o you hang out with does affect your ethical standards and, as is often the case, negative behavior influences us much more than positive behavior. Via The Boston Globe: If your mom warned you about running around with the wrong crowd, it turns out she may have been on to something: New research suggests that hanging out with immoral people can actually change your own standards for behavior. People who were made to relate to another person—whether by writing a…
ok at pictures of sick people. Via The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature: Being exposed to photographs of individuals spreading their germs (e.g., via sneezing or coughing) is sufficient to elicit a boost in one's immunological defense system. It's legit. Here's the study he's referring to: An experiment (N = 28) tested the hypothesis that the mere visual perception of disease-connoting cues promotes a more aggressive immune response. Participants were exposed…
end time looking at nature. Via 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People: Mark Berman (2008) and a team of researchers had participants perform the backward digit-span task, which measures a person’s capacity to focus attention. Next, participants were asked to do a task that would wear out their voluntary attention. After that, some walked through downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan, and some walked through the city’s arboretum. The arboretum has trees and wide lawns (that is, it is…
) Get out in nature You probably seriously underestimate how important this is. (Actually, there's research that says you do.) Being in nature reduces stress, makes you more creative, improves your memory and may even make you a better person. 2) Exercise We all know how important this is,…
d moods sap your willpower which leads to greater risk-taking: Increased risk taking may explain the link between bad moods and self-defeating behavior. In Study 1, personal recollections of self-defeating actions implicated bad moods and resultant risky decisions. In Study 2, embarrassment increased the preference for a long-shot (high-risk, high-payoff) lottery over a low-risk, low-payoff one. Anger had a similar effect in Study 3. Study 4 replicated this and showed that the effect could be eliminated by making participants analyze…
lf-discipline is a better predictor of success than IQ. Happiness translates into success and happier people are more successful. Just don't be too happy. Gay men have 12 percent lower personal incomes and lesbians have 15 percent higher personal incomes than heterosexual men and women. Nice guys make less money, rude people have higher credit scores and being ethical can hurt your income. Taller people make more money and it's because they're smarter. Thin women make more money. Weight has…
cording to one study, the stress management technique that worked best was deliberately planning your day so that stress is minimized. The trick to not worrying about work stuff while at home is to make specific plans to address concerns before you leave the office. The difference between a fun challenge and stressful work is often just a feeling of control. The best way to reduce job stress is to get a clear idea of what is expected of you.…
mor is our brain's way of rewarding us for correcting errors in our thinking. It improves our mood because it takes brainpower to decode the joke and having to think kills bad feelings. Humor can make you more persuasive because humor mentally disarms people. Women find funny guys attractive because a sense of humor = intelligence. In fact, you can predict how many women a man has slept with by how funny he is. Reliving moments that made the two…
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