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Just Feeling Like Part of a Team Increases Motivation on Challenging Tasks
New research finds that just the sense that we’re working together with others can dramatically increase our motivation to complete difficult tasks—even when we’re actually working alone. Across five experiments Stanford psychological scientists Priyanka B.
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The Right Face for the Job
Picking a leader should be about assessing the experience and skills an individual can bring to the table, but a new study finds that getting ahead may be easier for people with the right facial features. In a study published in The Leadership Quarterly, psychological scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, Warwick Business School, and West Point Military Academy found that people were surprisingly good at matching leaders’ faces to their real professions. Study authors Christopher Y. Olivola, Dawn L. Eubanks, and Jeffrey B. Lovelace suggest that we may be choosing leaders, at least in part, based on unconscious biases towards certain facial features.
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Powerful People Think They Can Control Time
Time is supposedly the great equalizer. No matter how much money we make, how famous we are, or how much clout we yield in the office, we are all limited by the same number of hours in a day. However, a recent study from psychological scientists Alice Moon and Serena Chen of the University of California, Berkeley demonstrates that feeling a sense of power leads people to perceive themselves as able to control time, and that they have more of time at their disposal. “Given that the objective experience of time is uniform for everyone, it would seem safe to assume that all people perceive time in the same way,” Moon and Chen write in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
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The Perils of Being a ‘Chameleon’ in a Job Interview
We often unconsciously mirror the behavior of those around us, particularly when we’re trying to make a good impression, a phenomenon known as the “chameleon effect.” Research shows that, in general, mimicking another person’s gestures, inflections, or posture tends to make us come across as more likeable to that person. But a new study conducted by a team of psychological scientists from Texas Tech University and Drew University finds that people will also unwittingly mimic negative behaviors that can potentially get them into trouble. Researchers K. Rachelle Smith-Genthôs, Darcy A. Reich, Jessica L. Lakin, and Mario P.
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Feelings of Entitlement Enhance Creativity
Entitlement is rarely viewed as a positive quality. But a recent study finds that a sense of entitlement can lead to one surprisingly positive outcome—increased creativity. Entitled people are unapologetic about getting what they want, when they want it, without regard for anyone else. By definition, entitled people feel that the rules just do not apply to them, and this can easily lead to problems in the workplace. Researchers have found that people who feel a sense of entitlement are more likely to make unethical decisions, break rules, and engage in hostile behavior. But across four experiments, psychological scientists Emily M. Zitek of Cornell University and Lynne C.
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The Power of Puppies: Looking at Cute Images Can Improve Focus
Pictures of baby animals, including puppies and kittens, can have powerful effects on attention and concentration, a study shows.
