fan effect

the finding that as the number of relations between one concept and others increases, the time required to make a decision about one of those relations increases. For example, if John has one brother and Bill has six, it would take longer to verify that Joe is Bill’s brother than it would to verify that Ted is John’s brother.

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Psychology term of the day

January 13th 2025

prima facie

at first sight: on the face of things (Latin, literally: “first face”). Prima facie evidence is evidence that, although not conclusive, is considered sufficiently strong to support an inference of fact in the absence of evidence to the contrary.