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Author

Alina Petrova

Editor-in-chief

Alina Petrova is a Year 12 student preparing to apply to university, and the founder and editor of The Unreasonable Human. She reads across psychology, economics, behavioural science and neuroscience, and writes about the gap between how people are supposed to decide and how they actually do.

Why she started the journal

Writing by Alina Petrova

What the apology teaches us about hope

Economists have a model. The rest of us have a Tuesday.

13 May 202514 min read

Illustration of a bare tree over a faint grid, overlaid with rust-red, pale blue and black-spotted circles

Small Thoughts

We are far better at explaining our choices than at making them.

12 May 20257 min read

What the slow lane teaches us about loyalty

A small decision, repeated daily, is a life. Nobody designs it that way.

7 May 20257 min read

The effort of the loyalty card

We are far better at explaining our choices than at making them.

29 Apr 202513 min read

Pale pink blossom on thin branches in front of a raw concrete wall

What gossip teaches us about risk

We are far better at explaining our choices than at making them.

23 Apr 20259 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

In praise of the round number

Not every irrational act is a mistake. Some are the point.

17 Apr 20256 min read

A lone figure climbing a pale stone staircase towards an arched window filled with light

Measuring status, one receipt at a time

What feels like a preference is often just a default nobody questioned.

16 Apr 202514 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

In praise of the borrowed book

The cost is obvious, the benefit is diffuse, and so the benefit loses.

8 Apr 202513 min read

Illustration of a bare tree over a faint grid, overlaid with rust-red, pale blue and black-spotted circles

The Unfinished Investor

The cost is obvious, the benefit is diffuse, and so the benefit loses.

8 Apr 20256 min read

Pale pink blossom on thin branches in front of a raw concrete wall

The effort of the commute

The evidence is clear, the incentives are not, and the incentives usually win.

4 Apr 202512 min read

A short history of the queue

A small decision, repeated daily, is a life. Nobody designs it that way.

27 Mar 202510 min read

Pale pink blossom on thin branches in front of a raw concrete wall

A short history of small talk

Most advice assumes a person who never existed.

22 Mar 202510 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall