness.

You can learn more about the audience effect here.

Sequence effect

The impact of the sequence effect is that people can respond differently to the same conditions if the sequence of tasks is changed.
If, for example, during an experiment, a researcher changes the order of its components, then the subject’s adaptation to this experiment will be worse or better. For this reason, in psychology it is common for scientists to conduct many studies using one most effective scheme. In people's lives, the consistency effect often influences their activities. The productivity of an organization's employees can increase or decrease depending on how their daily routine is structured. Various activities carried out at work by management can lead to premature fatigue or, conversely, a surge in worker activity. An athlete training according to a specific program will be able to increase his performance if he varies the components of the training process. Parents can influence their children's emotional and physical well-being throughout the day by creating individual daily routines or developing their own unique approach to parenting. Teachers can improve student performance by changing the learning process in terms of rearranging its individual components, etc.

You can read more about the consistency effect here.

Hawthorne effect

The Hawthorne effect is a phenomenon that manifests itself in the fact that a person’s awareness of his participation in any experiment leads to a distorted, generally better result.
A person who takes part in an experiment and knows about it begins to act more efficiently, more focused and diligently than under normal conditions. A person’s need to feel that he belongs to some special “experimental” group causes a change in his behavior and, accordingly, affects the results of his activities. The Hawthorne effect is also often referred to as a phenomenon in which any innovation leads to improved results, because it makes people enthusiastic. Using the Hawthorne effect, you can influence the academic performance of students or the productivity of employees in an organization. There may be several options. First, you can tell people that some important experiment is being conducted, based on the results of which improvements will be made in this area. Secondly, you can simply introduce some innovation into the process of activity, as a result of which people will perform their functions with more interest than usual. But there is another side to this issue: experiments are often carried out in order to obtain data that best corresponds to reality. In this case, people's awareness of the experiment will have a distorting effect on the results. To avoid this, it is necessary to make sure that the participants in the experiment do not know about it, or are not aware of what exactly will be established during the study.

You can find more interesting details about the Hawthorne effect here.

Doctor Fox Effect

The Dr. Fox effect is that the expressiveness and impressiveness of the person providing information can be much more important to the recipient than the information itself that he presents.
The talent of a storyteller can disguise poor quality, fictitiousness, uselessness and vacuity of information. But at the same time, the person who received this information will be confident that he really learned a lot and learned something. People who have outstanding acting or speaking skills can have a powerful impact on people with their talent. For example, you are present at a lecture or seminar, and a person speaks to you with charisma, emotionality and the ability to tell a great story. At the same time, the lecturer does not understand the topic at all, and the information component of his speech is at a very low level. After the event, you will still be under an extremely positive impression, confident that you have received a lot of useful knowledge. This once again tells us that, often, a person’s image, the characteristics of his personality and certain mental properties have a much greater influence on us than what he says. And developing and training your personal storytelling abilities will allow you to support any conversation and influence people, forming only a positive impression of yourself.

You can find out more details about the Dr. Fox effect here.

First impression effect

The meaning of the first impression effect is that people, when meeting other people and evaluating them, often attach importance to the impression they have in the first minutes of communication.
It even happens that during further communication, all subsequent impressions and information appear to be incorrect and are discarded. First impressions can be formed intentionally or unintentionally. The first impression is influenced by such characteristics of a person as his appearance, the way he behaves and speaks, his confidence or lack of self-confidence, his voice, his gaze, etc. When meeting strangers, pay attention to how you yourself begin to evaluate them: pay attention to the characteristics of the person with whom you are communicating, the emotions that this person evokes in you. Surely you are familiar with this situation when, when meeting with some people whom you recently met, you scroll through your memory the “information” that you received during the first meeting. If you liked a person initially, then you will subsequently treat him with sympathy. If you didn’t like him, then your attitude towards him will be corresponding. The previously appeared feeling of positivity or negativity will persist even if the opposite behavior of this person occurs in the future. By the way, a person can learn to create a first impression on purpose: to do this, you just need to prepare for meetings with strangers, and in the process of communication, take care of yourself: speech, behavior, appearance, etc.

