📚 Mind-Blowing Psychology Book, 50 Book Giveaway, and more.

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 10 Key lessons from “Why We Remember”

• Stephen King’s tip for reading 70+ books a year

• 27 Reading tips from bestselling author Austin Kleon

PS: I mentioned earlier this month that I signed a book deal.

If you’d like to be an early reader of my book and help give feedback on it, apply to be an alpha-reader here!

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📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “Drunk Tank Pink” by Adam Atler.

If you enjoyed my post about “The Expectation Effect”, here’s another fascinating psychology book.

In it, the author shares how our environment unconsciously yet dramatically shapes the decisions we make every day. If you enjoy learning about the unconscious side of the human mind and how it works, you’ll love this book.

Here are lessons from this book:

📖

1) Your Name Influences Your Life

Researchers have shown that our names can impact our mental worlds and attract us to the concepts they embody.

For instance, is it a coincidence that Anna Smashnova was a professional tennis player, Stephen Rowbotham was an Olympic rower, or Usain Bolt was the fastest man in the world?

Or that Christopher Coke was a notorious drug dealer and the rapper Black Rob was sentenced to prison for a robbery?

It’s tempting to dismiss these anecdotes, but there is some science behind a name.

Researchers looked at the names of 500 lawyers from 10 different law firms.

They found that lawyers with fluent names were 8% more likely to be promoted to partner than lawyers with disfluent names.

The fluency of a name is just as important to companies as it is to humans.

Another group of researchers looked at 1,000 stocks during their first week in the market.

The researchers asked people to rate the names of each company and indicate how easy or difficult it was to pronounce each company’s name.

Near the top, you had fluently named companies like Belden Inc., and near the bottom, you had disfluently named companies like Magyar Tavkozlesi Részvénytársaság.

Interestingly, the top 10 most fluently named companies soared 11% in their first week in the market, whereas the 10 least fluently named companies had a much smaller 4% return.

The researchers also compared the performance of stocks with fluent tickers (like HOG) with disfluent tickers (like RSH) and found similar results.

Stocks with fluent tickers yielded a 15% gain across the stock market, but those with disfluent tickers yielded only a 7% gain.

So while being creative is great, when it comes to naming your kids or companies, it pays to keep things simple.

📖

2) Social Isolation Illness

The most anti-social people in the world tend to be violent criminals–many of whom end up in a supermax prison (the most secure level of custody in the prison system).

Do you know how those prisoners are punished when they cause trouble?

Solitary confinement.

Think about that for a second–even if you’re one of the most anti-social people in the world, being socially isolated will cause you massive pain.

Psychologist Craig Haney studied hundreds of inmates at the Pelican Bay supermax prison and found that prisoners who spent too much time in isolation emerged with a combination of chronic apathy, depression, and despair.

Between 80-90% of them were irrationally angry, confused, and socially withdrawn.

Psychologists have compared the effects of social isolation to the process of deterioration that victims experience when they’re poisoned by snake venom.

At first, isolation breeds agitation–some people refer to this as “cabin fever.”

After agitation comes hallucination, anxiety, and even psychosis: a complete psychological break from reality.

This is a lesson I learned through my own experiences.

I’m as introverted as they come–I spend most days alone, reading books. I don’t have coworkers or a boss to talk to.

That might sound awesome, but one day I realized that I hadn’t said a single word the entire day, which freaked me out. I had put myself in a form of solitary confinement.

I also noticed that when I went several days without interacting with people, my anxiety went up and so did other symptoms of depression.

Ever since that day, I have tried to schedule at least one long interaction with a friend or family member every week.

It could be grabbing coffee with an old friend, going to the gym with a buddy, or visiting my parents and catching up with them.

It’s a small habit that’s had a massive positive effect on my mental health and I highly recommend doing the same.

📖

3) Your Environment Changes Everything

One of the biggest lessons I took away from this book is that your environment has a massive impact on your life.

Here are a few interesting examples:

Every winter millions of people around the world are affected by seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as the winter blues.

Scientists believe that the decrease in sunlight disrupts the body's internal clock and leads to feelings of depression.

About 10% of people in New Hampshire (a northern and colder state) are affected by it every year, but only 1% of people in Florida (a southern and warmer state) are affected by it.

Sunny days are good for one’s mood but also for the market.

One researcher looked at the weather conditions and stock market data from 1927 to 1989 and found that traders were more bullish on sunny days than cloudy days.

Two finance professors took this analysis one step further and found that 26 financial markets worldwide experienced larger gains on sunny days than cloudy ones.

However, there are some negatives to warmer areas.

Researchers found that as temperatures rose, so did road rage. People honked faster and longer on warmer days than cooler ones.

Researchers also found that “between the northern and southern parts of the United States, they find that the south still has higher crime rates” and that throughout the country, “crime rates also rise during the hotter months of the year within each city.”

Weather is just one exmaple of how your environment changes your life, the book also dives into noise, space, and other factors.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) When thinking about naming your child or company, ask yourself: “Is this name easy to pronounce"?”

2) Make an effort to be more social:

• Text a few friends and make plans to hang out with at least one of them this week.

3) Take a few minutes to reflect on how your environment is affecting your life–and if there’s anything you can do to change things for the better.

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Alex W.