Bizarre, funny, visually-striking, or anthropomorphic things stick out more than non-bizarre/unfunny things.
Our brains tend to boost the importance of things that are unusual or surprising. Alternatively, we tend to skip over information that we think is ordinary or expected.
Bizarreness Effect
The tendency of bizarre material to be better remembered than common material.
Humour Effect
The tendency to better remember humorous items than non-humorous ones
Negativity Bias
The notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one’s psychological state and processes than do neutral or positive things.
Related. Loss Aversion
Picture Superiority Effect
The phenomenon in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than words.
Self-Relevance Effect (Self-Reference Effect)
The tendency for individuals to have better memory for information that relates to oneself in comparison to material that has less personal relevance.
Von Restorff Effect (Isolation Effect)
The von Restorff effect predicts that when multiple homogeneous stimuli are presented, the stimulus that differs from the rest is more likely to be remembered.
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