What “bad” personality trait is very good in a job interview?
rcissism. Via Science Daily: Narcissism, a trait considered obnoxious in most circumstances, actually pays off big-time in the short-term context of a job interview, according to a new study to be published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Narcissists scored much higher in simulated job interviews than non-narcissists, researchers found. They pointed to narcissists' innate tendency to promote themselves, in part by engaging and speaking at length, which implied confidence and expertise even when they were held to account…
1 min read
What’s the secret to dealing with an insecure or belligerent boss?
ow gratitude. Via Science Daily: According to the study, "high-power participants whose competence was threatened denigrated their subordinates. Importantly, this pattern disappeared when the subordinate expressed gratitude. Among low-power participants, there were no main effects of competence and gratitude expression, nor was there an interaction between competence and gratitude expression." And: Fast, whose previous work has explored how power, feelings of competence and aggression are related, further explained: "When people have power they feel the need to meet demanding role…
1 min read
How can you quickly and easily make someone act more kind?
mic their behavior. I've posted a number of times before on the power of mimicry to influence others (here, here, here.) This study is interesting because it demonstrates that mimicry doesn't work by only building a bond between the two involved, it makes the person who is mimicked feel better and act nicer to everyone. Recent studies have shown that mimicry occurs unintentionally and even among strangers. In the present studies, we investigated the consequences of this automatic phenomenon in…
1 min read
Do red clothes mean sex?
a The Huffington Post: In a previous study, scientists showed that men seem to be more attracted to women clothed in red rather than in a blah color such as white. That's regardless of the cut, he adds. "It doesn't have to be a red dress or a sexy outfit," he says. "It can be a red T-shirt." To understand why, Pazda and his colleagues conducted a simple experiment. They showed 25 men a photo of a single woman doctored…
1 min read
The Simple Gesture That Can Make You Seem Smarter
e study was done on children so it might not be applicable to adults but it's fascinating nonetheless: Merely pointing at something made someone who had been established as ignorant appear just as competent as someone in the know. Via APS: The one who did the hiding would be the only one truly informed about the location of the ball. We know this and the kids obviously knew this, and indeed they picked the knowledgeable adult when both adults were…
2 minutes
This Is The Quickest Way To Become An Expert Negotiator
nice. We often associate negotiation with being tough or manipulative. While there are certainly situations where that's the case, a great deal of the recent research says we can improve our results by thinking more about making friends than waging war. A great deal of what it takes to influence others, gain their compliance and lead successful negotiations is just good advice on how to be a decent person. Be warm. We value warmth more than competence. Happy people…
2 minutes
Here’s How What You Wear Affects How You Act
s. This study shows that while wearing clothes you associate with certain qualities, you will tend to embody those traits. Lab coats are associated with attentiveness and carefulness. When people wore lab coats their scores on measures of both traits went up. We introduce the term “enclothed cognition” to describe the systematic influence that clothes have on the wearer's psychological processes. Providing a potentially unifying framework to integrate past findings and capture the diverse impact that clothes can have on…
2 minutes
Does small talk make a big difference?
king face-to-face small talk before a negotiation dramatically increases the chance of a fair offer and that a deal will be made. Via Secrets of the Moneylab: How Behavioral Economics Can Improve Your Business: In one experiment, Roth used the standard Ultimatum Game as a benchmark and compared those results with two variations. In the first, participants could talk face-to-face about anything, including how to divide the pie. In the second, they were allowed to talk face-to-face, but not about…
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