Scientific Definition
Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.
Plain-English Definition
Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.
Feynman Explanation
Normal slides are forgotten. The weird ones are quoted.
Core Principle
Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Marketing messages compete for memory, not just attention.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Normal slides are forgotten. The weird ones are quoted.
Examples
- A presentation with one absurd analogy is remembered more than a balanced one.
- Marketing messages compete for memory, not just attention.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Deliberately place one striking, unusual element in key communications.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Deliberately place one striking, unusual element in key communications.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Believing previously learned misinformation even after it has been corrected.
A conditioned response changes disproportionately when reinforcement changes.
Forcing yourself to explain a concept reveals exactly where your understanding is hollow.
As more facts are learned about a topic, retrieving any one fact slows.
IQ scores have risen substantially over generations.
Items that stand out are more likely to be remembered.
Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.
Malcolm Knowles's principles of adult learning: self-direction, experience as resource, readiness, problem-centered orientation, intrinsic motivation.
Amishi Jha's research: attention is a finite, depletable, but trainable cognitive resource — short daily mindfulness measurably improves it.
Approach a situation as if you knew nothing.
Hierarchy of cognitive learning: Remember → Understand → Apply → Analyze → Evaluate → Create. Benjamin Bloom, 1956 (revised 2001).
Wallace J. Nichols: proximity to water reliably shifts the nervous system toward a calmer, more creative state.