You can find more interesting features of the first impression effect here.

Bystander effect

The bystander effect (also known as the bystander effect or Genovese syndrome) manifests itself in the fact that people who witness any emergency situations do not try to help those who suffered, remaining on the sidelines.
The interesting thing is that the more witnesses, the less likely it is that someone will help, because... each of them believes that someone else should help. And if there is only one eyewitness, then the likelihood of his help increases significantly. The manifestation of the eyewitness effect is clearly illustrated by various news reports about incidents, which report that people who witnessed the tragic events did not provide any assistance to the victims. Perhaps you yourself could observe situations when, for example, a person became ill in a crowded place and he fell, and the crowd of onlookers nearby simply continued to watch. Everyone could help, but they thought that someone else would help. In fact, this is a manifestation of indifference and inhumanity. If you suddenly become an eyewitness to some incident, do not think that others will help, do not remain indifferent, but rush to help the victim. Perhaps you will save someone's life. It doesn't matter how others react to the situation. What matters is how you react.

Interesting information about the bystander effect can be found at this link.

Halo effect

The essence of the halo effect or halo effect is the following: if a person makes a good impression, then later people will “attribute” other good qualities to him, which in fact may not exist.
If a person makes a bad impression, then in the future people will unconsciously try to see bad qualities in him, regardless of the general characteristics of his personality. The halo effect often manifests itself in visual assessment: if a person is beautiful in appearance, then he is perceived as smart, educated, pleasant to talk to, etc. If a person does not have a very attractive appearance, then his assessment will be the opposite. In fact, the halo effect can manifest itself in work or study: if you initially establish yourself as a responsible and conscientious student, student or employee, diligently complete all tasks, actively participate in the educational or work process, you will thereby create a positive reputation for yourself , which will work for you in the future. In the future, you may be forgiven for minor errors in your work, failure to complete a task for some reason, absence from classes, etc. But it is worth remembering that you cannot abuse this, otherwise you may lose your reputation. Try always and everywhere to show yourself only from the best side and show only positive qualities. This is what will serve you well. You don’t need to pretend to be better than you really are, but rather pay attention to your weaknesses and try to eradicate them, making yourself a stronger person.

You can learn more about the halo effect at this link.

Of course, the psychological effects we have considered are not the only ones of their kind. There are a lot of similar effects and they are all unique and interesting. Psychology, as you know, is a very deep science and has many features and nuances. But the effects given above should be enough to understand that a person’s life is filled with amazing phenomena, and his personality itself is the subject of deep and careful study.

The desire to understand the peculiarities of human nature is a reason not only to search and assimilate new knowledge, but also a laudable desire to become better ourselves and make our lives better. Develop, discover new facets of human existence, aspects of your personality and the uniqueness of human nature!

Pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion effect is very effective in application. You can try this, for example, on your child, who should soon find himself in a new environment (new class, school, sports section, etc.). As a rule, many children experience discomfort from the fact that they have to communicate with strangers, think about how they will be perceived, are afraid of not being liked, etc. Tell your child that you have already communicated with the people he will meet, and they are very kind, positive, and friendly towards him, and expect the same attitude in return. Finding yourself in a new environment, but being in a positive mood, your child will involuntarily behave, counting on what you told him. And this, in turn, will fulfill your prophecy. As a result, there is a high probability that the relationship in the new team will be pleasant and will bring pleasure to both your child and those who communicate with him.

Similarities to the Pygmalion effect can be found here.

Barnum effect/Forer effect

In our daily lives, we can see plenty of evidence of the Barnum effect. For example, you may notice that many people believe in the reliability of horoscopes, astrological forecasts, descriptions of their personality in various tests, etc. Try to write a generalized description of several of your work colleagues (all the same), using the most general descriptions of personality traits, and let them read, saying that each characteristic is written individually for each of them. Most people would agree with this description of “themselves.” So if someone suddenly tells you a lot of interesting things about you, think about the fact that this is most likely just a set of general phrases, and they are trying to influence you. You yourself can use this technique to win people over, build trusting relationships, and evoke certain emotions and reactions. But remember that you should not abuse this.

