Why do people with the least experience often feel the most confident - while true expertise comes with doubt? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore the Dunning-Kruger Effect - the cognitive bias that causes people with limited knowledge or skill to overestimate their ability, while more competent individuals feel less confident.

Discover how gaps in self-awareness distort confidence, why learning can initially make us feel worse before we get better, and how to spot when confidence is coming from ignorance rather than understanding.

Studies and links:

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments | Research Gate | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (PDF) Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

How the Dunning-Kruger Effect works | Very Well Mind The Dunning-Kruger Effect: An Overestimation of Capability

Why does making even small progress feel so motivating — and why do setbacks drain us so quickly? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore the progress principle — the idea that consistent, meaningful progress is one of the strongest drivers of motivation, engagement, and well-being. When we feel like we’re moving forward, our confidence grows; when progress stalls, motivation collapses.

Discover how recognising small wins can transform performance, persistence, and morale — and how to structure your goals to keep momentum working in your favour.

Studies and links:

The Progress Principle | Psychology Fanatic Understanding the Progress Principle: Small Wins for Big Success - Psychology Fanatic

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work | Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer (2011)

Why do we seek out information that agrees with us — and ignore what doesn’t? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore confirmation bias — the tendency to favour evidence that supports our existing beliefs while dismissing or downplaying anything that challenges them.

Discover how to recognise when you’re searching for reassurance instead of truth — and how to challenge your own thinking before it locks you into the wrong conclusion.

Studies and Links:

On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task | Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology | Peter Wason wason-qjep1960.pdf

Cognitive Biases and Brain Biology Help Explain Why Facts Don't Change Minds | UConn Today

Cognitive Biases and Brain Biology Help Explain Why Facts Don't Change Minds - UConn Today

Why do first numbers stick in our minds — even when we know they’re arbitrary? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore anchoring bias — the mental shortcut that causes us to rely too heavily on the first piece of information we encounter when making decisions. From price tags and negotiations to estimates, grades, and everyday judgments, we uncover how initial anchors quietly pull our thinking off course.

Discover how to recognise when an anchor is shaping your choices — and how to break free from its influence so you can think more clearly and decide more deliberately.

Studies and links:

Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases | Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky tversky_k_heuristics_biases.pdf

Anchoring bias & Adjustment Heuristic: Definition and Examples | Simply Psychology Anchoring Bias and Adjustment Heuristic in Psychology

Why do rare events feel far more common than they really are? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we explore the availability error — the mental shortcut that makes us judge probability based on how easily examples come to mind. From dramatic news stories to personal memories that stick with us, we uncover how vivid or recent information can distort our perception of risk, influence our decisions, and quietly shape our fears and beliefs.

Discover how to spot when your judgement is being guided by what’s most memorable — not what’s most accurate — and how to recalibrate your thinking when it matters most.

Studies and links:

Availability Heuristic and Decision Making | Simply Psychology Availability Heuristic In Psychology: Definition & Examples

Availability: A Heuristic for judging Frequency and Probability | Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman Tversky availability.pdf

Why do some people spiral into addiction while others — even with the same access — stay completely fine? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we dive into Bruce Alexander’s groundbreaking work on addiction, namely, the famous Rat Park experiment. His research shows that addiction isn’t just about drugs — it’s about environment, connection, and purpose. Rats in isolated, barren cages became addicted, while those in enriched, social environments avoided drugs almost entirely.

Discover how social disconnection, loneliness, and lack of meaningful engagement can drive addictive behaviour — and how creating supportive, connected environments can help prevent or even reverse it. This episode will change how you think about addiction, shifting the focus from individual weakness to the power of context and human connection.

Studies and links:

What Does “Rat Park” Teach Us About Addiction? | Psychiatric Times What Does “Rat Park” Teach Us About Addiction? | Psychiatric Times

What can the Rat Park experiment teach us about addiction? | UK Addiction Treatment Centres What can the Rat Park experiment teach us about addiction? - UK Addiction Treatment Centres

Why do subtle cues in our environment quietly shape our thoughts, feelings, and decisions—often without us noticing? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we dive into priming — the psychological phenomenon where exposure to certain words, images, or ideas can influence how we interpret the world and how we behave next. From tiny triggers that nudge our mood to hidden cues that shift our judgement or performance, we uncover how effortlessly our minds can be steered in a particular direction.

Discover what priming reveals about the automatic mind, how everyday environments quietly “set the tone” for your choices, and how becoming aware of these subtle influences can help you take back control of your decisions before they’re made for you.

Studies and links:

Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1996. Vol. 71, No. 2. 230-244 Bargh_et_al_1996_Automaticity_of_social_behavior.pdf

Priming a New Identity: Self-Monitoring Moderates the Effects of Nonself Primes on Self-Judgments and Behavior | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005, Vol. 89, No. 5, 657– 671 2005-jpsp-demarree-wheeler-petty.pdf

Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing | Science 313, 1451 (2006); - Zhong & Liljenquist 2006.pdf

Why do ordinary people slip into cruel or submissive roles the moment power is handed out? In this episode of Circuit Breaker: Rewiring Your Decisions, we examine the Stanford Prison Experiment — the infamous study that revealed just how quickly authority, environment, and assigned roles can transform behaviour. From guards who escalated into aggression to prisoners who internalised obedience and distress, we explore how the situation—not personality—can push people into extremes they never imagined.

Discover what this experiment teaches us about the power of context, how easily we can lose ourselves in the roles we’re given, and how to stay grounded when a situation starts shaping you more than you realise.

Studies and links:

The Menace Within | Stanford Magazine The Menace Within | STANFORD magazine

Stanford Prison Experiment | Simply Psychology Stanford Prison Experiment