A 2010 study of 42 people claimed that two minutes in an expansive “power pose” raised testosterone and lowered cortisol, the stress hormone. The TED talk that popularized it became one of the most watched ever. But a 2015 replication with 200 people found no hormonal effect at all, just a slight feeling of being more powerful. In 2016, Dana Carney, the study's lead author, said she no longer believed the effects were real.
Remembering is not replaying a recording — it is rebuilding. Each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily malleable and can be altered before being stored again. That is why two people can sincerely remember the same event… differently.
In 2003, Johnson and Goldstein compared European countries. Where you must tick a box to become a donor, consent rates ranged from 4% to 28%. Where you're a donor by default unless you opt out, they topped 85%. People aren't more generous on one side; most simply stick with whatever option was chosen for them.