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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

In praise of the commute

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

14 Mar 202512 min read

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

What the tip jar teaches us about envy

The story we tell afterwards is tidier than the choice we made at the time.

9 Mar 202513 min read

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

The Reasonable Mercies

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

6 Mar 20255 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

What the loyalty card teaches us about pride

The mind is built for a different world. It copes remarkably well with this one.

1 Mar 20257 min read

A short history of the second helping

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

21 Feb 20259 min read

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

Certainty, by the numbers

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

19 Feb 20258 min read

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

The Ordinary Money

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

16 Feb 20258 min read

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

The choice of the late fee

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

15 Feb 20256 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

Kindness is a stubborn habit

Most advice assumes a person who never existed.

9 Feb 202511 min read

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

A short history of the last biscuit

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

1 Feb 202511 min read

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

The shape of the round number

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

29 Jan 20257 min read

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

Regret is a social kind of hope

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

26 Jan 20259 min read