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Scaling the heights of power
The Sydney Morning Herald: Want to add a few centimetres to your stature instantly without the help of heels or a hat? Just picture yourself in a situation where you are in charge. Researchers have found those in powerful positions actually consider themselves taller than they really are - by about an inch on average. This effect may have been at work in the aftermath of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico when BP Chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg controversially declared: "we care about the small people".
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Study of the Day: More Evidence That We’re a Very Needy Species
The Atlantic: PROBLEM: Psychologists already know that humans need to relate with others to be happy and that being left out can be stressful. But just how small a cue is necessary to help someone feel connected? METHODOLOGY: Researchers led by Purdue University's Eric D. Wesselmann carried out a field experiment on campus with 282 randomly selected participants. A research assistant walked along a well-populated path, picked a subject, and either met that person's eyes, met their eyes and smiled, or looked in the direction of the person's eyes but past them, as if looking through air. Read the whole story: The Atlantic
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Opinion: The risks of ignoring race in the workplace
CNN: Editor's note: Evan P. Apfelbaum is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His research has been featured in journals including Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, and Developmental Psychology and has been covered by a range of media outlets, including The New York Times, BBC, and National Public Radio. (CNN) -- Larry, one of the employees you supervise, hasn't been performing his job up to expectations. But you've been reluctant to take him aside and speak with him candidly: Like most senior people in the company, you are white.
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Study of the Day: Religion Boosts Patience, Has Practical Benefits
The Atlantic: Faith doesn't just assuage fears about the afterlife. Research published in Psychological Science shows that it fuels self-control too. PROBLEM: Religious believers are often called on to exercise self-control. Christians, for instance, are commanded not to lie, steal, or covet thy neighbor's wife. But can following one's faith, which uses up so much willpower, also replenish this limited resource? METHODOLOGY: Researchers led by Queen's University psychology graduate student Kevin Rounding asked participants to unscramble five-word sentences, some of which contained religious themes.
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Fighting willpower’s catch-22
ScienceNews: Willpower comes with a wicked kickback. Exerting self-control saps a person’s mental energy and makes the next desire that inevitably comes along feel more compelling and harder to resist, a study of people’s daily struggles with temptation found. But people best able to resist eating sweets, going out with friends before finishing work or other temptations find ways to steer clear of such enticements altogether, so that they rarely have to resort to self-control, psychologist Wilhelm Hofmann of the University of Chicago reported January 28 at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
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That bad attitude? Blame the birth month
Los Angeles Times: If you don't believe in horoscopes, you're in step with science. But that's not the same as saying the season of your birth cannot affect your fate. Hundreds of studies, published in peer-reviewed journals, have suggested that the month a person is born in is associated with characteristics such as temperament, longevity and susceptibility to certain diseases. Scientists say that even though some of these findings are probably spurious — if you dig around in data, you will eventually find correlations just by chance — other effects are very likely real, triggered not by the alignment of the planets but by exposures during prenatal and early postnatal lives.
