A theory that describes how individuals pursue goals using either a promotion focus (seeking gains) or a prevention focus (avoiding losses). Crucial for designing motivation strategies and understanding user behavior in goal pursuit.
A self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse. Important for understanding how information spreads and influences public perception.
A cognitive bias where people overestimate the importance of information that is readily available. Essential for designers to understand and mitigate how easily accessible information can disproportionately influence decisions.
A psychological model that outlines the stages individuals go through to change behavior, including precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Crucial for designing interventions and experiences that support users at different stages of behavior change.
The tendency to perceive a greater quantity as a better value, regardless of the actual utility. Important for understanding consumer behavior and designing effective marketing strategies.
A cognitive bias where individuals favor others who are perceived to be similar to themselves, affecting judgments and decision-making. Crucial for understanding biases in team dynamics and decision-making processes among designers.
A cognitive bias where people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them. Useful for understanding user attachment and designing persuasive experiences.
A cognitive bias where decision-making is affected by the lack of information or uncertainty. Important for understanding and mitigating user decision-making biases due to uncertainty or lack of information.
A behavioral economic theory that describes how people choose between probabilistic alternatives that involve risk, where the probabilities of outcomes are known. Crucial for understanding decision-making under risk and designing systems that align with user behavior.
A theory of emotion suggesting that physical and emotional responses to stimuli occur simultaneously and independently. Important for understanding user emotions and designing empathetic user experiences.
Also known as Magical Number 7 +/- 2, a theory in cognitive psychology that states the average number of objects an individual can hold in working memory is about seven. Crucial for designing user interfaces that align with human cognitive limitations.
Behavioral Science (BeSci) is the study of human behavior through systematic analysis and investigation. Essential for understanding and influencing user behavior in design and product development.
The ability to influence others' behavior by offering positive incentives or rewards, commonly used in organizational and social contexts. Crucial for understanding dynamics of motivation and influence in team and organizational settings.
A cognitive bias where people tend to believe that others are more affected by media messages and persuasive communications than they are themselves. Important for understanding media influence and designing communications that account for this bias in user perception.
The phenomenon where taking a test on material improves long-term retention of that material more than additional study sessions. Crucial for designing educational tools and methods that enhance learning and retention.
A cognitive bias where a person's subjective confidence in their judgments is greater than their objective accuracy. Crucial for understanding user decision-making and designing systems that account for overconfidence.
A tendency to avoid making decisions that might lead to regret, influencing risk-taking and decision-making behaviors. Crucial for understanding decision-making processes and designing systems that minimize regret.
Emotional states where individuals are calm and rational, often contrasted with hot states where emotions run high. Important for understanding decision-making processes and designing experiences that accommodate both states.
A theory that explains how individuals determine the causes of behavior and events, including the distinction between internal and external attributions. Crucial for understanding user behavior and designing experiences that address both internal and external factors.
A cognitive bias where people favor members of their own group over those in other groups. Important for designing inclusive and equitable experiences for users.
A learning phenomenon where information is better retained when study sessions are spaced out over time rather than crammed in a short period. Crucial for designing educational tools and content that optimize long-term retention.
The phenomenon where individuals' expectations about a situation influence their actual experience of that situation. Useful for understanding the influence of expectations on outcomes.
A cognitive bias where individuals' expectations influence their perceptions and judgments. Relevant for understanding how expectations skew perceptions and decisions among users.
The tendency to avoid information that one perceives as potentially negative or anxiety-inducing. Important for designing experiences that encourage information-seeking behavior.
The tendency to overestimate the duration or intensity of the emotional impact of future events. Important for understanding user expectations and satisfaction.
A cognitive bias where people give greater weight to outcomes that are certain compared to those that are merely probable. Important for designers to consider how users weigh certain outcomes more heavily in their decision-making.
A heuristic where individuals evenly distribute resources across all options, regardless of their specific needs or potential. Useful for understanding and designing around simplistic decision-making strategies.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is a concept in educational psychology that describes the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance and support. Crucial for designing effective educational experiences and scaffolding that promote optimal learning and skill development.
The perception of a brand in the minds of consumers, shaped by interactions and experiences with the brand. Crucial for understanding consumer perceptions and guiding brand strategy.
A cognitive bias where individuals interpret others' behaviors as having hostile intent, even when the behavior is ambiguous or benign. Important for understanding user interactions and designing experiences that mitigate negative interpretations.
