Should you buy lottery tickets as early as possible?
u shouldn't buy them at all but if you want to get the most out of what good they can provide, yes, earlier is better: We analyze one of the explanations why people participate in lotteries. Our hypothesis stipulates that part of the value that a unit of money buys in lotteries is consumed before the actual resolution in the form of emotions such as hope. In other words, a person holding a lottery ticket may prefer a delayed resolution…
1 min read
Are the stereotypes about liberals and conservatives true?
though skeptics continue to doubt that most people are “ideological,” evidence suggests that meaningful left-right differences do exist and that they may be rooted in basic personality dispositions, that is, relatively stable individual differences in psychological needs, motives, and orientations toward the world. Seventy-five years of theory and research on personality and political orientation has produced a long list of dispositions, traits, and behaviors. Applying a theory of ideology as motivated social cognition and a “Big Five” framework, we find…
3 minutes
Do men who use porn crave emotional closeness more than those that don’t?
ll make the joke for you: there aren't any men that don't use porn! Har-har-har. Now that we've got that out of the way... The aim of the present study was to examine the association between pornography use and aspects of socioemotional closeness in a non-clinical sample of 164 males. Participants’ actual and ideal socioemotional closeness was measured by the Perceived Interpersonal Closeness Scale (PICS; Popovic et al., 2003) while their pornography use was examined by the Background and Pornography…
2 minutes
What’s an easy way to treat insomnia?
in 25K+ subscribers. No spam, ever. Enter your email here: "Acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise appears to reduce pre-sleep anxiety and improve sleep in patients with chronic primary insomnia." Study Objectives: The aim was to assess and to compare the acute effects of three different modalities of physical exercise on sleep pattern of patients with chronic primary insomnia. Methods: Forty-eight insomnia patients, 38 female (mean age 44.4 ± 8 y) were randomly assigned to 4 groups: control (CTR, n =…
1 min read
Do employee of the month contests actually accomplish anything?
study the impact of status and social recognition on worker performance in a field experiment. In collaboration with an international non-governmental organization we hired students to work on a database project. Students in the award treatment were offered a congratulatory card from the organization honoring the best performance. The award was purely symbolic in order to ensure that any behavioral effect is driven by non-material benefits. Our results show that students in the award treatment outperform students in the…
2 minutes
What do state governments do that actually increases the happiness of their citizens?
cent decades have witnessed the development of an extensive social scientific research program on the determinants of life satisfaction. We examine the role of political factors in affecting quality of life in the context of the American states. In particular, we ask whether the choices made by voters, as manifested by the governments they elect, and the subsequent public policy regimes those governments establish, determine the degree to which individuals find their lives satisfying. We find that the different ideological…
1 min read
What can you tell about my personality by the words I use in my blog posts?
lot, apparently. The excellent BPS Research digest breaks down this study which compared the words used in 694 different blogs to the results of personality tests taken by the bloggers. They found: More neurotic bloggers used more words associated with negative emotions; extravert bloggers used more words pertaining to positive emotions; high scorers on agreeableness avoided swear words and used more words related to communality; and conscientious bloggers mentioned more words with achievement connotation... ...Among the most strong and…
1 min read
Are women more likely to be victims of identity theft?
ing the Federal Trade Commission's 2003 identity theft survey data, this article examines the relationship between a person's demographic characteristics and the likelihood of experiencing identity theft. Among other factors, the risk of identity theft appears to be higher for people with higher incomes, for younger consumers, and for women. A person's risk of being a victim of identity theft may depend, at least in part, on how many noncash accounts the consumer has and the intensity of their use.…
2 minutes