You can learn more about the Barnum effect here.

Audience effect

You can notice this effect in your daily life simply by paying attention to yourself and those around you. Athletes often perform better when they know there is an audience watching them. Workers faced with a new type of activity make more mistakes if other people (bosses, colleagues) are watching them. Similar analogies can be drawn from any area of life. Using this effect, you can learn to influence people and the results of their activities, simply by observing or not observing them. In the same way, you can influence your personal effectiveness.

You can learn more about the audience effect here.

How not to get burned

I have been working in marketing communications for 30 years and have never experienced professional burnout - even when the economic and market situation was not the easiest. I want to share with readers a few life hacks that allow you not to lose interest in work and maintain efficiency.

Switch

Active travel with a change of scenery is especially helpful, and it doesn’t matter whether you fly to another country for 2–3 weeks or just go to a neighboring city for the weekend.

But what really matters is the ability to rest properly. For myself, I have long concluded that there is no particular benefit from simply lying on the beach. Such rest does not enrich a person, does not leave behind vivid memories, and most importantly, it does not in any way contribute to long-term increases in efficiency. The charge will last for a maximum of a week.

Give your travels a meaning - not just to relax (what KPIs can be set with such a statement of the task, and how to monitor their implementation?!), but to do something. My goal is to visit all countries and continents of the world, immersing myself as much as possible in the local environment, you can set up any other for yourself. Collecting tastes by trying pizza in the central squares of cities, visiting zoos, photographing some unusual objects in different countries (remember Artemy Lebedev with his mailboxes and trash cans?) - there are many options. Meaningful travel provides inspiration and allows you to maintain a certain level of creativity.

Also, don’t be afraid to participate in unusual but potentially interesting activities if they are offered to you. For example, I thus “tried on” the image of an actor as part of a collaboration with the gentlemen from “Peterville”. Participation in such unusual projects not only allows you to show yourself from a different perspective, but also helps your core business and gives you the opportunity to take a fresh look at traditional tools (in my case, interaction with bloggers).

Develop new talents in yourself

I will give an example from my own experience. In order to chronicle my travels, I created a special blog and began to master the intricacies of its maintenance and promotion. I run campaigns myself, shoot content myself. This not only allows me to switch gears, but also gives me the opportunity to evaluate team effort when employees are doing similar activities for clients.

Change your focus

It is important for me that every day is as productive as possible, so I periodically change the types of tasks - for example, switching from creative work to communication with clients. When a person works according to this scheme, different parts of his brain are loaded, which helps maintain personal effectiveness for a longer time.

But there is also a nuance here: different tasks can under no circumstances be performed at one point in time. Changing context is not the easiest operation for the brain, and multitasking in this case will only increase the stress. Therefore, try not to rush from one thing to another and act according to plan: first solve one problem, if possible without being distracted by extraneous factors, then switch to another. During breaks, you can answer everyone who was looking for you in instant messengers or by phone.

Don't neglect workout

Even light physical activity helps to distract yourself, relieve emotional stress and “recharge” your brain. For example, during a standard run, when no one bothers you, you can take a fresh look at problems and generate ideas for solving them. In turn, sparring disciplines like boxing are a great way to throw out pent-up aggression.

Sequence effect

In people's lives, the consistency effect often influences their activities. The productivity of an organization's employees can increase or decrease depending on how their daily routine is structured. Various activities carried out at work by management can lead to premature fatigue or, conversely, a surge in worker activity. An athlete training according to a specific program will be able to increase his performance if he varies the components of the training process. Parents can influence their children's emotional and physical well-being throughout the day by creating individual daily routines or developing their own unique approach to parenting. Teachers can improve student performance by changing the learning process in terms of rearranging its individual components, etc.

You can read more about the consistency effect here.

Attention Conflict Theory

Robert Baron tried to resolve the dispute between N. Cottrell and R. Zajonc in his theory of conflict of attention (Baron R., 1986). He argues that members of their own species act as irritants and distractions for many reasons, including what Zajonc calls the presence of others as a source of arousal. But before the excitement begins, the presence of others, being a distracting factor, will cause a conflict of attention in the individual busy with his work. And this conflict of attention will already lead to arousal, and depending on how the individual manages to cope with it, the arousal will either facilitate or hinder the performance of his activities.

