Does facing off against rivals increase your performance?
vals do increase performance -- but they also make us more likely to cheat. Via The Boston Globe: Then, analyzing three years of race data, he objectively identified rivals, by finding which runners frequently competed, finished close together, and shared certain basic demographic similarities. Then he analyzed an additional three years of data — including 1,263 road races for 82 runners. When runners raced against one or more rivals, he found, they sped up — increasing their average speed by five seconds per kilometer.…
2 minutes
The Attractiveness Of Your Real Estate Agent Affects How Much Your House Sells For
nder and attractiveness can affect how much a house sells for and how long it is on the market. Via Marina Adshade: It turns out having a male agent is bad for the selling price of a house. Both male listing agents (those acting on behalf of the seller) and male selling agents (those acting on behalf of the buyer) are associated with lower house prices than their female counterparts. The gender of the agent, however, has no effect on…
1 min read
How can you learn to speed-read without decreasing comprehension?
u can't. Via 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior: Equally popular are speed reading courses, many of which promise to increase people’s reading speeds from a mere 100 or 200 words per minute to 10,000 or even 25,000 words per minute (Carroll, 2003). Yet researchers have found that none of these courses boost people’s reading speeds with out decreasing their reading comprehension (Carver, 1987). What’s more, most of the reading speeds advertised by these…
1 min read
3 Quick Tips That Will Make You More Charismatic
a The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism: Lower the intonation of your voice at the end of your sentences. Reduce how quickly and how often you nod. Pause for two full seconds before you speak. Why do these work? I've posted a number of times on the power of your voice. You can predict who will be elected president by how deep their voice is. Men with deeper voices are more attractive…
1 min read
Sexist Men Earn More Money
s. Via Your Pinkie Is More Powerful Than Your Thumb: And 333 Other Surprising Facts That Will Make You Wealthier, Healthier and Smarter Than Everyone Else: Men who say women should have a traditional role made $8,549 more than other men, according to researchers who analyzed data and interviewed workers. Why? Here are two theories: (1) men with old-fashioned values negotiate salaries more aggressively because they are more likely to be their families' only breadwinners, while other men consider aggressive…
1 min read
Does being an underdog make you more motivated than the competition?
. Via Your Pinkie Is More Powerful Than Your Thumb: And 333 Other Surprising Facts That Will Make You Wealthier, Healthier and Smarter Than Everyone Else: The favorites, it turns out, try 30 percent harder when they face underdogs, a new study shows. Favorites try harder because they have more to lose, and they fear the humiliation of losing to teams they should beat. The results of the study contradict the common belief that underdogs have more motivation than their…
1 min read
Here’s How Important Your Body Language Is
en you're speaking emotionally, the words you use almost don't matter at all. Voice tone and body language are far more important. Via The Heart of Social Psychology: A Backstage View of a Passionate Science: One often quoted study (Mehrabian & Ferris, 1967) found that of all the information conveyed to another person when we say something that is emotional (not informational), only 7 percent is contained in the actual meaning of the words we use. Join over 135,000 readers. Get…
1 min read
Too Much Happiness Can Be A Very Bad Thing
a The Washington Post, highlights by the always-thought-provoking Mr. Robin Hanson: Very high levels of positive feelings predict risk-taking behaviors, excess alcohol and drug consumption, binge eating, and may lead us to neglect threats. Those who early in their lives reported the highest life satisfaction (for example, judging it at 5 on a 5-point scale) years later reported lower income than those who felt slightly less merry when young. What’s more, they dropped out of school earlier. A group of…
1 min read
