The Authority Bias Read online Here are some not-so-surprising stats. 20% of trades on the stock market are from brokers copying other profitable brokers¹. 60% of traders say they started trading by copying expert online². But do these financial experts really know more than the rest of us? That's what Richard Wiseman looked at in his great book, Quirkology. Investors vs Chimp Back in 1994, a Swedish newspaper ran a light-hearted experiment. The newspaper gave $1,250 each to five experienced...

Disrupt Then Reframe Read online In his fantastic book 59 Seconds, Richard Wiseman¹ explains the “disrupt, then reframe” approach. The tactic briefly jolts someone out of autopilot with something unexpected, then follows with a straightforward request. In several experiments, researchers went door to door selling notepads for charity. The salesman would either say: 1️⃣ “They sell for $3. It’s a bargain.” 2️⃣ Or, they would introduce a small disruption: “They sell for 300 pennies — that’s $3....

Sharing Weaknesses Read online In the 1970s, researchers Jones and Gordon¹ from Duke University played people a recording of a man (really a stooge) talking about his life. During the tape the man explained he had not completed a school semester because he had been caught cheating and had been expelled. The researchers edited the tape so that: 1️⃣ Half of the participants heard this bombshell toward the beginning 2️⃣ Half of the participants heard it toward the end. Did the timing of the...