This article sheds light on 6 essential laws of psychology that affect our life. It also provides the solution to remedy them. 

Psychology is the science behind one’s behavior. It enhances the human’s conscious, subconscious, behavioral, and cognitive aspects. 

Studying psychology helps to decode and understand human behavior. Laws of psychology are practical in our lives, and understanding them helps us make better decisions. 

These laws of psychology are very beneficial and exciting to study. It helps gain insight and perspective as to why we or someone behaves in a particular way.

6 important laws of psychology are as follows:

 

1. Law of narcissism

People are sometimes selfish and think about themselves. They are so self-centered they want everyone to pay attention to them. If someone doesn’t pay attention to them, they start feeling insecure.  

They sweet talk you into liking them. Further, these narcissistic people try to control you with their excellent communication skills and sweet words. They like themselves immensely and assume they can never do or be wrong about anything. 

The shocking truth is that all humans are narcissists to some extent. We all calculate our self-worth according to the attention we get from others. Hence, this is an important law of psychology.

This may start small, but if we don’t have enough sense to pull ourselves from this self-centered pit, we are on our way to becoming deep narcissists. 

Always know the value of ourselves, but never become obsessed with yourself. This law of psychology teaches us that narcissistic people are self-consumed and obsessed with themselves. 

Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/narcissism-narcissist-shadow-bad-3752409/

Solution

• We often come across selfish people who only want attention for themselves in our lives. Spot these self-absorbed people and maintain your distance from them, especially in relationships. They may create an illusion of liking you, while their primary purpose would be to control you.
• Don’t measure your self-worth with the amount of attention you get in the room. Instead, stay deeply rooted in your values and true to your nature. 
• Develop empathy towards others. Listen to people instead of ignoring their talks. Keep your judgment aside and be open to new thoughts and ideas. Try connecting to other people with positive body language and facial expressions. 

2. Law of grandiosity

We, humans, have the ability to think very highly of ourselves. This law of psychology says that we create an unrealistic supreme perspective of ourselves. 

We tend to believe that we are better than anyone else. Even a tiny achievement can elevate the level of your ego and grandiosity. People with high grandiosity tend to lose rationality and may make hasty and unreasonable decisions. 

The law of grandiosity affects all spheres of human life, personal, professional, as well as mental. 

The best example of grandiosity is Michael Eisner, the president of paramount pictures. He was credited with making many successful films at Paramount, but the credit was shared among all the executives, which he thought was unfair. 

He then became CEO at Walt Disney, which, after Walt Disney’s death, was going through hard times. Eisner gave the executive position to paramount executives. 

One of the most notable executives was Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is the mind behind the famous lion king movie. 

The success of the films grew, and profits of the company rocketed. But a similar pattern of Eisner’s grandiosity followed, but it was more intensified. 

He started feeling insecure about Katzenberg to the extent that he had him sacked. His idea of building Disneyland in Paris flopped with the costs mounting up. 

Since then, it was the downfall for Disney. But Eisner continued his quest till September 2005, when he was forced to resign.

Read the full story here. 

Solution

• Stop overestimating yourself and your skills. Accept your weaknesses and failures as a part of your mistake, which can be improved by hard work.
• Don’t pin your failures on bad luck. Also, be responsible enough to accept your mistakes instead of pointing fingers at others. 
• When you start achieving even a small amount of success, your grandiosity will intensify rapidly with increased attention, respect, and financial gains. Learn to separate your self opinions from reality. 
• Appreciate the contribution of others to success. Success is very high up, and you need allies to keep you from falling down.  

3. Law of role-playing

This law of psychology says that we can gather more information about a person from non-verbal signals. 

The law of role-playing says that humans often wear the mask of bubbliness, cheerfulness, and pleasant appearance to always be seen in a good light. 

They hide their true personality with the mask of persona. But these masks have cracks that help you see through the actual personality of people. 

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/XIVDN9cxOVc

You can quickly know a person is in a bad mood even if the mask of happiness is pulled on. We pick up some non-verbal cues that point toward a bad mood. It can be closed body language or a glimpse of unpleasant facial expressions. 

People wear this mask to conceal their envy and insecurities. They put on a show to be interested in us. We face manipulation, refusal, and bitterness if we fail to see through the cracks. 

Sometimes even you may need to put on a mask in order to save yourself from hostility and resistance. 

Solution

• Master your knowledge about body language and nonverbal signs to pick up any unconscious cues that people leave. Become a superior reader. 
• Find the cracks and identify people for who they really are and not for what they portray themselves. Save yourself from their misleading thoughts and intentions. 
• If the times call, put on a mask of persona with utmost efficiency without leaving any cracks. 
• Conversation can be misleading. Pay more attention to what involuntary cues are pointing to instead of listening to what people verbally say.

4. Law of conformity

This law of psychology states that people have the tendency to agree with ideas, actions, products, and services that are accepted by their peers or social group. 

Social group influences a lot of our decisions. We tend to make dangerous decisions that we don’t usually make individually thinking doing such actions would be foolish and non-rewarding. 

We change our behavior and actions to fit into a group. Humans, tend to improvise and collaborate on activities to endure our existence in the social group. 

Source:  https://unsplash.com/photos/S_VbdMTsdiA

There are 2 fundamental reasons why we conform to our actions.

• We are influenced by the information. We change our actions to get the correct response. And when we are unsure of right and wrong answers, we look up to and imitate people we perceive as intelligent. 
• We change our behavior because we want to avoid punishments like being left alone by the group or to gain rewards like making everyone like us. This is called normative influence. 

