Is mimicry the key to sales?
om Harvard Business Review: Retail salespeople who subtly mimic customers' speech and behavior are more successful at selling... 78.8% bought such a product from mimickers, compared with 61.8% from nonmimickers. Afterward, customers who had been mimicked were more positive about the salespeople and the store. Join over 190,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done – 5 Expert Tips How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert New…
1 min read
Should you go back to bed?
ve posted before on how little sleep you can get away with: ...by the end of two weeks, the six-hour sleepers were as impaired as those who, in another Dinges study, had been sleep-deprived for 24 hours straight — the cognitive equivalent of being legally drunk. The best part was, if you asked them, they felt fine and didn't realize they were impaired (the same way drunk people respond to such questions, minus the slurring.) Why else is it important?…
1 min read
Parents Do Have Favorite Children
om Time Magazine, via Robin Hanson: 65% of mothers and 70% of fathers exhibited a preference for one child, usually the older one. … “The most likely candidate for the mother’s favorite was the firstborn son, and for the father, it was the last-born daughter.” Join over 151,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: 6 Hostage Negotiation Techniques That Will Get You What You Want How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI…
1 min read
Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?
ainblogger says yes: According to their paper published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin earlier this year, two people with a similar negative attitude towards a third party are likely to experience greater feelings of familiarity than people whose attitude towards a third party is positive. More precisely, milder negative affect towards someone else, when shared, are likely to be more effective at promoting feelings of familiarity than a mild positive affect. The researchers cite Dunbar as having already demonstrated how…
1 min read
Who do we tell the most lies to? How do we tell them?
tell the most lies to the people we feel closest to. An online diary study was performed to investigate deception across different media. One hundred and four individuals participated in the study, with 76 completing the diaries. Individuals were most likely to lie on the telephone. Planned lies, which participants also rated the most serious, were more likely told via SMS (short message service) text messaging. Most lies were told to people participants felt closest to. The feature-based model…
1 min read
Is it worth reconnecting with old acquaintances on Facebook and Linked In?
solutely. People who reconnected with old friends on social networks got all the benefits usually associated with both weak and close relationships: The social networks literature suggests that ties must be maintained to retain value. In contrast, we show that reconnecting dormant ties – former ties, now out of touch – can be extremely useful. Our research prompted Executive MBA students to consult their dormant contacts about an important work project; outcomes compared favorably to those of their current ties. In addition, reconnecting previously strong ties led to…
1 min read
How powerful is an apology?
eap-talk apologies to angry customers produce better results than offering money: How should firms react to customer complaints after an unsatisfactory purchase? In a field experiment, we test the effect of different reactions and find that a cheap-talk apology yields significantly better outcomes for the firm than offering a monetary compensation. Source: "The power of apology" from Economics Letters, Volume 107, Issue 2, May 2010, Pages 233-235 Join over 185,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: How To Stop…
1 min read
Is stress sexy?
men find low-stress men much more attractive: Men with low stress levels are significantly more attractive to women than highly stressed rivals, according to new research conducted at the University of Abertay Dundee. Dr Fhionna Moore, a Psychology Lecturer at Abertay University, led a research team investigating links between hormones and attractiveness. By analysing hormone levels in young men and developing ‘composite’ images of typical faces, they could judge how attractive a group of women found facial cues to different…
1 min read
