What is imagination, and why does your brain create mental images of people and places it has never actually seen? In this episode of Why Do We Do That?, Open University cognitive psychologist Professor Graham Pike explores the psychology of imagination, mental imagery and aphantasia.

From picturing what someone looks like based only on their voice to becoming completely immersed in a fictional world, our brains are constantly filling in missing information. But where do those images come from, and why can they feel so convincing?

Professor Pike explains how imagination draws on memory and past experiences, how priming and schemas help us make sense of the world, and why our memories may be more changeable than we realise. He also explores why some people experience vivid visual imagination while others have aphantasia and don't create mental images at all.

The conversation also looks at why we become so emotionally invested in fictional characters and celebrities, including the psychology of parasocial relationships and why losing that connection can sometimes feel surprisingly real.

🎓 Study psychology with The Open University: https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/choose/psychology

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:24 Why does the brain create mental images?
2:42 How priming shapes what we imagine
5:01 How we imagine people from their voice
8:29 Why reality can clash with our imagination
10:23 How the brain constructs reality
13:16 How culture shapes perception
14:46 Can other people change our memories?
16:37 How false memories can be created
17:46 Can we imagine something completely new?
19:57 Why does the brain fill in the blanks?
21:38 Why we imagine the future
23:40 Aphantasia and differences in mental imagery
25:54 How imagination works when we read
28:04 How do people with aphantasia experience books?
28:56 Why we get lost in fictional worlds
29:23 The psychology of parasocial relationships
30:15 Why parasocial relationships feel real
33:01 Should we trust our imagination?
34:14 What imagination tells us about the brain
#WhyDoWeDoThat #Imagination #Aphantasia #PsychologyPodcast #CognitivePsychology #MentalImagery #OpenUniversity

Why do people cheat? In this episode of Why Do We Do That?, Open University psychologist and relationship expert Naomi Moller explores cheating in the digital age, from emotional affairs and online relationships to the changing boundaries of infidelity.

What actually counts as cheating? Is liking someone's photos or exchanging messages online really unfaithful? And at what point does an online connection cross the line? Naomi explores why secrecy can be more important than the behaviour itself when defining infidelity, and why online cheating can feel every bit as real to the person on the receiving end.

The conversation looks at how online dating, digital communication and social media have changed modern relationships, including the rise of text-based relationships, the appeal of a seemingly endless dating pool and the idea of the "hyper real", where an online connection can sometimes feel more intense than reality.

Naomi also explores trust issues, relationship advice and some of the assumptions we make about why people cheat, including whether men and women really view sexual and emotional infidelity differently.

From dating apps and healthy relationships to communication, jealousy and emotional infidelity, discover what psychology can tell us about cheating, trust and relationships in an increasingly digital world.

Chapters:
0:00 Can an online relationship be cheating?
1:32 Relationships in the digital age
2:50 How phones affect our relationships
3:50 Has online dating changed relationships?
5:35 Does online dating make cheating easier?
6:23 What counts as online infidelity?
9:06 What actually counts as cheating?
10:30 Why online cheating is a grey area
11:28 Is secrecy what makes it cheating?
13:06 Does it count if you never meet?
13:48 Is online infidelity becoming more common?
16:12 Emotional affairs vs sexual affairs
18:11 When does a friendship cross the line?
21:38 Why do people have affairs?
24:27 Can online affairs happen by accident?
28:03 Why we behave differently online
32:18 Why online relationships can feel more real
35:00 How common is cheating?

🎓 Study psychology with The Open University:https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/choose/psychology

#WhyDoWeDoThat #WhyDoPeopleCheat #PsychologyPodcast #Relationships #EmotionalAffairs #TrustIssues #OpenUniversity

Why do people lie? From harmless white lies to much bigger deceptions, lying is part of human behaviour but what makes us do it, and are we actually any good at spotting when someone isn't telling the truth?

In the first episode of Why Do We Do That, Open University psychology experts Professor Lara Frumkin and Professor Zoe Walkington explore the psychology of lying, why we sometimes bend the truth and what research tells us about lie detection.

Can you really tell if someone is lying from their body language? Does avoiding eye contact, fidgeting or looking in a certain direction give someone away? And are polygraph tests really reliable? The research might surprise you: when it comes to detecting lies, most of us perform at around chance level.

The episode also explores why we tend to assume other people are telling the truth, what psychologists call duping delight”, how small white lies can grow into something much bigger, and what happens to trust when someone has been seriously deceived.

Whether you've wondered why people lie, how to tell if someone is lying, or whether there's really such a thing as a human lie detector, discover what psychology can tell us about deception, trust and human behaviour.

Chapters:
0:00 Can we really detect a lie?
0:31 Why do people lie?
1:46 Why we tell white lies
2:39 Are some lies more acceptable than others?
5:11 When white lies become bigger lies
6:19 Can you tell when someone is lying?
8:29 Can we get better at detecting lies?
10:50 Body language and lie detection myths
12:01 Can you rebuild trust after a lie?
13:05 Why we assume people are telling the truth
14:10 Are some people more likely to lie?
16:08 Do lie detector tests actually work?
18:43 How often do people lie?
21:04 What actually counts as a lie?
22:17 Does lying make someone a bad person?
24:22 Once a liar, always a liar?
25:36 Why do we lie to ourselves?
27:36 Do people feel guilty about lying?
30:07 How do investigators catch someone lying?
33:17 Why does being lied to hurt so much?
34:04 What psychology tells us about lying

🎓 Study psychology with The Open University:https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/choose/psychology

#WhyDoWeDoThat #PsychologyOfLying #Psychology #OpenUniversity #LieDetection

Why do we behave the way we do?

Why Do We Do That? is a psychology podcast from The Open University, hosted by OU psychology student Freya.

Across the series, Freya speaks to psychologists and counsellors from The Open University to explore the psychology behind everyday behaviours, relationships and experiences that many of us share but don't always understand.

Inspired by real questions and experiences from the OU student community, each episode asks one simple question: why do we do that?

Subscribe or follow to hear the first episode and discover the psychology behind everyday life.