If an individual pays too much attention to the spectators present, then as a result of social inhibition his activity may cease altogether. If, instead, he switches the main focus of attention from the audience to his own activity, then increased arousal will either contribute to a well-mastered reaction, or inhibit the implementation of a poorly mastered reaction.

It turns out that the conflict between attention to one's own activities and attention to other individuals creates tension in the cognitive process, which causes arousal in the individual. It is an obvious fact that most people want to look their best in front of others.

And provided that a person does a simple action that he is used to and has mastered well and does it well, the arousal process caused as a result of a conflict of attention can help improve activity.

But when performing a complex task, things are different. Here, any mistake is accompanied by frustration, which will increase due to the process of excitation caused by the presence of observers. This leads to anxiety, panic, irritation, and, as a consequence, disorganization of activities.

It is important to note that not only outside observers can cause a conflict of attention, but the individual himself is capable of being a spectator for himself, an evaluator of his own activities and, thus, increasing the conflict, and therefore arousal. This addition to the development of the theory of R

Baron was suggested by Kat Rzymanski and Stephen Harkins

Another addition to this theory was made by Brian Mullen Roy Baumeister. This addition notes that analyzing one’s own actions in the process of activity is fraught with a conflict between accuracy and speed of action. When an individual experiences a conflict of attention when performing an action while being observed by spectators, the individual may focus on either accuracy or speed. But preference for one will come at the expense of the other, and performance will deteriorate.

Yet R. Barron's theory of conflict of attention cannot explain some facts. For example, Alexandre Dumas could write his novels anywhere: at home, on the deck of a ship, on a store counter. At the same time, there was no drop in productivity: neither the speed nor the quality of artistic activity fell. He was so passionate about his work that he was not distracted by outside glances. Given the fact that writing novels is a difficult task, the conflict of attention theory is still not comprehensive. There are many other writers who could carry out quick and productive work only in solitude.

Hawthorne effect

Using the Hawthorne effect, you can influence the academic performance of students or the productivity of employees in an organization. There may be several options. First, you can tell people that some important experiment is being conducted, based on the results of which improvements will be made in this area. Secondly, you can simply introduce some innovation into the process of activity, as a result of which people will perform their functions with more interest than usual. But there is another side to this issue: experiments are often carried out in order to obtain data that best corresponds to reality. In this case, people's awareness of the experiment will have a distorting effect on the results. To avoid this, it is necessary to make sure that the participants in the experiment do not know about it, or are not aware of what exactly will be established during the study.

You can find more interesting details about the Hawthorne effect here.

Situation of co-activity

Other people can act not only as indifferent observers of the activities of one or another individual, but also be involved in the activity themselves. Market traders, while simultaneously trading goods, will, of course, not remain indifferent to each other’s affairs. There will be competition between them. But they will also be spectators for each other, accordingly, their co-activity will have the same effect as the presence of a passive spectator, although taking into account the fact that this action will be strengthened by the competitive relationship between the two individuals.

Competition is one of the powerful incentives to improve quality, improve goods or services in order to surpass a rival. It is thanks to competition that the West has achieved such prosperity in science, economics, industry and other areas. Competition also has its downside: competition helps to increase the speed of activity in exchange for a possible drop in quality and accuracy.

This means that co-activity can become another source of conflict of attention. After all, rivals compare their achievements, and when one lags behind the other, the lagging behind tries, at the expense of quality, to catch up with the one who is ahead, for example, quantitatively.

Thus, co-activity perceived as competition can become another source of attentional conflict. After all, rivals, observing each other’s activities, mutually compare their results. If one succeeds more than the other, then the second, trying to achieve the same or even better results, will lose another parameter.

If the competitor’s activity is no different or even worse, then it may not be perceived as competitive at all. In this case, co-actors have the same influence on each other as ordinary spectators.

