The Science of Why We Do Things
Discover the hidden forces that drive your behavior, from the quirks of your memory to the biological roots of your emotions.
Like Duolingo, but for The Science of Why We Do Things. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
24 levels across 3 sections, about 48 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Noticing Your Own Mind, Understanding Others, and The Mechanics of the Brain. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Science of Why We Do Things
- The brain uses patterns and memory to predict what should be in a blind spot
- People naturally spend more time scrutinizing facts that disagree with them
- Sensory input is actually fragmented, but the brain 'stitches' it together for stability
- We tend to accept supporting evidence at face value without checking its source
- How confirmation bias influences information processing
- One positive trait can lead the brain to assume other unrelated positive traits exist
- The brain uses environmental cues to label ambiguous sounds or sights
- Initial impressions act as a filter for how we interpret later behavior
- Expectations act as a 'top-down' filter that changes the final perception
- Attention is a limited resource that can only focus on one complex task at a time
- The impact of the halo effect on social judgment
- The brain filters out 'irrelevant' data to prevent sensory overload
- How context and expectations shift perception of the same stimulus
- The concept of inattentional blindness
- The basal ganglia automates actions when a reward follows immediately
- Habits are context-dependent and triggered by specific sensory inputs
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Science of Why We Do Things 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.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
If you see a story that says your favorite vegetable is actually yucky, what is your brain most likely to do?
Get it right to open this lesson and 23 more in the app.
Where The Science of Why We Do Things takes you
- 1
Noticing Your Own Mind
- Why We See What We Want to See
- The Power of Habits and Rewards
- 2
Understanding Others
- How We Influence Each Other
- Why Emotions Are Actually Useful
- The Stories We Tell Ourselves
- 3
The Mechanics of the Brain
- How the Brain Learns and Changes
- The Science of Stress and Focus
- Thinking Fast and Slow
3 sections · 8 units · 24 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
The Science of Why We Do Things 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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How the Mind Works
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Start The Science of Why We Do Things today.
Download Tomo, search The Science of Why We Do Things, and play your first lesson in under a minute.