What flaw are people most honest about?
general, people have an overly positive vision of themselves and their abilities. However, self-control might be an area where most of us are a bit more down to earth. From Willpower: Resdiscovering the Greatest Human Strength: Ask people to name their greatest personal strengths, and they’ll often credit themselves with honesty, kindness, humor, creativity, bravery, and other virtues—even modesty. But not self-control. It came in dead last among the virtues being studied by researchers who have surveyed more than…
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Is driving while sick worse than driving while drunk?
ving a cold or the flu can impair driving ability by as much as 11% -- the equivalent of drinking a double whiskey: More than 125, 000 crashes were caused last year by motorists with colds and flu, as new scientific research reveals the serious impact of driver illness on accident rates. A new study commissioned by Lloyds TSB Insurance proves that driving with a virus such as cold or flu, impairs driver awareness by as much as 11 per…
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Do we have a cognitive bias about how susceptible we are to cognitive bias?
gnitive bias? "Yes, other people deal with that, but not me": Three studies suggest that individuals see the existence and operation of cognitive and motivational biases much more in others than in themselves. Study 1 provides evidence from three surveys that people rate themselves as less subject to various biases than the “average American,” classmates in a seminar, and fellow airport travelers. Data from the third survey further suggest that such claims arise from the interplay among availability biases and…
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What makes a great movie?
sting thousands of films, Dean Simonton has come up with a list of common attributes: Via Science Daily: A film that wins critical acclaim is likely to be an R-rated drama, adapted from a prize-winning play or book and based on a true story, with the original author or director involved in writing the screenplay. It is unlikely to be a sequel or remake, a comedy or musical, a summer release, a big-budget project, have a PG-13 rating, open on…
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Is a heavy clipboard a jobseeker’s best friend?
sumes presented on heavy clipboards were rated more highly. Via Harvard: ... researchers asked passersby to evaluate a job candidate by reviewing resumes on either light or heavy clipboards. Those who were given heavy clipboards rated the candidate as better overall and more interested in the position than those who were given light clipboards did. The results suggest that the physical heft of the clipboards affected how “weighty” participants viewed the job applicant to be. Join 25K+ readers. Get a free…
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Does your name determine whether or not you’ll be promoted?
bsp; People with easy-to-pronounce names are evaluated more positively and may have an edge in the workplace. Via Eurekalert: In the first study of its kind, and published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers analysed how the pronunciation of names can influence impression formation and decision-making. In particular, they demonstrated "the name pronunciation effect," which occurs when people with easy–to-pronounce names are evaluated more positively than those with difficult-to-pronounce names. The study revealed that: People with more pronounceable…
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Does how you feel right now indicate how long you’ll live?
searchers found a powerful correlation between self-rated health and probability of death over the next 30+ years. Via Eurekalert: Now, researchers from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich demonstrate that self-rated health is also linked to the probability of survival or death over a long period of more than thirty years. In the study, which was conducted in Switzerland, men who rated their health as "very poor" were 3.3 times more likely to die…
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Does plastic surgery increase or decrease happiness?
average, people who undergo plastic surgery report increased happiness and decreased psychiatric symptoms. The biggest gains came from breast surgery. Via Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom: Overall, attractive people are not happier than unattractive ones. Yet, surprisingly, some improvements in a person’s improvements in a person’s appearance do lead to lasting increases in happiness. People who undergo plastic surgery report (on average) high levels of satisfaction with the process, and they even report…
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