How do you get others to lie and cheat less?
st people cheat just enough to get an edge but not so much that they feel like a bad person. Subtly making them aware their own morality can nudge them back to being good: Via APS: The program began with a lively talk about dishonest decisions by Dan Ariely of Duke University, the popular behavioral economist and author of Predictably Irrational, who is as comfortable dropping jokes as he is delivering research findings. Ariely and his colleagues found that, given…
1 min read
Women Who Like Politics Have More Orgasms
e political and religious correlates of sexual behavior in a sample of 344 German university students are presented and discussed within a framework of traditional ideology stifling sexual choice and expression. More-intense religious belief was found to be associated with fewer or no sex partners, with diminished likelihood of oral sex experience, with less frequent masturbation (in women), and with less ability to imagine having homosexual relations (among women who had no history of homosexual activity). Left-wing political views were…
1 min read
What keeps friendships alive?
aying in touch every two weeks. Via New York Times: In search for the keys to enduring friendships, a physicist and sociologist from Notre Dame examined more than 8 million phone calls between 2 million people. Their answer, as the science news site PhysOrg admits, may not surprise you: “the leading cause of persistent relationships is reciprocity — returning a friend’s call.” Further, they said friends ’til the end tend to touch base at least once every 15 days. Join…
1 min read
Do you underestimate the power of touching?
a the New York Times: Studies show touching has the power to encourage, reduce pain and communicate: Students who received a supportive touch on the back or arm from a teacher were nearly twice as likely to volunteer in class as those who did not, studies have found. A sympathetic touch from a doctor leaves people with the impression that the visit lasted twice as long, compared with estimates from people who were untouched. Research by Tiffany Field of the…
2 minutes
How can you fool people into thinking you like that awful gift they gave you?
th 75% of people being able to correctly identify whether or not a recipient liked the gift they received, how can we better fool people (and spare their feelings)? Make eye contact. Smile with your mouth and eyes, not just your mouth. Don't put the gift aside. Lift it like a trophy and show it off. From Humintell: What do you say when you receive a gift you are not too fond of? Eye contact, or lack thereof, is one…
2 minutes
Can computers teach us everything we need to know about cooperation?
ve posted before about Robert Axelrod's research on cooperation; computers were assigned different strategies in the famous prisoner's dilemma and for thousands upon thousands of rounds they faced each other to see which method led to the most success. The best strategy by far turned out to be one we're all familiar with: tit-for-tat. In chapter six of his book, The Evolution of Cooperation, Axelrod explains how we can translate the findings of these computer tournaments into advice that's useful…
3 minutes
Is 5-to-1 the golden ratio for both work and romantic relationships?
om Richard Conniff's interesting book, The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends, Win Fights and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature: It turned out that the fifteen high-performance teams averaged 5.6 positive interactions for every negative one. The nineteen low-performance teams racked up a positive/negative ratio of just .363. That is, they had about three negative interactions for every positive one... And: What's even scarier is that Losada's five-to-one ratio also appears to be essential when you…
1 min read
Sex On The First Date: What predicts who’s okay with it?
k them: "Do you like the taste of beer?" Via OkCupid: Among all our casual topics, whether someone likes the taste of beer is the single best predictor of if he or she has sex on the first date... No matter their gender or orientation, beer-lovers are 60% more likely to be okay with sleeping with someone they've just met. Sadly, this is the only question with a meaningful correlation for women. Join over 190,000 readers. Get a free weekly…
1 min read
