provenTested again and again, by different people, and it keeps coming out the same. You can lean on this.
solidGood evidence behind it, but fewer people have checked it independently.
shakyReal, but smaller and shakier than the story you have probably heard.
untestedNot a tested claim. A way of thinking that is useful and widely used, but that nobody has actually put to the test — so it is not dressed up as evidence here.
How to cite it
Jha, D. K. (2026). Useful Mind: psychology findings graded by evidence (version 2026-09-16). https://theusefulmind.com/data
Licensed CC BY 4.0 — use it, change it, build on it, commercially or not. The only condition is that you credit it and link back.
What this is not
It is a working reading of the literature by one person, not a systematic review. Grades are judgements about the weight of evidence, not outputs of a formula. Every entry names its source so you can disagree with the grade and still use the citation — and if you think one is wrong, say so and it gets changed.
Reading the data will not change anything either. Useful Mind shows you one finding at a time, asks what you remember before it tells you, then brings it back a few days later. Three a day, about two minutes.