Is a cheeseburger an effective persuasion tool?
e purpose of this experiment was to follow up on previous findings of a gain in opinion change produced by eating-while-reading (Razran, 1940; Janis, Kaye, and Kirschner, 1965) by testing predictions from a “conditioning” theory and from an alternative explanation in terms of greater receptivity to any communication endorsed by E, the donor of the food. A factorial design was used to determine the extent to which the opinion changes induced by two persuasive communications were influenced by (1) E's giving…
2 minutes
How much of who you choose to date is determined by your preferences?
rriage data show a strong degree of positive assortative mating along a variety of attributes. But since marriage is an equilibrium outcome, it is unclear whether positive sorting is the result of preferences rather than opportunities. We assess the relative importance of preferences and opportunities in dating behaviour, using unique data from a large commercial speed dating agency. While the speed dating design gives us a direct observation of individual preferences, the random allocation of participants across events generates an…
2 minutes
How many of your Facebook friends actually influence your behavior?
e success of Internet social networking sites depends on the number and activity levels of their user members. Although users typically have numerous connections to other site members (i.e., “friends”), only a fraction of those so-called friends may actually influence a member's site usage. Because the influence of potentially hundreds of friends needs to be evaluated for each user, inferring precisely who is influential—and, therefore, of managerial interest for advertising targeting and retention efforts—is difficult. The authors develop an approach…
1 min read
What’s an easy way to strengthen your relationships?
are good news and enthusiastically respond when others share good news with you: Sharing good news with others is one way that people can savor those experiences while building personal and interpersonal resources. Although prior research has established the benefits of this process, called capitalization, there has been little research and no experiments to examine the underlying mechanisms. In this article, we report results from 4 experiments and 1 daily diary study conducted to examine 2 mechanisms relevant to capitalization:…
1 min read
An easy way for women to be more attractive to men and men to be more attractive to women:
rls, wear red: In many non-human primate species, a display of red by a female increases attraction behavior in male conspecifics. In two experiments, we investigate an analogous effect in humans, specifically, whether red on a woman's shirt increases attraction behavior in men. In Experiment 1, men who viewed an ostensible conversation partner in a red versus a green shirt chose to ask her more intimate questions. In Experiment 2, men who viewed an ostensible interaction partner in a red…
1 min read
Women Who Remove Their Pubic Hair Have Better Sexual Function
troduction. Although women's total removal of their pubic hair has been described as a "new norm," little is known about the pubic hair removal patterns of sexually active women in the United States. Aims. The purpose of this study was to assess pubic hair removal behavior among women in the United States and to examine the extent to which pubic hair removal methods are related to demographic, relational, and sexual characteristics, including female sexual function. Methods. A total of 2,451 women…
2 minutes
If it’s clear you intentionally did something wrong, is an apology effective?
: An apology is a strong and cheap device to restore social or economic relationships that have been disturbed. In a laboratory experiment we find that harmdoers use apologies in particular if they fear punishment and when their intentions cannot be easily inferred. After offenses with ambiguous intentionality apologizers are punished less often than nonapologizers. Victims expect an apology and punish if they do not receive one. If an apology is possible, harmdoers who apologize are punished with lower probability.…
1 min read
Do “Daddies’ Girls” Choose Men Just Like Their Fathers?
s. Via Science Daily: Women who enjoy good childhood relationships with their fathers are more likely to select partners who resemble their dads research suggests. In contrast, the team of psychologists from Durham University and two Polish institutions revealed that women who have negative or less positive relationships were not attracted to men who looked like their male parents. Due to be published in the July issue of Evolution and Human Behaviour, the study investigated evidence of parental sexual imprinting,…
1 min read
