How do people react to a robot colleague?
ve, hate and a hospital robot When a box-like robot called TUG went to work in local hospitals carrying drugs between wards, Bilge Mutlu of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, had a chance to see how people react to a robot colleague. TUG, which is made by Aethon, can navigate a building's corridors and elevators on its own and tell humans it has arrived with a delivery. Mutlu found that reactions to it were strong, and mixed. Staff in the…
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Which are the most successful films of all time?
ATAR, James Cameron’s epic 3D sci-fi movie will go on general release around the world on Friday December 18th. The film reportedly cost over $300m to produce, making it one of the most expensive films ever. Such spending, however, is no guarantee of box-office success. A list of the highest-grossing films in America (adjusted for ticket-price inflation) reveals that “Gone with the Wind”, which cost just $61m to make (in today’s prices), made the most money. Avatar is expected to…
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The importance of attractiveness depends on where you live:
good-looking people really benefit from their looks, and in what ways? A team of researchers from the University of Georgia and the University of Kansas found that yes; attractive people do tend to have more social relationships and therefore an increased sense of psychological well-being. This seems like common sense, and might be why we spend billions of dollars each year trying to become more attractive. However, the study, published in this month's issue of Personal Relationships, also determines…
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Interview With Joe Randazzo, Editor of the THE ONION:
in over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert
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Would it have been better to not spread the word about Christmas? – Susan Schorn
st year around this time my son, who apparently is quite thoughtful between video games, asked me about a song the kids sang at his sister's preschool Christmas pageant. "We will tell the world that the Lord is come," the song goes, and I told him yes, I remember, that's "Mary Had a Baby." "It's kind of an ironic song, isn't it?" he asked me. "Really?" I replied. Irony isn't a quality I usually look for in a Christmas carol,…
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Effectiveness of the “Good Cop, Bad Cop Technique”:
e fact is that good cop, bad cop is an effective tool for compliance because using it -- often in very subtle ways -- does apparently enhance the impact both the carrots and the sticks. In fact, this qualitative study is bolstered by experiments on negotiation teams by researchers Susan Brodt and Marla Tuchinsky showing that -- under most situations -- having both a good cop and a bad cop on a negotiation team is a winning strategy. BUT there…
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Studies show friends do make challenges easier to deal with:
offitt and Harber's recent collaboration, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The researchers grabbed 34 University of Virginia students who just happened to be strolling through campus, past a hill. Some of the students were walking alone. The others were in pairs with close friends. The researchers asked the students to estimate the steepness of the hill. To do so, the students were handed a movable chart representing a cross section of the sky and ground. With a lever,…
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Should you rip off a Band-Aid off slow or fast?
e perennial debate in every playground has finally been solved - ripping a Band-Aid off quickly causes less pain than pulling it away from the skin in a slow two-second tug. For the study, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia, each student had two plasters applied to their upper arm, hand and ankle. The plasters were then removed using both fast and slow methods, with a randomisation process used to decide which was used first on each student.…
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