Questions tagged [psychology]
For questions relating to the thoughts and decision making processes of beings.
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Why would a species take until ~50 years to 'mature' and stop being teenagers?
I'm writing fiction in a shared world that I have some control over, and for my own benefit I'm trying to figure out a reason why the Dwarves in this world wouldn't be 'mature' until they'd reached 50....
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What would be the effects of having no barrier between the conscious and subconscious? [closed]
A little background...
I have a story idea revolving around "Agent ROY-G-BIV" (the name is a reference to the 7 colors of the rainbow), a self-propagating form of electromagnetic radiation ...
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Self-propagating radiation that turns humans into walking radio towers that are part of a 'collective unconscious'; feasible, or no?
A little background...
I have a story idea revolving around "Agent ROY-G-BIV" (the name is a reference to the 7 colors of the rainbow), a self-propagating form of electromagnetic radiation ...
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Can loneliest loneliness kill in a post apocalypse?
My story occurs in the near future after a nuclear holocaust, the human population is reduced to mere thousands spread out all over the world.
A mysterious disease seems to infect the survivors of the ...
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Why would artificial beings originally created as pets think that this made them the perfect beings without beings worse pets?
For the longest time, I was unsure as to why the aliens in my story would have the anatomy they do; They were created through genetic engineering, so how they evolved is not an issue, but their ...
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Can a brain in a jar be killed or have a reduced lifespan from psychological trauma alone?
I have an original world, Hell, who I credit H. P. Lovecraft for the inspiration. I am not asking a question about any of Lovecraft's published worlds.
Inspired by The Whisperer in Darkness I have ...
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Psychological Consequences of a Symbiotic Relationship with a Sentient Symbiont that was supposed to be Consensual, but was not?
PREMISE:
A sentient race of neural parasites is in a civil war between the Symbiotes, who've used their extensive knowledge of genetic engineering to alter themselves into symbiotes, and the Parasites ...
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How can this prison induce Stockholm syndrome?
(please see note re: name controversy at the end)
My world needs a captivity environment that convincingly tends to cause Stockholm syndrome in its captives, leading them to willfully serve their ...
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Government assisted suicide process, can it work and what should be the steps? [closed]
Imagine a country similar to the USA but one that is not completely opposed to suicide. This country believes there can occasionally be situations where death can be preferable to living in pain (be ...
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Is a harsh environment conducive to the evolution of a peaceful society?
The aliens I am writing are a very soft-hearted civilisation, lacking many of the aspects that make us (humans) pretty vile creatures depending on the perspective. This harmonious behaviour seems like ...
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The Jumbled Jaunts of Jormungandr: How predictable is the Snakebot of Doom being? [closed]
Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom has left New York. The world's armies and air forces have been decimated and cannot stop it. It has moved on from New York, and has flattened the following North ...
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Why to not create a warrior species if you can?
Inspired by the question Creating a Species purely for Warfare, there are plenty of reasons why someone who has the capability to create their own warrior race/species would want to do so... a rapidly-...
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Eternity - psychological process behind forgetting one's name
Premise
I am designing a kind of eternal corridor whereby healthy people are thrown into to spend ages there. Bodily functions/subsistence needs are nullified: they don't feel hungry or anything. ...
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Feasibility of a Cannibalistic Army? [closed]
Among humans cannibalism has been practiced as a funerary ritual within numerous cultures across the world, and also as a way of ritualistically degrading defeated enemies, as was done most notably ...
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Is there a medical condition or neurological disorder that makes it so a person cannot make facial expressions?
I have a character who cannot smile, frown, express anger on their face, or make other expressions but can still move facial muscles to blink, eat, blush, puff cheeks and still feels emotions like ...
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Is use of virtual reality to explore taboo activities a good idea? [closed]
Let us suppose that virtual reality affecting all senses in a way virtually indistinguishable from reality exists.
Using this virtual reality, it would be possible for people with extreme, taboo ...
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Would crossbreeding between humans and trolls always be taboo?
In the world in question, we have anatomically and psychologically normal humans living in a variety of societies. We also have trolls.
Trolls are a hominid species more closely related to humans ...
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Seeing oneself in an abstract painting
It is known that people, when looking at some complex patterns have the tendency to find human faces in them.
My character goes to a museum exhibition of abstract art. She finds herself in front of an ...
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How do I justify the existence of a gynoid army?
A gynoid is just the term used to refer to female androids or “fembots”. Gynoids are typically female-styled robots and are usually more human-like compared to regular androids, with the accompanying ...
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Why do villains keep going after overwhelming power if there’s such a high death risk? [closed]
An evil overlord for whatever reason hears about a powerful artifact that would make him unstoppable. Because of this he scours the land to find it. Due to lacking manpower he turns his attention to ...
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What is a realistic psychological response to magic? [closed]
So I think about this a lot based on seeing things like clichés or unrealistic reactions - how would someone actually react to magic?
In some media, the character is in unbelievable denial - you've ...
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What is an expedience of sci-fi gliders? these machines flying near the very ground
What is an expedience of sci-fi gliders? these machines flying near the very ground.
It doesn't matter what they call them there (in different way).
No matter what specific principle they fly - what ...
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How long before my feral amnesiac with a superhuman memory regains the ability to speak?
A significant character in my story is a young man, late teens early twenties or so, who shortly before the story began had his mind wiped almost completely. All memories, all knowledge, and all ...
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How would asexual reproduction (via mitosis) affect human cultural development?
I’m writing a humanoid race with perfectly symmetrical bilateral anatomy. This trait is shared by almost all complex life on their world and has shaped the way they reproduce; via mitosis. I’ve ...
