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The Coattails Phenomenon: Getting Character From Others
My high school classmate Tom Gordon was everyone’s choice for least-likely-to-succeed. He drank too much and drove too fast, and got busted for petty theft again and again. He skipped school as often as he showed up, and was too undisciplined for sports or other organized activities. When he did get hired for part-time jobs, he’d either quit or get himself fired soon after. He was a loser. So imagine my bewilderment when I ran into Tom (whose name I have changed) some years later. He was sitting in a local diner, drinking coffee and reading several newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal.
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Know it all? Or perhaps you’re suffering from ‘hindsight bias’
The Telegraph: Now it is the braggarts’ turn to be found out. Scientists claim to have established that, far from being super-sleuths, such people are usually deluded. Researchers found that they are suffering from “hindsight bias”, when a person genuinely believes that they know something when in fact they are hearing or seeing it for the first time. Although the effects might seem relatively harmless, researchers claimed it could prevent people learning why something has happened or from taking advice. Prof Neal Roese, of Northwestern University in Chicago, said: “If you feel like you knew it all along, it means you won’t stop to examine why something really happened.
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The Gregarious Salesman: Death of a Stereotype
The Huffington Post: I had to buy a car recently, my first in many years, and I confess I couldn't stop thinking about Jerry Lundegaard. Jerry Lundegaard is a Minneapolis car salesman, and the central character in the Coen brothers' 1996 film classic, Fargo. He is fast-talking, weaselly, dishonest. Played to great comic effect by William H. Macy, Lundegaard is a caricature of all that we expect and fear in those who are out to sell us something. Okay, so maybe some of this is my stereotyping of car salesmen, and perhaps I'm being unfair. But like a lot of stereotypes, mine has some basis in fact. Not the inept criminal part, but certainly the blustery, glad-handing, over-the-top enthusiasm.
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When Men Stop Seeking Beauty and Women Care Less About Wealth
TIME: Men seek youth and beauty, while women focus on wealth and status — evolutionary psychologists have long claimed that these general preferences in human mating are universal and based on biology. But new research suggests that they may in fact be malleable: as men and women achieve financial equality, in terms of earning power and economic freedom, these mate-seeking preferences by gender tend to wane. The idea behind the evolutionary theory is simple: biologically, sperm are cheap — men make 1,500 sperm per second on average. In contrast, eggs are expensive; typically, women release just one egg a month and each baby girl is born with her full lifetime’s supply of egg cells.
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Admitting That Big Ugly Spider Is Terrifying Will Make It Less Frightening
Smithsonian Magazine: Talk about your fear while you do the thing you fear most, and according to new research, you may be able to overcome your phobia. Psychologists at UCLA found that people describing their feelings at the moment they confront their fears has a comforting effect. They asked 88 people with a fear of spiders to approach an open cage containing a big, hairy, live tarantula. They told the participants to touch the spider, if they could muster the courage. Before forcing their subjects to confront the spider, however, the researchers divided them into four groups. In one group, the scientists instructed the subjects to talk about their feelings.
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Drop the Pasta, Dad, and No One Gets Hurt
The New York Times: Want to avoid being the mop-up guy at dinner? “Portion the food out on the stove, before you start eating,” Mr. Fabricatore said. “Add a little distance and effort to get a second helping.” And try portioning the food in the fridge, like cutting the block of Cheddar into small containers. That’s the advice of Rena Wing, professor of psychiatric behavior at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University, where she studies weight loss tactics. Her point: when portions are big, our appetites can follow. “Do the prepackaging for yourself,” she said. Read the whole story: The New York Times
