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‘Weapons of persuasion’ from Robert Cialdini
Los Angeles Times: Mitt Romney on the stump, singles at the bar, car salesmen on the lot: All sorts of people are practicing the art of persuasion, with varying degrees of success. We like to think that we make our own decisions, that we're in control. But we're all open to persuasion by others, says Robert Cialdini, professor emeritus of psychology at Arizona State University and author of "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion." Humans have been testing their own trial-and-error persuasion techniques forever, Cialdini says. Now, for better or worse, the professionals are moving in.
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Turned off: Families come together in unplugging technology
Green Bay Press Gazette: Imagine what you could accomplish if you stopped using the Internet, other forms of social media or the television for a short period of time or even a summer. There’d be time to focus on family, get involved in outdoor activities or just maybe write a book. That’s exactly what happened last summer when Kathy and Jason Schipper and their four children decided to unplug for four months. The decision came after a night of social media overload in their Town of Center home. “One night in the family room, Jason and I looked at each other and every single person was in the family room. The TV was on and Jason was watching it,” Kathy Schipper said.
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Study: Moody Toddlers Could End Up as Compulsive Gamblers
Education Week: Is your 3-year-old overly cranky, impulsive and restless? If the answer is yes, you could be raising a future gambler. So says a new study published recently in the journal Psychological Science that found a correlation between so-called "under-controlled" temperament in preschoolers and compulsive gambling later in life. The study's researchers say their results suggest it may be possible to determine as early as age 3 whether a person is at increased risk of becoming a gambler, according to psychologist Wendy S. Slutske of the University of Missouri, Columbia. Slutske conducted the study along with Terrie E.
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B-School Research Briefs
Business Week: Businesspeople have hearts. Really. If you don’t believe it, take a look at some of the research recently coming out of top business schools. It focuses on humanity and the nitty-gritty of everyday life, including energy efficiency to help the environment and the wallets of property owners, the influence of coupons meant to save people money, patient outcomes based on the cost of health care, and the bedside manner of doctors. Scientists realized that commercial building owners were not interested in retrofitting their properties to make them more energy efficient. Why?
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Auszeichnung in den USA
duz-Wissenschaftskarriere: Prof. Dr. Iris-Tatjana Kolassa (33), Leiterin der Abteilung für Klinische und Biologische Psychologie an der Universität Ulm, erhält den diesjährigen Janet Taylor Spence Award der US-amerikanischen Fachgesellschaft Association for Psychological Science (APS). Dieser Preis wird seit 2010 jährlich an vier Wissenschaftler verliehen, deren Forschungen sich durch besonders neuartige und kreative Ansätze hervortun. Kolassa, die für ihre Forschungen im Grenzbereich zwischen Psychologie und molekularer Medizin ausgezeichnet wird, ist die erste Preisträgerin von einer Universität außerhalb der Vereinigten Staaten.
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Neural Focus Groups
The Wall Street Journal: Can brain scans of small focus groups predict the opinions and reactions of the broader public? 31 test subjects who were interested in quitting smoking were recruited in Los Angeles to evaluate three anti-smoking ad campaigns. As they watched the ads, their neural activity was measured. Each campaign involved a mix of 30- and 15-second ads, for a total of 90 seconds of TV time; each ad ended by presenting the hotline 1-800-QUIT-NOW. The participants rated whether the ads were powerful, helpful, attention-grabbing and so on.