Doctor Fox Effect

People who have outstanding acting or speaking skills can have a powerful impact on people with their talent. For example, you are present at a lecture or seminar, and a person speaks to you with charisma, emotionality and the ability to tell a great story. At the same time, the lecturer does not understand the topic at all, and the information component of his speech is at a very low level. After the event, you will still be under an extremely positive impression, confident that you have received a lot of useful knowledge. This once again tells us that, often, a person’s image, the characteristics of his personality and certain mental properties have a much greater influence on us than what he says. And developing and training your personal storytelling abilities will allow you to support any conversation and influence people, forming only a positive impression of yourself.

You can find out more details about the Dr. Fox effect here.

Peculiarities

The presence of an audience activates all the internal forces of the body, enhances the overall drive and improves the motivational aspect;
The presence of strangers can form in a person a premonition of an assessment situation, which enhances the activation of his own available resources;
The presence of observers can also act as a distraction. Because attention is distracted (dividing it into several aspects: partly to work, and partly to the process of observing the reactions and actions of others).

Cognitive-motivational model: the presence of an audience, on the one hand, forms the idea of possible consequences in case of future failure (disapproval, censure and condemnation of people around), and on the other hand, focuses on the positive consequences in case of success (success, approval and positive evaluation own abilities). Robert Zajonc also found that an increased level of arousal in a subject can significantly improve (accelerate) the solution of simple and familiar tasks, while performing complex ones - such arousal significantly worsens

This idea is confirmed by a number of studies involving more than 25 thousand subjects.

Robert Zajonc also found that an increased level of arousal in a subject can significantly improve (speed up) the solution of simple and familiar tasks, but such arousal significantly worsens the performance of complex ones. This idea is confirmed by a number of studies involving more than 25 thousand subjects.

First impression effect

When meeting strangers, pay attention to how you yourself begin to evaluate them: pay attention to the characteristics of the person with whom you are communicating, the emotions that this person evokes in you. Surely you are familiar with this situation when, when meeting with some people whom you recently met, you scroll through your memory the “information” that you received during the first meeting. If you liked a person initially, then you will subsequently treat him with sympathy. If you didn’t like him, then your attitude towards him will be corresponding. The previously appeared feeling of positivity or negativity will persist even if the opposite behavior of this person occurs in the future. By the way, a person can learn to create a first impression on purpose: to do this, you just need to prepare for meetings with strangers, and in the process of communication, take care of yourself: speech, behavior, appearance, etc.

You can find more interesting features of the first impression effect here.

If there are any doubts

If you can't figure out whether you have burnout or not, there are several special tests. For example, a method for diagnosing burnout developed by Russian researcher Viktor Boyko would be suitable. The test consists of 84 questions with “Yes” or “No” answers. It is believed to show fairly accurate results. You can check it here (you don’t even need to register or fill out anything).

There is also a foreign Maslak test. By answering 22 questions, you will receive a result in the form of three scales: the level of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (that is, have you begun to behave distantly towards colleagues and clients) and a reduction in professional achievements, when a person ceases to value his work achievements. You can order the test along with processing of the results on the website of the official representative (or, alternatively, look for a free version on the Internet).

Bystander effect

The manifestation of the eyewitness effect is clearly illustrated by various news reports about incidents, which report that people who witnessed the tragic events did not provide any assistance to the victims. Perhaps you yourself could observe situations when, for example, a person became ill in a crowded place and he fell, and the crowd of onlookers nearby simply continued to watch. Everyone could help, but they thought that someone else would help. In fact, this is a manifestation of indifference and inhumanity. If you suddenly become an eyewitness to some incident, do not think that others will help, do not remain indifferent, but rush to help the victim. Perhaps you will save someone's life. It doesn't matter how others react to the situation. What matters is how you react.

Interesting information about the bystander effect can be found at this link.

What is important to remember about burnout?

Remote work does not help cope with burnout; on the contrary, its risks increase significantly in this format.
Adopt practices that improve the quality of life in different areas: physical, mental, intellectual. Even if you don’t actually have any burnout.
Changing jobs will not correct the situation, but will only worsen it - if you do not take care of yourself, then in a new place you will encounter exactly the same problems that you were trying to escape from.
Nothing determines burnout more accurately than a test.