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Why Superstitions Help Athletes Perform Better
New York Magazine: In his acclaimed book The Game, Hall of Fame NHL goaltender Ken Dryden described some of the various superstitions he picked up over the years, from nodding at a particular Montreal Forum usherette before home games to shooting a puck off a certain part of the boards at the start of pregame warm-ups. “I don’t tell anyone about them, I’m not proud I have them, I know I should be strong enough to decide one morning, any morning, no longer to be a prisoner to them," he wrote. "Yet I seem helpless to do anything about it.” ... Dr.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Competence Judgments Based on Facial Appearance Are Better Predictors of American Elections Than of Korean Elections Jinkyung Na, Seunghee Kim, Hyewon Oh, Incheol Choi, and Alice O'Toole To examine cultural differences in the importance of face-trait judgments, the researchers showed American and Korean participants pairs of images consisting of both the winner and the runner-up of an American or a Korean election. For each image pair, participants indicated which person they thought was the most competent and which person they would be most likely to vote for.
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Here’s a simple trick to perform better in stressful situations
Business Insider: Most of us know how nerve-wracking it can be to lead a presentation at work. There are the nightmares beforehand about showing up naked to the conference room; the shaky legs and sweaty palms during the actual meeting; and the rumination afterward over your performance. Fortunately, there may be a relatively simple way to alleviate much of this anxiety: Talk to yourself like you'd talk to someone else in the same situation. According to research led by University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross, Ph.D., using either your first name or the pronoun "you" instead of "I" can make it easier to deal with stressful experiences. Read the whole story: Business Insider
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The Downside of Treadmill Desks
The New York Times: Treadmill desks are popular, even aspirational, in many offices today since they can help those of us who are deskbound move more, burn extra calories and generally improve our health. But an interesting new study raises some practical concerns about the effects of walking at your workspace and suggests that there may be unacknowledged downsides to using treadmill desks if you need to type or think at the office. ... No one should be surprised by this deterioration of typing ability while using a treadmill desk, said Michael Larson, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at B.Y.U. who led the study. “You’re not stationary,” he said.
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It’s All In Your Head: Director Pete Docter Gets Emotional In ‘Inside Out’
NPR: Why do songs get stuck in your head? Where did that weird dream come from last night? The new Disney Pixar film Inside Out takes an animated peek into the inner workings of our minds. The film follows 11-year-old Riley, who is uprooted from her home in Minnesota when her father starts a new company in San Francisco. This normally joyful girl becomes sad and angry when she's forced to leave the house, the friends and the hockey team she loves.
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How the Poor Make Better Financial Decisions Than the Wealthy
Slate: People often assume that the poor are less competent than the wealthy. Some even suggest that the poor have flawed values or ways of thinking. But my colleagues and I have recently found that the poor outperform the rich at some financial decisions. Under poverty, people develop a unique expertise. To appreciate this expertise, we should first come to terms with a mistake nearly everyone makes. Consider this question, which I regularly pose to my MBA students: Imagine you are buying a $300 tablet, but the salesman says the same tablet is available for $50 less at a store 20 minutes away. Would you travel for the discount? Almost certainly. Now imagine that the tablet costs $1,000.
