PsychologyExplain Like I'm 5Beginner
The Psychology of Everyday Decisions, a free psychology course on Tomo

The Psychology of Everyday Decisions

Discover the hidden mental gears shaping your decisions, memories, and social interactions every day. Learn why your brain relies on shortcuts, how situations secretly steer behavior, and what actually drives human motivation.

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

A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through How Your Mind Cuts Corners and The Invisible Power of Others. It starts from scratch.

12 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Milo the Mindful Meerkat, the guide who teaches the Psychology of Everyday Decisions course
The Psychology of Everyday Decisions
with Milo the Mindful Meerkat
12
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in The Psychology of Everyday Decisions

  • Automatic thinking handles effortless everyday tasks like reading a billboard or dodging an obstacle without conscious focus
  • Slow analytical thinking requires deliberate mental strain and physical focus, such as calculating 17 times 24
  • The brain relies on automatic shortcuts by default to save cognitive energy
  • Availability bias causes people to judge how common an event is by how easily a vivid picture or memory pops into mind
  • Sensational, memorable events feel frequent even when actual statistical rates are extremely low
  • Confirmation bias leads people to actively search for information that backs up what they already suspect is true
  • Contradicting data is systematically ignored, minimized, or rationalized away
  • Balanced judgment requires intentionally looking for data that disproves your belief
  • Framing identical statistical outcomes as losses triggers fear and makes people avoid that option
  • Framing outcomes as gains makes people feel safe and more willing to accept the choice
  • The mathematical odds remain identical regardless of the words used to package them
  • The anchoring effect pulls a person's valuation toward whatever initial number is presented first
  • Even when an initial number is arbitrary or obviously inflated, it establishes the mental benchmark for comparison
  • Subsequent judgments adjust insufficiently from that first established anchor
  • Human memory reconstructs events on the fly using fragmentary cues, current feelings, and expectations
  • The brain fills in missing gaps in recall rather than storing untouched, complete recordings
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 The Psychology of Everyday Decisions 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.

Why Your Brain Loves Shortcuts

Which activity makes your brain turn on slow analytical thinking?

Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.

Course map

How to learn The Psychology of Everyday Decisions, step by step

Go in order. 12 short levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes in all, five minutes a day.

  1. 1

    How Your Mind Cuts Corners

    • Spotting Your Brain's Automatic Shortcuts
    • The Flawed Machinery of Memory
  2. 2

    The Invisible Power of Others

    • The Hidden Pressure of the Situation
    • How Behavior Actually Takes Shape

2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

Questions

Questions about The Psychology of Everyday Decisions

  1. How do I learn The Psychology of Everyday Decisions?

    Go in order: start with How Your Mind Cuts Corners, then The Invisible Power of Others. On Tomo that's 12 short levels, about 24 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.

  2. Is there a Duolingo-style app for The Psychology of Everyday Decisions?

    Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. The Psychology of Everyday Decisions is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.

  3. Is The Psychology of Everyday Decisions free?

    Yes. The Psychology of Everyday Decisions is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.

  4. How long does it take to learn The Psychology of Everyday Decisions?

    12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.

  5. Do I need any background to start The Psychology of Everyday Decisions?

    No. It's pitched at a beginner level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.

New

Tomo is in ChatGPT

Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.

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How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
Explain Like I'm 5

The Psychology of Everyday Decisions 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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Start free

Start The Psychology of Everyday Decisions today.

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