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Ideas that behave differently than they look.
Parrondo paradox shows why two losing bets can win when you alternate them: the switching itself changes the state distribution the games are played from.
Two losing games can win together when the switching changes the states they are played from.
The efficacy-effectiveness gap explains why a treatment that works in trials can fail in practice: trials strip out the patients and conditions ordinary care contains.
A trial measures what a treatment can do; practice measures what it does do.
The Jevons paradox explains why a more efficient engine can burn more fuel: cheaper work invites so much extra use that total consumption rises.
Efficiency makes each unit cheaper, and cheaper units get used until the saving is spent.
Precommitment works because a calm self restricts the options of a future impulsive self, turning a willpower problem into a structural constraint.
You cannot out-argue your future self, but you can take away its options.
The evaluability hypothesis explains why an option wins alone and loses beside a rival: attributes with no natural scale stay invisible until compared.
An attribute with no scale is invisible alone and decisive beside a rival.
Implementation intentions work because a written when-and-where plan hands control to the situation, so the action fires without a fresh decision.
A goal names the destination; an if-then plan names the moment the journey starts.
Choice bracketing explains why the same gamble is refused alone and accepted in a series: judged one at a time, each loss is felt in full.
A gamble refused alone is the same gamble accepted in a series; only the frame moved.
A stranger decision feels calmer because psychological distance reduces the emotional pull that makes personal choices feel heavier and less certain.
Distance makes judgment calmer because it makes self-defence quieter.
Foreign language decisions can feel cooler and slower, because the second language adds distance, lowering the pull of instinct and emotion.
Egocentric contribution bias makes every team member recall their own share as larger than it was, so the claimed contributions add up past one hundred per cent.
Everyone remembers their own part in detail and everyone else's in summary; the totals never add up.
Expectation assimilation means a stated price changes the pleasure you actually taste, not just the words you use to describe the wine afterwards.
You do not taste the wine and then the price; the price is already in the glass.
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