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Dan Ariely: Should job descriptions be as vague as possible?
Business Insider: Dan Ariely, author of the wonderful Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions discusses the problem with specifics in job descriptions: Most of the time, when you hire people you don’t want to specify exactly what they are to do and how much they would get paid—you don’t want to say if you do X you will get this much, and if you do Y you will get that much. That type of contract is what we call a complete contract. Creating one is basically impossible, especially with higher-level jobs. If you try to do it, you cause “crowding out.” People focus on everything you’ve included and exclude everything else.
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The Limits of Empathy
The New York Times: We are surrounded by people trying to make the world a better place. Peace activists bring enemies together so they can get to know one another and feel each other’s pain. School leaders try to attract a diverse set of students so each can understand what it’s like to walk in the others’ shoes. Religious and community groups try to cultivate empathy.
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Mother’s Love May Keep the Doctor Away
Fox News: An extra dose of motherly nurturing insulates children from lifelong health problems associated with poverty, a new study says. The study found that people whose parents did not finish high school were 1.4 times more likely to develop a condition called metabolic syndrome by middle age than children raised by college-educated parents. Metabolic syndrome is a precursor to diabetes and heart disease. However, among people from less-educated households, those who said they had a very nurturing mother were less likely to develop metabolic syndrome, according to the study published Friday (Sept. 23) in the journal Psychological Science.
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Ig Nobel Award Winners: Do Humans Think Less Clearly When They Have To Urinate?
Huffington Post: Can a strong urge to urinate impair your ability to drive? Is yawning contagious? Will motorists stop double-parking if you threaten to flatten their cars with an armored tank? The studies of these subjects might not win you a Nobel Prize. But they might win you an Ig Nobel -- an award given to research that makes you laugh -- and may even somehow benefit society.
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Slimmer door sneller brein
Metro Nieuws: Waarom neemt de intelligentie in onze tienerjaren eigenlijk toe? Wetenschappers komen met een antwoord. In de puberteit krijgt niet alleen ons lichaam een radicale make-over, maar verandert ook ons brein. Zo hebben wetenschappers al eerder aangetoond dat adolescenten intelligenter worden, maar was tot op heden onduidelijk waarom. Het vermoeden was dat het iets te maken heeft met de mentale verwerkingssnelheid, die ook een spurt neemt tijdens de tienerjaren. En jawel: dit blijkt inderdaad te kloppen.
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Easily Embarrassed? Others Trust You More, Study Shows
LiveScience: The next time you blush after tripping over your own feet in public, don't try to hide it — a new study finds that showing your embarrassment actually makes other people view you as more trustworthy. "Embarrassment is one emotional signature of a person to whom you can entrust valuable resources," study researcher Robb Willer, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.
