Marketing Researchers Find Betting On Sports And Reality TV Spoils The Fun:
rketing researchers have found that making wagers on sports and reality television spoils the enjoyment of the event because people fear losing their bets. In a five year study, participants were asked to view a reality show with or without placing a bet. They were then asked to rate their enjoyment. Researchers found that the people who made a prediction tended to enjoy watching the shows less than the people who didn't make a prediction. via sciencedaily.com Join over 320,000…
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Crunching the #’s to See How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating:
a blog.okcupid.com The numbers on the perimeter of the table are the weighted average match percentage, a measure of group likability, for each column or row. A dating site crunches their numbers to give insights on how races and religions match in online dating. I highly recommend clicking through and checking out the full study. (Spoiler: Astrology had no predictive value whatsoever.) Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts: New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will…
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Don’t make big decisions on an empty stomach:
e experiment began with a large group of undergraduates performing a mentally taxing activity that involved watching a video while ignoring the text of random words scrolling on the bottom of the screen. (It takes conscious effort to not pay attention to salient stimuli.) The students were then offered some lemonade. Half of them got lemonade made with real sugar, and the other half got lemonade made with a sugar substitute. After giving the glucose time to enter the bloodstream…
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Be the main character in your favorite classic novel:
om an online store that specialises in personalised gifts comes a literary appeal to anyone's vanity. GettingPersonal sells classic novels—mostly as gifts—that let recipients and their friends star as the main characters. Taking a concept we've already seen applied to travel guides and stories for younger children, the company has chosen a range of books with lasting appeal (and without pesky copyright issues). For the romantics there's Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet; adventure-seekers get Robin Hood and The…
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The Economist – Who admires their country the most?:
ST as some people have a better self-image than others, so it seems do countries. In a poll of 33 nations by the Reputation Institute, a branding consultancy, people were asked to rate their trust, admiration, respect and pride in their country. The results are presented as an index. By this measure, Australians are almost as exuberant about their country as they are about sport, and lead the list. They are followed closely by Canadians. Americans, normally a patriotic and…
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Freakonomics author Steven Levitt analyzes crack economics at the TED conference (Video):
¿ Join 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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Do babies in ads manipulate our attention?
vertisers have known for decades that pictures of babies attract attention and hold the viewer’s gaze. That’s why you often see pictures of babies – cute, startled, smiling, frowning – in ads that have nothing at all to do with baby products. An interesting study from Australia shows what takes a baby-picture ad from merely attention-getting to effective. Usability specialist James Breeze conducted a study of how people view baby ads with 106 subjects (You Look Where They Look.). He…
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New York Times – That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger:
er the past two years, Robic, who is 40 years old, has won almost every race he has entered, including the last two editions of ultracycling’s biggest event, the 3,000-mile Insight Race Across America (RAAM). In 2004, Robic set a world record in the 24-hour time trial by covering 518.7 miles. Last year, he did himself one better, following up his RAAM victory with a victory six weeks later in Le Tour Direct, a 2,500-mile race on a course contrived…
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