Why does what we believe about ourselves change the way other people seem to treat us? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore the Scar Experiment — the psychological study showing how our beliefs and insecurities can shape the way we interpret social interactions.

Discover how seeing yourself as judged, weak, or victimised can subtly change the way you act and respond to the world — and how the same mechanism can work in the opposite direction.

Studies and links:

Invisible Scars | Psychology today https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/beyond-school-walls/202410/invisible-scars

Perceptions of the Impact of Negatively Valued Physical Characteristics on Social Interaction | Robert E. Kleck and Angelo Strenta | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | Research gate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-Kleck/publication/232481827_Perceptions_of_the_impact_of_negatively_valued_physical_characteristics_on_social_interaction/links/56a4f54d08aeef24c58bae73/Perceptions-of-the-impact-of-negatively-valued-physical-characteristics-on-social-interaction.pdf

Why do our preferences change just because a third option is added? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore the decoy effect — the phenomenon where introducing a strategically inferior option makes one of the original choices more attractive.

Discover how comparisons shape what we choose, why “irrelevant” options can steer decisions, and how to recognise when your preference is being nudged by the way choices are presented rather than what you truly want.

Studies and links:

Decoy Effect | Think Insights https://thinkinsights.net/strategy/decoy-effect

The Economist Magazine: A story of clever decoy pricing effect | The Strategy Story https://thestrategystory.com/2020/10/02/economist-magazine-a-story-of-clever-decoy-pricing/

Why do we feel more strongly about one option after a third one is added? | The Decision Lab https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/decoy-effect

Why do we feel a surge of compassion for one person’s story — yet stay emotionally flat when thousands are suffering? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we unpack the identifiable victim effect — our tendency to respond more strongly to a single, vivid individual than to an entire group.

Explore why statistics leave us cold, how our brains are wired to care about people rather than numbers, and how recognising this pattern helps you understand why one story can move you to act when large‑scale problems barely register.

Studies and links:

The ‘‘Identified Victim’’ Effect: An Identified Group, or Just a Single Individual? | Tehila Kogut and Ilana Ritov | Journal of Behavioral Decision Making The "identified victim" effect: an identified group, or just a single individual?

Why are we more likely to offer help to a specific individual than a vague group? | The Decision Lab Identifiable Victim Effect - The Decision Lab

Why do we judge decisions by how they turn out - rather than how they were made? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore outcome bias - the tendency to evaluate the quality of a decision based on its result, instead of the reasoning behind it.

Discover how good decisions can lead to bad outcomes (and vice versa), how hindsight skews our judgement, and how to focus on the process rather than the result when it matters most.

Studies and links:

Outcome Bias in Decision Evaluation | Jonathon Baron and John C. Hershey | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1988, Vol. 54, No. 4, 569-579 outcomebias.pdf

Outcome Bias: Definition, Examples and Effects | clearerthinking.org Outcome Bias: Definition, Examples and Effects

Why do we blame people's haracter for their actions - but excuse our own behaviour as "just the situation"? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions. we explore the fundamental attribution error - the tendency to overestimate personal traits and underestimate situational factors when judging others.

Discover how this bias shapes the way we interpret behavior, why we're quick to label others but slow to consider context, and how recognising this pattern can lead to fairer, more accurate judgements.

Studies and links:

The Attribution of Attitudes | Edward E. Jones and Victor A. Harris | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 3, 1-24 (1967) PII: 0022-1031(67)90034-0

Fundamental Attribution Error Theory in Psychology | Simply Psychology Fundamental Attribution Error Theory in Psychology

Why do events feel obvious after they've already haappened? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore hindsight bias - the tendency to see outcomes as predictable in retrospect, even when they weren't at the time.

Discover how this "knew it all along" effect distorts memory, inflates confidence in our judgement, and makes us underestimate uncertainty.

Studies and links:

Hindsight^Foresight: The Effect of Outcome Knowledge on Judgment Under Uncertainty | Baruch Fischhoff Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel | Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1975, Vol. 1, No. 3, 288-299 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Fischhoff_1975_Hindsight_is_not_equal_to_foresight.pdf

Hindsight Bias | The Decision Lab Hindsight Bias - The Decision Lab

Why does making a small mistake sometimes make someone more likeable? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore the pratfall effect - the psychological phenomenon where a minor slip-up can actually increase someone's appeal, especially if they're already seen as competent.

Discover how imperfection can humanise us, how confidence interacts with mistakes, and how a flaw can actually make you more relatable.

Studies and links:

The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness | Elliot Aronson, University of Texas | Ben Willerman, Social Science Research Council | Joanne Floyd, University of Utah | scispace.com The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness.

The Pratfall Effect | Everyday PsychThe Pratfall Effect - Everyday Psych

Why are we more inclined to make a bad choice after doing something good? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore moral licensing - the psychological effect where past "good" behaviour subconsciously gives us permission to act less ethically or responsibly later on.

Discover how small acts of virtue can quietly justify poor decisions, how we balance our actions like a mental scoreboard, and how important it is to recognise when you're using past choices to excuse present ones.

Studies and links:

Buying Green: Consumer Behavior | Ethics Unwrapped Buying Green: Consumer Behavior - Ethics Unwrapped

Do Green Products Make Us Better People? | Nina Mazar, Chen-Bo Zhong | University of Toronto | In Press at Psychological Science Green Products Psych Sci.pdf