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Five Ways to Give Better Gifts (Backed by Science)
The Wall Street Journal: Bundling a big, generous present with a little extra “stocking stuffer” actually detracts from the appreciation of your big gift. Contrary to everything we’ve been taught, receivers feel closer to you afterward if you choose a gift that reflects your interests rather than theirs. If you’re in a romantic relationship or hoping to nurture one, you need to be more careful giving a present to a man than a woman. These are some of the findings from psychologists and other researchers who study gift-giving that you may want to take into account this holiday season. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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Black Friday: The Jury is Still Deliberating
Scientific American: Halloween decorations have been taken down, costumes have been stowed away and all of the candy corn has been eaten. Americans are now preparing for their next major holiday—Black Friday. Black Friday is the unofficial official name for the day after Thanksgiving. On this day retailers proclaim the start of the holiday shopping season by offering steep discounts. For example, last year, Black Friday shoppers could buy a Panasonic 50-inch LED HD TV from Best Buy for just $199.99 while supplies lasted. This was a 64 percent discount!
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What really drives you crazy about waiting in line (it actually isn’t the wait at all)
The Washington Post: If the people who study the psychology of waiting in line — yes, there is such a thing — have an origin story, it’s this: It was the 1950s, and a high-rise office building in Manhattan had a problem. The tenants complained of an excessively long wait for the elevator when people arrived in the morning, took their lunch break, and left at night. Engineers examined the building and determined that nothing could be done to speed up the service. Desperate to keep his tenants, the building manager turned to his staff for suggestions.
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Three Tactics for Tackling Unethical Behavior
Unethical behavior isn’t necessarily the price of doing business. An international research team highlights steps organizations can take to combat unethical behavior on the job.
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Virtue, Vice, and the U.S. Senate
NPR: To Aristotle, the ideal politician was a person of high virtue, one of the best and most capable members of society. Though Machiavelli also used the word "virtue" to describe his own ideal, he obviously meant something different, more akin to a paranoid, power-hungry psychopath. The contrast leads to an obvious question: Which of these two has more influence in the United States Senate? Good news: While the more Machiavellian may have power early in their careers, according to a new study, it's the courageous and wise senators who have the most influence as they move up the ranks. ...
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Why it’s good to show you’re embarrassed
The Washington Post: Maybe you asked a woman when she was due, only to learn that she wasn’t pregnant. Perhaps you accidentally "replied all" with an inappropriate remark, or walked right into a sliding glass door at a busy restaurant. We all have embarrassing moments. And in the age of the Internet, a lot of them are preserved for posterity — 50 Cent’s hilariously failed pitch at a Mets game, for example, or Katy Perry slipping over and over again in a pile of cake, and then having to crawl off stage.