In simple terms law of conformity means giving in to social or peer pressure. We usually imitate and want to fit in 3 groups.

• The close (family, friends, peers, colleagues)
• The many (company, country, religion)
• The powerful (Respectful, successful, and high-status individuals)

The most common example of the law of conformity is smoking pot because your friends do so. Consuming drugs with your peers just so you don’t seem boring to them.

Agreeing to mass crowd opinions without taking rational thought into consideration is very common. Experts have conducted various experiments to prove the law of conformity. 

Solution

• The law of conformity can bring about positive (like NGOs working for poor people’s education, peaceful protest against oppression, etc.) as well as negative changes (violence in the name of religion, peer pressure to own things your peer group has, etc.).  
• Understand the dynamics of how social pressure and group work. It will help develop group intelligence and logical reasoning about what is rational and irrational. 
• Social influence makes us believe that if everyone is doing it, then it is correct. Understanding this law helps us and we do not get influenced by what others are doing. 
• Develop a superior self-awareness and a deep understanding of how to fit in the group without losing your own rationality and independent thinking. 

5. Law of short-sightedness

This law of psychology states that humans are short-sighted. We are often more attracted to the latest trends. You want to read the latest news, know other people’s opinions on the latest news, and use the latest gadgets.  

We live in the present, disregarding the future implication of any event or thing. We are so concentrated on the present circumstances that we pay little to no attention to the long-term effects. 

People get into the scam of making quick money, which points to their short-term thinking. 

You should consider the long-term strategic benefits and more significant trends instead of losing yourself to short-term goals.  

Long-term goals matter a lot. The modern digital world has addicted you to social media, concentrating on short-sighted activities like recent news or trends. Further, with so much information available on social media, we are easily distracted by its futility and overlook the big picture. 

We smoke or drink because we are short-sighted. We disregard the long-term health effects of doing so. 

Solution 

• Expand your horizon and perception of looking at things or events. 
• Take a step forward and look at the bigger picture. Analyze its effects in the future instead of reacting to what is happening in the present. 
• Don’t take hasty and prompt decisions. Take a step back and analyze the future and far-fetched implications of action taken right now. 
• Get rid of the 4 signs of short-sighted or short-term reasoning:

1. Nonconseququential thinking: You cannot predict the overall consequence of actions done. You feel that an action will lead to only one outcome.
2. Battle of lost wars: When your actions fail to give results, you are reluctant to part ways with them. 
3. Nervous impatience: You assume what is happening right now will also continue to happen in the future. If people are presently investing in cryptocurrency, they will continue to do so in the future also. That is not true because investments totally depend on cryptocurrencies’ cost, rules, legality, and tax compliance. 
4. Information overload: In this modern era of information, you have too much information, which lulls you into a false sense of control. With so much information, you overload your brain, affecting your ability to prioritize appropriately.

6. Law of aimlessness

A sense of purpose in life is very important. This law of psychology says that you should find your life calling and proceed in your life, keeping the same in your mind. Author Robin Sharma said having a purpose in life is a life of purpose. 

Source: https://pixabay.com/vectors/destination-goal-purpose-the-goal-1285851/

Research has proved that people having a purpose in life are more successful than those who don’t. We all have multiple motivators in life. For some, money and fame are essential; for others, entertainment, gambling, and drugs can be a motivator. 

All these cues are fickle indicators. They will give you short-term pleasure while withdrawing you from the long-term pursuit of happiness and growth. 

Money can be a potential indicator that attracts most of the masses. But you will soon realize that the competition to gain financial freedom and make a lot of money is gruesome. 

You would find yourself switching jobs for better opportunities and financial returns, in turn increasing burnouts and mental health problems. 

Solution

• Reject all the spur-of-the-moment impulses and commit yourself to a purpose or goal. This will help anchor your rationality and guide you to do the right things. 
• Find your own calling and follow it. Don’t be attracted to others’ success and try to imitate them. It will only make you anxious and stressed. 
• Follow real motivators such as knowledge, interest, learning something new, etc. Quit running behind unfulfilling motivators such as fame, recognition, pleasure, etc. They will give short-term satisfaction but cause angst and restlessness as you grow old. 
• Discover what draws you naturally and makes you happy. Recall all the activities you have done in the past and pinpoint activities that motivate you the most. 

Example: Steve Jobs was enthralled by technology, creativity, and complexity. He pursued his purpose and made an extremely successful company called Apple. 

Conclusion

These laws were explained with the help of the book The laws of human nature. The book describes a total of 18 laws of psychology with powerful historical examples, thorough explanations, and robust solutions for all these laws. Other than the laws explained in the article, some other crucial laws of psychology include:

• Law of envy, the law of repression, the law of defensiveness, the law of self-sabotage, the law of fickleness, etc. 

Understanding these laws makes our life easy, happy, and fulfilling. 

Soul potion

Law of denial of death

Most people have the misunderstanding that humans are immortal. We seldom think of death. In fact, we are the masters of avoiding the thought of death. 

But the indisputable fact is we are destined to die someday. Instead of avoiding the inevitable, you should leverage the thought and make your life productive. 

A near-death experience had opened up a new perspective and filtered what is essential and what is not for many people like Flannery O’Connor.   

Solution

• Accept the reality that you are going to die someday. Leverage this thinking to stop lazing around and start doing things to fulfill your life purpose. 
• Develop a deathbed mentality and filter all the essential activities you have to do. 
• Being aware of your mortality every day will make your life more fulfilling and satisfying. Because you will stop doing things that cause harm to your life.  
• People also practice meditation to get as close as possible to death.