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The Week Your New Year’s Resolution to Exercise Dies
The Wall Street Journal: People with the noble New Year’s resolution to work out or work out more should mark their calendars: That resolve starts to waver in the third week in January, data shows. The pattern shows how difficult it is to make a new habit stick. Attendance is a delicate part of a gym’s business. Gyms need new members but face regulars who complain about crowds, waits and the poor etiquette of January newcomers. Check-ins on Facebook to facilities with “gym” or “fitness” in the name drop 10% in February, according to two years of Facebook data. The decline starts as early as the third week in January, Facebook researchers say.
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Your Spouse’s Personality Can Help You Get Ahead at Work
Smithsonian Magazine: Your chance at workplace success certainly depends in part on your personality. Your coworker’s personalities come into play as well—introverts tend to give extroverts poor performance reviews, and supportive supervisors can help women get over gender divides, for example. But apparently, even personalities outside the workplace can affect what goes on inside. A new study shows that spouses’ influence can seep into their partner’s job success. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, looked at 4,544 married, heterosexual couples, reports Cindi May for Scientific American.
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Feeling Fat Is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
New York Magazine: Self-perception can sometimes work as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, according to an upcoming paper in Psychological Science: Namely, believing that you are fat may result in actually becoming fat. Sixteen-year-olds who were at a normal weight but misperceived themselves to be overweight had a 40 percent greater risk of becoming obese before they turned 30, reports Angelina R. Sutin of the Florida State University College of Medicine.
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People Who Are Great at Reading Social Cues Are Also Great With the Internet
Slate: Some people are better at navigating cocktail parties, family gatherings, and office meetings. And, as it turns out, they are better at the Internet, too. That’s the word from Anita Woolley, a professor of organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon University. She’s been studying what it takes for groups to make smart decisions online, and her latest research unearthed a surprising discovery: People who were good at reading emotional cues face-to-face also happened to be pretty good at reading these cues in online discussions. Even without seeing the other person’s face, they were able to read other’s mental states online, where misunderstanding can easily occur.
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Seeing Themselves as Overweight May Be Self-Fulfilling Prophecy for Some Teens
Teens who mistakenly perceive themselves as overweight are actually at greater risk of obesity as adults, according to research.
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How Hierarchy Can Help Teams Scale New Heights
Do teams accomplish more when they enlist a strict hierarchy, or are they more effective when everyone is treated as an equal? A new study looking at 100 years of Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions helps shed light on this question, showing that hierarchy can be a mixed bag in high-stakes teams, both helping and hindering performance. An international team of researchers from Columbia University and INSEAD in France concluded that from the board room to the surgery suite, hierarchy within high-stakes teams can help elevate team performance -- but this boost can come at a potentially steep cost. After analyzing over 5,000 Himalayan climbing teams, psychological scientists Eric M.
