666. Social media is psychologically designed to be addictive.
Told yourself you'd just quickly check your Facebook notifications, and 15 minutes later you're still scrolling? You're not alone. Part of that has to do with infinite scroll: When you can stay on the site without actually interacting and clicking, your brain doesn't get that "stop" cue.
667. Power makes people care less about others.
You've probably heard about the famous Stanford prison experiment. (Refresher: College students were randomly assigned to be either a prisoner or guard in a fake prison, and the "guards" started harassing the "prisoners." It got so bad that the two-week experiment was canceled after six days.). That's pretty extreme, but later studies have found that when people feel like they're in a power position, they become worse at judging a person's feelings based on their facial expressions, indicating a loss of empathy.
668. Money can buy happiness, but only up to a certain point.
Research shows that in terms of income, people have a "satiation point" where happiness peaks and earning more won't actually make you happier. Different studies have suggested various amounts (one 2010 study said $75,000, but a 2018 survey said $105,000), but the point is the same: Constantly aiming for more, more, more won't necessarily do you any good.
669. We loosen our morals when an authority tells us to.
It's one of the oldest psychology facts in the books: In the 1960s, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram infamously conducted an experiment that he thought would prove Americans wouldn't accept immoral orders like the Nazis had. For a "learning task," volunteers were told to deliver shocks to a "learner" (an actor, little known to the real volunteers) if they got an answer wrong. To Milgram's horror, the participants continued delivering shocks, even when the learner screamed in pain.
670. Our brain doesn't think long-term deadlines are so important.
Pretty much everyone has procrastinated at one time or another, even though we know logically that it would make more sense to get a jump on our tasks than to turn on Netflix. We prefer urgent, unimportant tasks because we know we'll be able to complete them. There's also evidence that when we see the deadline looming in terms of days, rather than months or years, because we feel more connected to a day-by-day passing of time.