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PODCAST

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files

Learn how theories in psychology affect you in everyday life. Upbeat and interesting podcasts from experienced psychology teacher Michael Britt give you a bit more insight into you and your life.

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All Episodes

18:07

Latest Research: Anthropomorphism and Dementia

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2025/10/15

In this episode of The Psych Files, I explore anthropomorphism—our tendency to attribute human characteristics to non-human entities—drawing from Justin Gregg's new book "Humanish." I discuss both helpful and harmful examples of anthropomorphism, from Soviet dolphin-assisted births to Japanese raccoon imports inspired by anime, and explain how this connects to Theory of Mind, our ability to attribute mental states to others. Gregg, an expert on animal cognition, argues that anthropomorphism isn't

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10:24

The Surprising Psychology Behind Effortless Line...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2025/09/24

When I receive a new script, my first step surprises people. I create an audio recording of every scene I’m in – not just my lines, but everyone’s lines. Using apps like LineLearner, I record each cue line followed by my response, all delivered in completely monotone voice with zero inflection or emotion. This approach might make acting coaches cringe, but it connects directly to Sanford Meisner’s teaching philosophy. Meisner had students rehearse lines in monotone specifically to prevent them from

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10:54

Why Are We So Polite to AI?

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2025/06/25

When we say "please" or "thank you" to ChatGPT, we're witnessing the remarkable power of human social psychology in action. Our brains have developed such deeply ingrained social scripts over millions of years that they automatically activate whenever we encounter conversational situations—even with machines. Through social scripts, attribution theory, and automatic processing, we treat AI interactions just like human conversations, complete with politeness and courtesy. This isn't a flaw or

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11:57

The Song "Yesterday," Manhood, and the Fear of...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2025/05/11

In this episode of The Psych Files, I explore the fascinating intersection between music, psychology, and gender roles through subtle lyric changes in Paul McCartney’s timeless song, “Yesterday.” I focus specifically on why iconic male singers like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Marvin Gaye altered the lyric from “I said something wrong” to “I must have said something wrong.” I suggest that this small but meaningful change reflects a deeper cultural discomfort with male vulnerability, connecting

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04:54

Study Hack: Use ChatGPT to Ace Your Exams! |...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2025/02/07

Discover how to leverage ChatGPT and other AI tools to dramatically improve your learning and test performance! In this video, I explain a powerful study technique called the "self-explanation effect" and show you exactly how to combine it with AI for maximum learning impact. The full prompt: "I am currently studying [insert the topic you are studying here]. Pretend that you are a student who doesn’t know what the term means. I would like you to listen to my explanation and the example I give in it

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02:38

Lost in the Click: Exploring the Browser Doorway Effect

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/10/18

The Blank Tab Effect: A Modern Doorway Phenomenon Have you ever switched to a new browser tab, only to find yourself staring at a blank page and wondering why you opened it in the first place? This common experience is strikingly similar to what psychologists call the doorway effect and it’s one of quirks of how our memory works. Understanding the Doorway Effect The doorway effect occurs when people forget their intentions after passing through a doorway. This happens because our brains

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03:42

Beck's Cognitive Distortions: An AI-Powered Learning...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/06/24

In my recent exploration of artificial intelligence, I stumbled upon a fascinating article entitled, “Instructors as Innovators: a Future-focused Approach to New AI Learning Opportunities, With Prompts" which introduced the concept of goal-play interaction between students and AI. The authors provided a prompt for this interaction, which I found to be an intriguing application of AI to create interactive, educational experiences for students. I adapted the prompt provided in the article to

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10:13

Paralyzed by Fear: Exploring Tonic Immobility in...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/05/11

In this episode of "The Psych Files," we delve into the complex and sensitive topic of sexual assault, focusing particularly on the phenomenon of tonic immobility, often referred to as "frozen fright." This involuntary response can leave victims unable to move or speak during an assault, a reaction that is not only common but also deeply misunderstood. Our journey begins with a fictional account from the Netflix series "A Nearly Normal Family," where a young woman experiences this paralyzing

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11:52

Cloning Voices: Scary Maybe, But Also Therapeutic?

