My interest in psychology did not begin with textbooks.
It began with watching people.
How they behave in groups.
How they respond to incentives.
How they defer responsibility.
How they justify actions after the fact.
I’ve always been less interested in what people say they believe than in how they behave when something is at stake — money, safety, status, desire, fear. That is where psychology stops being theoretical and becomes real.
Humans in Systems
The same patterns repeat everywhere.
In markets, people chase momentum and call it conviction.
In wars, they obey authority and call it duty.
In commerce, they respond to incentives and call it fairness.
In dating, they perform identities rather than reveal character.
But this wasn’t always obvious to me.
For a long time, I assumed people acted primarily from values — that principles guided behaviour, and inconsistency was the exception. I often wondered why I didn’t quite fit in, why what people said mattered so much less than what they did.
I now understand that most behaviour is context-driven, not value-driven. People adapt to the system they are placed in, often without conscious awareness. Change the frame and the behaviour follows.
Even now, I would describe myself as a relative novice in fully grasping this. Human systems are complex, layered, and adaptive. The learning never really ends.
This isn’t cynicism.
It’s late-arriving clarity.
Understanding this has helped me navigate finance, relationships, work, and travel with far less surprise — and far fewer illusions.
Suggestibility and Influence
One of my close friends is a hypnotist.
Watching people willingly enter altered states of attention is deeply revealing. Not because hypnosis is mystical, but because it exposes an uncomfortable truth: most people are far more suggestible than they believe.
Tone matters.
Authority matters.
Repetition matters.
Framing matters.
The human mind does not resist influence by default. It cooperates with it — especially when doing so reduces anxiety or relieves responsibility.
Once you understand that, much of modern life becomes easier to interpret.
When It Crystalised
For me, this understanding solidified during the COVID period.
What struck me most was not the medical debate, but the psychological uniformity. How quickly dissent became taboo. How readily judgement was deferred to institutions. How moral certainty replaced curiosity.
I watched fear reorganise behaviour almost overnight. Families fractured. Friendships cooled. Communities split — not along lines of care, but along lines of compliance and identity.
The critical divide wasn’t caution versus scepticism.
It was whether someone could tolerate difference without hostility.
Many could not.
That moment clarified something I had sensed for years: under pressure, large numbers of people prefer certainty over truth, and belonging over thought.
Media and Conditioning
This is one reason I almost never watch television.
Not out of superiority — but clarity.
Television does exactly what its name implies: it programs. Through repetition, emotional priming, narrative compression, and selective framing. It doesn’t tell you what to think outright; it tells you how to feel, and which reactions are acceptable.
I am selective instead. Long-form conversations. Carefully chosen sources. YouTube used intentionally, not passively.
The difference is profound.
Psychology teaches that attention is not neutral.
What you repeatedly expose yourself to reshapes you, whether you consent to it or not.
Turning the Lens Inward
Psychology, used properly, eventually turns inward.
Watching when I rationalise.
When I avoid discomfort.
When I project.
When I chase certainty instead of understanding.
The most useful psychological skill I’ve learned is self-observation.
Psychology is not about diagnosing others.
It’s about reducing self-deception.
Limits and Self-Honesty
I don’t claim immunity.
I am certain I have been shaped — even programmed — in ways I don’t yet recognise. By culture. By reward systems. By fear. By repetition. Some of that conditioning may only become visible in hindsight, if at all.
No human stands outside influence. Anyone who believes they do is already deceiving themselves.
What is possible is awareness — partial, imperfect, and ongoing. Noticing reactions. Questioning certainty. Recognising when emotion arrives before reason, or when belonging feels more important than truth.
Psychology has taught me that the goal is not perfection.
It is attention.
To live with awareness — and to correct course when awareness arrives late — is the most any person can reasonably aim for.
Anything beyond that is performance.
Why Psychology Matters to Me
Psychology explains why systems fail, why markets overshoot, why relationships fracture, and why people so often act against their own stated interests.
It also explains why:
- propaganda works
- bubbles form
- fear spreads faster than reason
- and responsibility is so easily outsourced
Understanding these dynamics doesn’t make you immune — but it does make you less programmable.
That matters.
A Closing Thought
Psychology has taught me that most people are not malicious.
They are unexamined.
They want safety, belonging, and relief from uncertainty. If a system offers those convincingly enough, many will submit to it — even at the cost of autonomy.
My response is not contempt.
It is selectivity.
In what I watch.
Who I trust.
Where I place my attention.
Psychology, for me, is not about fixing others.
It is about staying awake.