Who says psychology is just common sense? Sometimes the truth—as revealed by psychological research—truly is stranger than fiction.

“When you tell someone that you’re taking, teaching, or practicing psychology, you’re likely to get the reaction that ‘it’s all common sense,’” says Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in a recent article in Psychology Today.   “However, having taught introductory psychology for over 30 years, I’ve accumulated an armamentarium of facts to teach students that challenge this myth about psychology's knowledge base.”

Whitbourne’s “armamentarium” includes some surprising facts:

• Getting paid for doing something you like can make you less creative.


• Maslow’s study of 3000 college students found that none met the criteria for self-actualization.


• Placebos can often offer as much relief as actual treatments.


• Posting a calorie chart in fast food restaurants leads people to choose less healthy foods.


• Van Gogh probably developed the symptoms that led to his hospitalization from absinthe poisoning.


• Rorschach’s nickname as a child was “Inkblot.”

• Patients who have experienced strokes resulting in severe language loss are better at detecting lies than people without brain damage.


• Handshake style is predictive of certain personality traits. Women with firm handshakes tend to show more openness, intellectual curiosity, and willingness to seek out novel experiences.


• Dogs really do resemble their owners. In one study, judges matched faces of dog owners to their dogs at significantly better than chance levels—although this was true only with purebred, not mixed-breed dogs.

“Many of these findings may strike us as myths because they are counterintuitive, even bizarre,” says Lilienfeld.  “They remind us to doubt our common sense” (p. 247).

What do you think? What research results have been surprising to you? Have unexpected findings changed the way you think or work?  PAR wants to hear from you, so leave a comment and join the conversation!

*Lilienfeld, S., Lynn, S.J., Ruscio, J., & Beyerstein, B.L. (2010). 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.