Category: Master The Workplace

Master The Workplace

Get A Good Haircut If You’re Ugly And Underpaid

s, especially if you're male. From Harvard Business Review: Good grooming generates a wage premium of 4% to 5% for young men and can partially offset the earnings disadvantage of not being physically attractive, say Philip K. Robins, Jenny F. Homer, and Michael T. French of the University of Miami. Good grooming affects women's wages too, but less so. Join over 151,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: 10 things you need to know about attraction An easy way for women…


1 min read
Be A Great Communicator

How can you learn to be more charismatic?

er at the excellent BPS Research Digest there's a great review of research on charisma. Is it something that can be learned? Yes: Managers who underwent training saw their charisma ratings significantly grow, relative to those who didn't. What are the techniques that make someone more charismatic? Framing through metaphor. Stories and anecdotes. Demonstrating moral conviction. Sharing the sentiments of the collective. Setting high expectations. Communicating confidence. Using rhetorical devices such as contrasts, lists, and rhetorical questions together with non-verbal tactics such as body gesture, facial expression,…


1 min read
Become an Expert

What’s the best way to study?

e WSJ has an excellent piece summing up the latest research on the best way to study. Some highlights: Test yourself: Chiefly, testing yourself repeatedly before an exam teaches the brain to retrieve and apply knowledge from memory. The method is more effective than re-reading a textbook, says Jeffrey Karpicke, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University. If you are facing a test on the digestive system, he says, practice explaining how it works from start to finish, rather…


2 minutes
Be Sexier

Hot College Professors Make More Money

this paper we examine the impact of a professor’s hotness, as rated by students, on his or her salary, controlling for research and teaching productivity. We also estimate the impacts of a professor’s hotness on the quality of his or her teaching, as evaluated by students, and the impact of hotness on research productivity, as measured by citations, publications, co‐authorship, and grant funding. Our study is based on data describing economics professors at sixteen universities. Although a relatively small…


1 min read
Become an Expert

Is self-deception one of the keys to optimal performance?

..Overall, the results were consistent with the proposition that self-deception enhances motivation and performance during competition." Hat tip: Ray Pawulich: We investigated the relationship between self-deception and success in competition. Self-deception has been associated with stress reduction, a positive self-bias, and increased pain tolerance, all of which could enhance motivation and performance during competitive tasks. We selected athletic competition as a model and predicted that swimmers who successfully qualified for a national championship would engage in more self-deception than swimmers…


1 min read
Be More Productive

What predicts achievement better than intelligence, grades or personality?

pe. A 3-year longitudinal study explored whether the two-dimensional model of trait hope predicted degree scores after considering intelligence, personality, and previous academic achievement. A sample of 129 respondents (52 males, 77 females) completed measures of trait hope, general intelligence, the five factor model of personality, divergent thinking, as well as objective measures of their academic performance before university (‘A’ level grades) and final degree scores. The findings suggest that hope uniquely predicts objective academic achievement above intelligence, personality, and…


1 min read
Be More Productive

Does fantasizing give you the motivation to achieve your goals?

pe. Fantasies sap the energy you need to achieve your goals: Positive fantasies allow people to mentally indulge in a desired future. Whereas previous research found that spontaneously generated positive fantasies about the future predict poor achievement, we examined the effect of experimentally induced positive fantasies about the future. The present four experiments identify low energy, measured by physiological and behavioral indicators, as a mechanism by which positive fantasies translate into poor achievement. Induced positive fantasies resulted in less energy…


1 min read
Be Happier

Here’s What Science Has To Say About Whether You Should Work Overtime

e stress and fatigue from longer work hours isn't worth the additional money: Does extra work buy happiness and well-being? Unique survey data are analyzed to consider whether measures of self-reported subjective happiness, psychological health and economic satisfaction bear a net positive or negative relationship with working extra hours. Overtime work hours generally are associated with increased work stress, fatigue and work-family interference. When overtime work is required, this appears to offset the otherwise greater happiness and mental healthiness produced…


1 min read

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