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Credit Screenings Lead to Unfair Hiring
Checking up on a job applicant’s financial history has become a common practice in hiring -- even for service industry jobs like serving frozen yogurt or driving a delivery truck. Employers might assume that a job candidate’s financial history provides a real-world measure of their trustworthiness and reliability. However, new research contends that screening candidates based on credit checks does little to ensure quality hires, and instead often leads to discrimination.
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Cold Offices Linked to Lower Productivity
Companies may want to turn up the thermostat. Blasting the air conditioning doesn’t just run up energy bills, it may also be running up costs in lost worker productivity. In a small field study from 2004, Cornell University psychological scientist Alan Hedge determined that workers are more efficient when they’re warm. Hedge and colleagues carefully tracked the productivity of nine women working at an insurance office in Orlando, Florida. Their workstations were equipped with air samplers that recorded the temperature every 15 minutes. Productivity was tracked by software that measured their typing speed and errors for 20 consecutive days.
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At Face Value: Certain Facial Features Inspire Trust
Chief executives with certain facial features are immediately assessed as more trustworthy, and are less likely to be blamed for a company’s financial problems, a study has found.
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The Key to Creativity May be in Imagining the Details
Beyond recruiting staff that has the right skills, qualifications, and education for the job, organizations are increasingly looking for ways to boost another key component of success—creativity. In a study recently published in Psychological Science, a trio of Harvard University researchers—Kevin Madore, Donna Rose Addis, and Daniel Schacter—found an unusual link between memory and creative problem-solving. The study showed that reminiscing about the specific details of an experience, tapping into what is known as episodic memory, helped spark “divergent thinking,” or the ability to come up with many creative solutions for a problem.
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Burnout Leaves its Mark on the Brain
Chronic stress seems to dampen people’s neurological ability to bounce back from negative situations—causing even more stress.
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Chatting Before Negotiations Benefits Men More Than Women
Psychological scientists find that a bit of schmoozing may help men—but not women—walk away from a negotiation with a better deal, as well as better long-term business relationships.
