Mere Exposure Effect

The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon where people develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. Also known as the familiarity principle, this cognitive bias suggests that repeated exposure to a neutral stimulus (a person, object, or song) increases our liking for it.

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aura is the new luxury

Walter Benjamin argued that 'even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: Its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. ' He referred this unique cultural context i.e. 'its presence in time and space' as its 'aura'.

https://youtube.com/shorts/3Iss1CksXD4?si=KKzhvM_4eberUe4S

love this!

colour hunting as a side quest

https://x.com/__nmsk13/status/2047650754765464014?s=20

(US Study)

A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) found that between 2000–2002 and 2016–2018, the proportion of 18–24-year-old individuals who reported having had no sexual activity in the past year increased among men (but not among women).1 In another recent study, similar results were reported: American men belonging to the youngest birth cohort who entered adulthood were more likely to be sexually inactive than their Millennial counterparts at the same ages just a few years prior.

The 5% is thus having half the (penile–vaginal) sex in the world.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bioe.13134

AI self-preferencing in algorithmic hiring

tldr; using AI to craft your resume leads to better shortlisting rates

The bias against human-written resumes is particularly substantial, with self-preference bias ranging from 67% to 82% across major commercial and open-source models. To assess labor market impact, we simulate realistic hiring pipelines across 24 occupations. These simulations show that candidates using the same LLM as the evaluator are 23% to 60% more likely to be shortlisted than equally qualified applicants submitting human-written resumes, with the largest disadvantages observed in business-related fields such as sales and accounting.

source:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00462

https://x.com/heynavtoor/status/2048088874686300431?s=20

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A facial aging clock trained on occupation-linked photos found that the gap between your biological face-age and your real age predicts all-cause mortality. The wider that gap, the higher your risk.

Women aged slower than men in every single occupation measured. No exceptions.

The ranking, from youngest-looking to oldest-looking relative to chronological age:

Athletes > service workers > sales > clerical > managers > professionals > scientists and educators.

source:
Face photo-based age acceleration predicts all-cause mortality and differs among occupations - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.16.649078v1

https://x.com/agingroy/status/2047745587143917991?s=20

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over the weekend, i had the pleasure of playing Blood On The Clocktower, a board game with some friends (and friends of)

some reflections that also reflect human psych from a fellow player:
• approaching with something to give makes people trust you more (providing value first)
• being present when information is being shared and how you share/shape the perception of it, snowballs into a greater force down the line (compounding)

speaking of trusting, it reminds me of the Benjamin Franklin Effect

Benjamin Franklin Effect

The Benjamin Franklin Effect is a psychological phenomenon in which a person likes someone more after doing them a favor. The effect can be explained with cognitive dissonance: individuals rationalize their helpful actions by assuming they must like the person, since their behavior would otherwise conflict with their typical behavior and self-perception. In this way, the effect shows how people adjust their attitudes to maintain consistency in their self-concept.

tldr; asking for a favour from someone makes them trust/like you more

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https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/benjamin-franklin-effect

remember the CEO airhead epidemic that was discussed^

the effects of these dramas and movies are real and already felt

https://x.com/HazelAppleyard/status/2048323256814313676?s=20

self protection by not working hard

what gets lost when a culture is commercialised?

https://youtube.com/shorts/8jQmcQmSMCY?si=cWqzUjaENuXlK_7Y