A cognitive bias where one negative trait of a person or thing influences the perception of other traits. Important for designing experiences that counteract or mitigate negative biases in user perception.
A framework for designing habit-forming products that includes four phases: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment. Crucial for creating engaging and sticky user experiences.
A behavioral economics concept where people categorize and treat money differently depending on its source or intended use. Crucial for understanding financial behavior and designing systems that align with users' mental accounting practices.
A sales technique used to uncover a prospect's pain points through a series of targeted questions. Important for understanding customer needs and driving effective sales conversations.
A cognitive bias where people focus on the most noticeable or prominent information while ignoring less conspicuous details. Important for understanding user decision-making and ensuring balanced presentation of information.
A cognitive bias where people allow themselves to indulge after doing something positive, believing they have earned it. Important for understanding user behavior and designing systems that account for self-regulation.
A phenomenon where group members make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members due to group discussions and interactions. Crucial for understanding and mitigating the risks of extreme decision-making in group settings.
A theory that suggests the depth of processing (shallow to deep) affects how well information is remembered. Important for designing educational content and user interfaces that enhance memory retention.
The study of how people acquire knowledge, skills, and behaviors through experience, practice, and instruction. Useful for creating educational content and interactive tutorials that enhance user learning.
A phenomenon where learning is improved when study sessions are spaced out over time rather than crammed together. Crucial for designing educational and training programs that enhance long-term retention.
The phenomenon where people have a reduced ability to recall the last items in a list when additional, unrelated information is added at the end. Crucial for designing information presentation to optimize memory retention.
A phenomenon where information is better remembered if it is generated from one's own mind rather than simply read. Useful for designing educational and interactive content that enhances memory retention.
A phenomenon where people are more likely to remember information when they are in the same state of consciousness as when they learned it. Important for understanding how context affects memory recall and designing experiences that facilitate better retention.
A cognitive bias that causes people to believe they are less likely to experience negative events and more likely to experience positive events than others. Crucial for understanding user risk perception and designing systems that account for unrealistic optimism.
A framework that combines multiple theories to explain and predict behavior, focusing on intention, knowledge, skills, environmental constraints, and habits. Crucial for designing interventions that effectively change user behavior.
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the process of managing the people side of change to achieve desired business outcomes. Essential for ensuring successful implementation of changes within an organization.
The tendency for individuals to put in less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone, due to reduced accountability. Crucial for understanding group dynamics and designing systems that ensure individual accountability.
A cognitive bias where people tend to remember the first and last items in a series better than those in the middle, impacting recall and memory. Crucial for designing information presentation to optimize user memory and recall.
The tendency for individuals to recall information that is consistent with their current mood. Important for understanding how mood affects memory and designing experiences that account for emotional states.
A framework suggesting there are two systems of thinking: System 1 (fast, automatic) and System 2 (slow, deliberate), influencing decision-making and behavior. Crucial for understanding how users process information and make decisions.
The tendency for the first items presented in a sequence to be remembered better than those in the middle. Crucial for designing information presentation and improving memory retention.
A cognitive bias where people perceive past events as having been more predictable than they actually were. Important for understanding and mitigating biases in user feedback and decision-making.
A cognitive bias where people overestimate the probability of success for difficult tasks and underestimate it for easy tasks. Useful for designers to understand user confidence and design
A phenomenon where the probability of recalling an item from a list depends on the length of the list. Important for understanding memory processes and designing effective information presentation.
A cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes. Important for understanding user risk perception and designing systems that address irrational pessimism.
The theory that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning, often used to understand and influence behavior change. Important for designing interventions that promote positive behavior change.
The tendency to perceive and interpret information based on prior experiences and expectations, influencing how different users perceive design differently. Important for designing interfaces that meet user expectations, improving usability and intuitive navigation.
A cognitive bias where people attribute group behavior to the characteristics of the group members rather than the situation. Crucial for understanding team dynamics and avoiding misattribution in collaborative settings.
A cognitive bias where people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (most intense point) and its end, rather than the total sum of the experience. Crucial for designing memorable and satisfying user experiences.
A cognitive bias where the total probability assigned to a set of events is less than the sum of the probabilities assigned to each event individually. Important for understanding how users estimate probabilities and make decisions under uncertainty.