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Reptilian beauty standards
This isn’t limited to lizard folk but humanoid reptiles in general. The most common mistake I see when designing females of a reptilian race is to give them human breasts and proportions, despite them ...
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What would really happen if an adult's mind was dumped into his five year old self's brain?
We’ve all read those Isekai mangas... or at least I have... but how realistic would they really be put into practice?
Say a normal average dude suddenly gets caught in some weird temporal event that ...
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What's necessary for people in a besieged city to grow up emotionally healthy?
The underground city of Anwei is the last human refuge from the invasion of alien robot zombies. The enemies are very patient, and they are willing to besiege the city for decades if necessary. ...
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How would a true artificial intelligence view emotions as useful and assign functions to them? [closed]
AI: "What is joy? Does it serve a purpose?"
With memory being associated with the ability to attach emotions to that memory, all these words and experiences ONLY get meaning through the ...
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What would a therapist be able to do with the ability to read people's dreams?
My urban fantasy setting has, among other things, succubi and incubi. They have all of the traditional traits you'd expect (wings, the ability to change their appearance, superhuman sex appeal ...
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Utility of Class Crystals
What Are Class Crystals?
Class Crystals are special crystals found only inside an Imprint, the mark placed where a teen (13 to 19-year-old) was last upon Earth. Never mind how they were taken, just ...
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Why would a sentient and super advanced species begin to think like humans over time?
I have a super advanced sentient species that is not human, and developing by itself on a planet. With such advancement, we expect them to think on a higher plane or at least in a different way to ...
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How to make clones not be competitive with others, but work to compete with their past selves
The human culture celebrates competition against one another.
Me against him
Us against them
Groupthink is nothing more than a way to compete with another group when the individual is too weak to ...
user86663
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Question about Abortion Survivors and Trauma [closed]
I'm writing a sci-fi novel with some very real scenarios. And this scenario is particularly dark and emotionally charged for a lot of people. If you can read and respond objectively, I'd appreciate it....
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How to convince a lot of people to join a cage anarchist country?
The experiment requires 250 million people and a lifetime dedication; once in there's no way out. It consists on enclosing people in 5 artificial countries, each country with fixed rules. Each person ...
user86264
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Neural wireless link: Buy your personal hive mind for only 399!
Tired of having to sleep? Tired of having to die? Tired of having to age? Tired of being weak? Tired of being short? Tired of being male or female? Tired of being human? Tired of being made of flesh?
...
user86106
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How long would it take for these creatures to reach mental "adulthood"?
In my world, I have a species that is born essentially as adults with fully developed instincts and motor skills. However, when these creatures emerge, there is still a learning period for things that ...
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How can a movie drive anyone who watches it insane?
I have an idea about an alien that conquers the world by assuming human form and releasing a film that drives whoever watches it insane. The masses that see it go on to destroy civilization in a ...
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How much time before going completely insane? [closed]
If a human being was put into a stasis, where they experience time significantly faster, how long would it be until they go completely insane?
In the stasis, everything is pitch black, and there is ...
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What would be the psychological ramifications of aging back and forth?
In my scenario, there is a society of people who continuously age back and forth until an unspecified moment when the body can't repeat the "growing younger" phase, grows old once again and ...
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Genetic personality [closed]
I want a family of humans born with insticts that come fron their parents.
Father smithsman and mother vampire hunter = child attracted to metalworking and with a natural hate and instincts to murder ...
user84545
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Implications of a Race which becomes Smarter when in Danger
So I'm designing an alien race loosely based on the Kafers from the tabletop RPG 2300 AD. These aliens not only become temporarily hyper intelligent as an electrochemical effect of their equivalent to ...
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How would humanity react to finding the universe is uninhabited? [closed]
If there is one trope I am sick of it is the one I like to call the Empty Universe.
This is when humanity has spread out to the stars and finds...well, nothing. Spending centuries exploring the ...
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Evolutionary narrative for brains that evolve abstract thought alongside bodily function control
Premise
Typically, we might view the evolution of the brain as a linear progression: with its primitive reptilian brain stem as the origin and the lofty neocortex as the pinnacle. However, I'm aiming ...
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Activities/tasks that would benefit from mind melding
Sort of like how in Pacific Rim, the giant mecha are piloted by two individuals with a temporary telepathic link in order to share the mental load. This is something that one person alone cannot do (...
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Group dynamics, family life and childrearing aboard a generational sailing fleet
Background
A while back I posed a scenario of a privately owned nomadic trading fleet that sailed around the world for centuries. A commercial enterprise spanning multiple generations, without any ...
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Is mirror test a good way to explore alien inhabited world safely?
In a distant future our robot will be setting their tracks on another hospitable planet, I believe we are not alone and there must be other intelligence beings out there in these billions upon ...
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How severe a multiple personality disorder can I impose on all inhabitants of a world without overt risk of a failed state?
Everyone should have multiple personality disorder. Here, I'm trying to make an educated decision as to whether there is a certain degree of severity that would be realistic/sustainable yet still ...
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Impact of Dexterity: More Organized Society
This question is a follow-up to Increasing Impact: Fitter Society? and focuses on a property called Dexterity, which determines the focus and precision of spells and rituals. High Impact individuals ...
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What is the best age to start training young children for warfare by an elite military?
Note: this is NOT a duplicate of this question as that question asks whether the process will create better soldiers or not, while in my setting it is already accepted by the empire that it WILL ...
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What would be the consequences of a society literally run by sociopaths?
I was listening to a worldbuilding discussion on another site and somebody came up with an idea for a dystopian setting that they called "the worst of all possible worlds". Basically, the ...
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