Can the color and size of a dish affect how much you eat?
en we use bigger plates we almost inevitably eat more. When the color of the food contrasts with the color of the plate we almost always eat less. Via Eurekalert: "The bigger your dinnerware, the bigger your portion. If you use larger plates, you could end up serving 9 percent to 31 percent more than you typically would," write authors Koert van Ittersum (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Brian Wansink (Cornell University). The average size of dinner plates has increased…
2 minutes
Are warning labels a terrible idea?
rning labels on violent TV shows make everyone more likely to watch them: Warning labels on violent television programs give viewers discretionary advice and, therefore, might arouse reactance in viewers of all ages. Information labels give view- ers information but no advice and, therefore, should not arouse reactance. Five age groups were tested: 9-11 year olds, 12-14 year olds, 15-17 years olds, 18-20 year olds, and adults at least 21 years old. Participants (N 5 900) read descriptions of violent…
1 min read
Does it pay to be picky about who you date?
searchers found that speed-daters who responded positively to everyone were consistently disliked by others. They theorize that people can tell desperation when they see it -- and it isn't sexy: If a participant generally tended to romantically desire others, those others tended not to desire him or her. Furthermore, a participant’s tendency to desire everyone negatively predicted partners’ reports of chemistry with that participant, r = -.32, p = .050, prep = .875. None of these correlations differed by participants’…
1 min read
Should you only sell Picassos on sunny days?
t at auction sells for more on sunny days because buyers are in a better mood: Psychological evidence predicts that sunny weather is associated with an upbeat mood. Although standard economic theory presumes invariant preferences and full rationality, the finance literature has documented a strong relationship between morning sunshine in the city of a country's stock exchange and daily market index returns. In this paper we examine the effect of different weather conditions on art auction selling prices. Our sample…
1 min read
Do women who really enjoy sex prefer “bad boys”?
s: The assumption in the literature has been that all women are more interested in relationships than sex. Yet for some women, the sexual aspect of a relationship is primary (Kalof, 1995). In particular, women who are more permissive and who are willing to engage in sex are more attracted to bad boys. Source: "Dating Preferences of University Women: An Analysis of the Nice Guy Stereotype" from Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 25339-343, 1999 Researchers asked college age women…
2 minutes
Why do most marriages end?
ese are the factors most associated with marital separation, so they're not necessarily causes but definitely worth exploring: Large age difference between husband and wife. Wife has a much stronger preference than her husband for a(nother) child. Young age at marriage. Separation of husband’s parents. Resident children born before marriage. Dissatisfaction with the relationship. Low household income. Husband is unemployed. Wife drinks more than her husband. One spouse smokes where the other does not. Source: "What’s love got to do…
1 min read
Do all these little happiness-improving tricks really work?
ve posted about these happiness-increasing tricks like showing gratitude, counting your blessings and spending money the right way. How powerful are they? Promising results have been seen not just with average people but also with those who have been diagnosed with clinical depression: Despite the availability of many treatment options, depressive disorders remain a global public health problem. Even in affluent nations, 70% of reported cases either do not receive the recommended level of treatment or do not get treated…
2 minutes
Does education make us happier?
depends. With regard to happiness, education seems to defend against extremes. For those who are less happy, education provides a boost. This effect is reversed among very happy people: With education, we find a nice example how the averaging out in standard regressions can effectively mask an effect: while education is not a significant influence on life satisfaction in the standard ordered probit model (see Table 4) we find clearly significant effects in our quantile regression (see Table 5).…
1 min read
