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Let Them Eat Pods

The Psychology behind doing stupid things.

Empsy
3 min readFeb 13, 2018

Tide Pods are not food, but people are eating them and becoming seriously ill.

Once I stopped laughing about this — When I was 6, I ate a 2-pence coin and mam had to shake me upside-down by the leg for it to dislodge from my throat (thanks again, mam) — it was time to consider why we do these crazy things.

1. They Look Like Food

Well, no. They don’t. They look like washing nuggets. But our brains love small, colorful objects. The real problem is that cleaning products tend to be marketed quite similarly to food. How often has a washing-up liquid bottle told you it smells like real oranges? Like walking through a european orchard in the summertime. Some shampoos and body washes smell good enough to eat, and with all the fruits and berries on the bottle or packet, it’s no wonder my brain has me feeling hungry.

2. The ‘Don’t’ is Silent.

“I’ll show ye!” may be many humans last words. It’s the, don’t think about a pink elephant issue. You’re now thinking about a pink elephant. Or when someone looking in the opposite direction to you says “don’t look, but…” How hard is it not to turn around? It’s not that the brain rebels against the word…

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Empsy
Empsy

Written by Empsy

Psychology Graduate interested in Personality Disorders / ASD . I love Science and Science Fiction, but I get most excited when they meet.

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