8 Weird Tricks Your Brain Plays On You Every Day, Explained By Science

If you've ever walked to the front of a room nervously, or gone grocery shopping when you were sad after a breakup, you may have experienced the feeling that everyone in the room knew exactly what was going on in your mind. This phenomenon is a trick of your brain, however, called "The Illusion of Transparency."

"The illusion of transparency is a cognitive bias that causes us to overestimate the degree to which other people can read our emotional state," Itamar Shatz, PhD candidate at Cambridge University and author of Effectiviology, tells Bustle. "For example, if you're giving a public talk, the illusion of transparency could cause you to think that the audience can tell how nervous you are, even when that's not the case." Because you are so used to having full access to your own feelings, your brain can forget that others don't have the same point of view.

Another daily trick your brain plays on you is zooming in on your most embarrassing moments, making you think everyone around you noticed too. This cognitive bias is called "The Spotlight Effect."

"The spotlight effect [...] causes us to assume that we are being observed and noticed by others more than is actually the case," Shatz says. "For example, if you make an embarrassing mistake or have a bad hair day, the spotlight effect could cause you to overestimate the likelihood that other people will notice or remember it." Similarly to the Illusion of Transparency, this phenomenon happens because when you are hyper-focused on something, your brain tricks you into thinking everyone else is, too. Turns out, they're probably focused on their own bad hair days.

When you dislike someone, you've probably realized that everything they do is annoying. From the way they part their hair, to the way they chew, to the way they sign off on emails, your brain catches every piece of data possible to dislike. Turns out, your brain is tricking you with this.

"We tend to ignore the good traits and facts about people we don’t like," Dr. Bryan Bruno, medical director at Mid City TMS, tells Bustle. "We also distort the facts in order to fit our view of dislike for that person." So while the person you dislike may actually have some redeeming qualities, your brain once again zooms in: focusing on only what bothers you.

The famous Milgram Experiment, which used simulated electric shocks to show the horrifying effects of obedience, has become more controversial in recent years. Still, the findings that people will go to great lengths for authority do seem to hold up, even if perhaps not as much as Milgram's research suggested.

"Our brain primes us to follow orders just because it comes from an authority figure," Dr. Bruno says. To what degree your brain convinces you to follow arbitrary authority is up for debate, but if tricks you into following all sorts of social codes of authority every day.

Even if you have a diverse set of family and friends, it turns out your brain is likely priming you to think and act like them. Think about your group of friends, for example, you may have your own little "language" among you, funny only to the people in your group chat.

"We tend to think and act like those around us," Dr. Bruno says. "Groups of friends tend to think, talk, and act the same. Close-knit groups of friends can even start to look the same over time, according to several studies." While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does mean your brain may be tricking you into thinking you're a little bit more unique than you think.

Nothing against personality tests, but the reason they all tend to feel so eerily accurate is actually due to the inner workings of your brain.

"In a phenomenon called the Barnum Effect, people tend to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, even though they’re actually vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people," Dr. Bruno says. Continue enjoying all those personality quizzes; just remember this when you feel like they're getting a little too accurate.

If you have social anxiety, your brain may be playing tricks on you all the time. This one little trick your brain plays, however, happens to a lot of people to varying degrees.

"The brains of people with social anxiety over-focus on social cues," Burgess says. "So, the brain will notice if someone laughs as they walk past us, causing a socially anxious person to think that person must be laughing at them. The brain may point out if a stranger sniffs or frowns as they walk past, leading a socially anxious person to feel disapproved of or judged." This pattern is another example of your brain jumping to perceived conclusions that aren't actually true.

A slip of the tongue, or a Freudian slip, tends to seem like a window to the mind. In reality, these awkward moments are your brain tricking you into saying something you really don't want to say, at the most inopportune time.

"Usually when people are tired or overwhelmed the subconscious uses that opportunity to pay a visit to your consciousness," psychiatrist Dr. Zlatin Ivanov, tells Bustle. "The result most of the time is to make you feel embarrassed. The most common is 'a tongue slip' when the person says something they didn’t want to say because it will cause embarrassment or at least inconvenience to somebody." So while a common concept of a Freudian slip suggests you accidentally say what you're really feeling, your brain actually is tricking you into saying what you're most scared of saying.

A healthy brain plays little tricks on you in your daily life, and that's perfectly fine. Learning what these tricks are, and how they affect you and your perception of the world around you, however, might be able to ease some of your common embarrassments or fears.