ople choose confidence over actual expertise. From New Scientist: The research, by Don Moore of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shows that we prefer advice from a confident source, even to the point that we are willing to forgive a poor track record. Moore argues that in competitive situations, this can drive those offering advice to increasingly exaggerate how sure they are. And it spells bad news for scientists who try to be honest about gaps in their knowledge. In…
ll yourself they are having a bad day and that it's not about you. Via US News: Telling yourself that an angry person is just having a bad day and that it's not about you can help take the sting out of their ire, a new study suggests. This strategy of finding another way to regard an angry person is an approach commonly suggested in cognitive behavioral therapy. For example, you can tell yourself that the angry person has just…
wer your voice: Voice pitch may not only influence the listeners but also the speakers themselves. Based on the theories of embodied cognition and previous research on power, we tested whether lowering their pitch leads people to feel more powerful and think more abstractly. In three experiments, participants received instructions to read a text out loud with either a lower or a higher voice than usual. Subsequently, feelings of power (Experiments 1 and 2) and abstract thinking (Experiment 3) were…
Want to pick a creative gift that the receiver will be surprised by? Don't do it. Studies show people are much more satisfied by presents they said they wanted. 2) Accept that context can warp your thinking. The music in a store, a "SALE" sign, and how many items are on a shelf can all affect what and how much you buy. 3) To control your spending, hide the credit card and make sure your wallet contains only big…
You'll be more creative. 2) You'll be more attractive. 3) It will improve your mood. 4) Smiling can prevent bank robberies. Seriously. 5) How can you improve your smile? Smile slower. Join over 185,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done – 5 Expert Tips 6 Things The Most Productive People Do Every Day New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful
st hearing sarcasm helped students solve problems more creatively: From Smithsonian Magazine: Sarcasm seems to exercise the brain more than sincere statements do. Scientists who have monitored the electrical activity of the brains of test subjects exposed to sarcastic statements have found that brains have to work harder to understand sarcasm. That extra work may make our brains sharper, according to another study. College students in Israel listened to complaints to a cellphone company’s customer service line. The students were…
many ways, yes: "beautiful people are likely to be happier, earn more money, get a bank loan with a lower interest rate and marry a good-looking and highly educated spouse." From a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald covering the new book Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful by noted economist Daniel Hamermesh: In his book, Hamermesh concludes that better-looking employees are more productive, leading to higher sales and potentially higher profit. The book also shows how society…
om a post by Miles Corak, via the Twitter feed of Tim Harford, author of the excellent book "Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure": The bottom line is that about 40% of us have at some point worked for exactly the same firm that at some point also employed our fathers. But if dad’s earnings put him in the top 25% these chances are above average, they start taking off if dad was in the top 5%, and reach…
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