PsychologyExplain Like I'm 5Intermediate
Decoding Everyday Psychology, a free psychology course on Tomo

Decoding Everyday Psychology

Like Duolingo, but for Decoding Everyday Psychology. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 9 levels across 2 sections, about 18 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Traps of Individual Judgment and The Pull of Social Context. It assumes you already know the basics.

9 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Piper the Poodle, the guide who teaches the Decoding Everyday Psychology course
Decoding Everyday Psychology
with Piper the Poodle
9
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Decoding Everyday Psychology

  • Arbitrary starting numbers skew estimates even when recognized as random.
  • Anchors selectively activate memories and evidence that match the target value.
  • Adjustment usually halts prematurely at the nearest boundary of plausibility.
  • Vivid or emotionally traumatic events are retrieved far faster from memory.
  • Ease of mental recall is subconsciously substituted for actual statistical frequency.
  • Salient media coverage inflates subjective hazard risk over baseline probability.
  • A diagnostic test's accuracy cannot be interpreted without the population base rate.
  • Rare conditions generate far more aggregate false positives than true positives.
  • Bayesian updating requires weighing test sensitivity against prior prevalence.
  • Framing shifts the neutral reference point without changing the objective payoff.
  • Prospect theory shows people avoid risk when facing gains but seek risk in losses.
  • Evaluation rubrics must be finalized before reviewing candidate attributes.
  • Weighting criteria in advance stops evaluators from tailoring metrics to favorites.
  • Blinding identifiers removes social cues that trigger unconscious shortcuts.
  • High personal sacrifice creates dissonance if the prize feels mediocre
  • People inflate an outcome's perceived value to rationalize the pain spent
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Decoding Everyday Psychology the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Tricks Your Mind Plays

When a big anchor number is mentioned first, what does your brain start doing?

Get it right to open this lesson and 8 more in the app.

Course map

Where Decoding Everyday Psychology takes you

Learn to diagnose the invisible cognitive shortcuts and social pressures that shape real-world behavior. Master practical frameworks to recognize bias in negotiations, meetings, and personal habits.

  1. 1

    The Traps of Individual Judgment

    • Diagnosing Heuristic Shortcuts in Real Time
    • Untangling Dissonance and Justification
  2. 2

    The Pull of Social Context

    • Mapping Bystander and Group Pressures

2 sections · 3 units · 9 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
Explain Like I'm 5

Decoding Everyday Psychology is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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More Psychology on Tomo

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Start Decoding Everyday Psychology today.

Download Tomo, search Decoding Everyday Psychology, and play your first lesson in under a minute.