Though searches are performed almost instantly, travel sites added fake "Searching..." screens after learning that customers are skeptical of deals that appear
too quickly.

The placebo effect can help with weight loss. In one experiment, people told a milkshake was high in calories were far less hungry than people told it was a low-cal shake.

In a placebo effect study, people told that a certain smell would make them more creative scored higher on tests of creative performance.

Expectations matter. When identically-prepared chicken a la king was served to people in 10 different eateries, it got top marks at a fancy restaurant and bad reviews at a boarding school.

Google Research director Peter Norvig discovered that "getting the worst possible score on an interview" at Google was a "really good indicator" of success at the company.

In a brainstorming experiment at Yale, students working alone produced twice as many solutions as those in groups and their solutions were deemed more feasible and effective.

After a sex-and-drugs scandal, Paul Flowers, a former Methodist minister and Chairman of Britain's Co-op Bank, was dubbed "the crystal Methodist."

Legendary activist
Wavy Gravy became a
clown after realizing
that police wouldn't
beat him up if he wore
a red plastic nose.

Jean Cocteau was once asked if he believed in luck. "Of course," he said. "How else do you explain the success of people you
don't like?"

Though Finland's army held off the USSR for 105 days in 1940's Winter War, President Kyösti Kallio had to concede defeat. "Let the hand wither," he said, "that signs this monstrous treaty!" Within months his arm was paralyzed.