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/05/06

I'm about as worried as anyone else about how the new tools for cloning voices could be used by "bad actors" to clone the voices of politicians to make them say things they never said and possibly further polarize our country before an important election. But in this episode of the podcast I describe how I used ElevenLabs - a site that will allow you to clone your - or someone else's - voice to "re-create" my father's voice and use it to have him say some things that I always wanted to hear him

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43:39

The Psychology of Music: The Role of Expectations and...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/04/29

How does music affect us emotionally? Why do minor chords sound so sad? In this episode of The Psych Files I explore ideas from Daniel Leviton's fascinating book, Your Brain on Music, especially those ideas concerned with what composers do to draw you into their music by first conforming to your musical expectations and then carefully confounding them in order to surprise and delight. I talk with guitarist and composer David Temple to get his perspective on this process as well. Along the way you'll

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04:18

My 3 Favorite Psych Articles This Week - March 8, 2024

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/03/08

In this episode of The Psych Files, host Michael Britt explores three fascinating new psychology studies. First, research found that making hospital alarms more musical could help prevent dangerous mistakes caused by alarm fatigue. Next, studies on cats and dogs suggest they likely dream about their waking experiences, just like humans do. The brain activity of a sleeping dog resembles when it is chasing a ball, for example. Finally, not all personality tests are created equal - while popular, the

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32:26

From Insane Asylum to Psychiatric Center: A Brief...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/01/20

When we look back at the history of psychiatric care, it’s evident that practices and treatments have evolved tremendously over the years. Dr. Roger Christenfeld, the Research Director of the Hudson River Psychiatric Center, provides a unique insight into this transformative journey. (episode was recorded in 2007).

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20:47

Episode 104: Can Positive Affirmations Improve Your...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/01/18

Can positive affirmations help raise your self esteem? People use daily affirmations and money affirmations to help them feel more confident, build their self esteem and bring positive events into their lives. But do they really work? If not, then what will? We explore these questions in this episode of The Psych Files.

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30:48

Episode 64: Self Help Book - How To Tell if It's Any...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2024/01/18

Self Help books: why are there so many out there? How do you choose? Can they cure depression? Help you lose weight? Stop smoking? Can they replace psychotherapy? Find out how to weed out the best self-help book from all the others. Here's a list of the top 14 things that really bother psychologists or any scientists about self-help books.

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18:04

How to Remember Names

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2023/08/08

It's hard to remember names - here's how to do it. You'll use your imagination and some weird imagery - but this works. Here's another great use of mnemonics. I'll give you a bunch of people's names and describe the images I created to help me remember them. Give your brain a little room to roam and put it to practical use. Also, I look at recent research that provides yet another reason why names are hard to remember.

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30:55

Part 2: How Do Actors Memorize All Those Lines?

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2023/06/29

Here is part 2 of my interview with author and actor Jared Kelner. In this episode he tells how he uses the DSM (Diagnotic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in his work as an actor. We also talk a little more about his use of mnemonic devices to memorize lines.

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33:27

How Do Actors Memorize Lines? Interview With Jared...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2023/06/10

You have no doubt asked yourself this question after watching a play: "How did those actors memorize all those lines?". In previous episodes of The Psych Files I have discussed a few of the techniques actors use to do this, but on this episode I have an interview with a professional actor, Jared Kelner, who wrote a fascinating book exactly on this topic. It's called, naturally, "Line?". If you're interested in psychology, memory, and how actors accomplish the amazing feat of memorization -

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13:37

Do Brain Training Games Work?

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2023/04/10

You've probably heard about these Brain Training games. Do they really help you keep your mind sharp? Will they prevent cognitive decline as you get older or will they slow the effects of Alzheimer's disease? In this episode I review some recent studies on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of these popular games.

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04:50

How Actors Use the "Number-Shape" Mnemonic Technique

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2023/04/06

Another of my episodes on mnemonic techniques you can use for just about any purpose. I recently discovered a pegword system in a great book called, "Line?". It's a book for actors that was written by a memory expert like myself, Jared Kelner. Check out his book on Amazon. In this episode I demonstrate how this memory tool works and how an actor might apply it to memorize a famous speech from Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night. A very fun little system. I show how the system could be sued to

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33:44

Questionable Research - With A Famous Psychologist...

Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files ·

2023/03/29

Might you be able to rid yourself of an illness by "turning back the clock"? That is, by immersing yourself in a time in your life when you were not ill? We know that thinking about things in a positive way - which we sometimes call "reframing" can make us feel and act differently, and we know that the "placebo effect" is real, but how far can these ideas be taken Psychology has always struggled to separate itself from those who would "borrow" good ideas and take them too far or twist them in ways

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