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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 weather forecast

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

21 Jan 202512 min read

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

Quiet Company

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

15 Jan 20258 min read

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

Why we queue without complaint

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

14 Jan 202512 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

In praise of the shortcut

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

9 Jan 202511 min read

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

The case against the honest mistake

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

31 Dec 20245 min read

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

Why we hoard what we cannot use

Most advice assumes a person who never existed.

24 Dec 202413 min read

Late Bargain

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

19 Dec 20248 min read

The fairness of the queue

Most advice assumes a person who never existed.

18 Dec 20247 min read

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

The case against the sunk cost

Before we try to fix people, it is worth understanding what they are for.

10 Dec 202412 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

The Reluctant Genius

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

6 Dec 20246 min read

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

The shape of the free sample

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

3 Dec 202412 min read

In praise of the school run

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

3 Dec 20246 min read

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