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Why Companies Are Terrible At Spotting Creative Ideas
Fast Company: In business, a creative idea is only worth as much as the manager who can recognize it. Malcolm Gladwell once told the story of Xerox engineer Gary Starkweather, who conceived of a laser printer circa 1970 but was forbidden to pursue it by a boss. Starkweather developed a prototype in his spare time and forced the company to transfer him so he could finish it. He basically begged Xerox to let him work on an idea it should have been begging him to work on. That story ended just fine for Xerox, but no doubt many other creative ideas stall in the conception phase for lack of encouragement.
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For women, sex in ads may not sell
The Globe and Mail: That’s the message researchers are drawing from a new study, published in the journal Psychological Science, which demonstrates women’s negative reactions toward advertising that uses sexual imagery. “Just a quick exposure to an ad was enough for theories of sexual economics to kick in,” researcher Kathleen Vohs, a marketing professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, said in a statement. Professor Darren Dahl of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, was one of the researchers on the study. Read the whole story: The Globe and Mail
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Scientists and Practitioners Don’t See Eye to Eye on Repressed Memory
Skepticism about repressed traumatic memories has increased over time, but new research shows that psychology researchers and practitioners still tend to hold different beliefs about whether such memories occur and whether they can be accurately retrieved. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Whether repressed memories are accurate or not, and whether they should be pursued by therapists, or not, is probably the single most practically important topic in clinical psychology since the days of Freud and the hypnotists who came before him,” says researcher Lawrence Patihis of the University of California, Irvine.
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Bad Eating Habits Start in the Womb
The New York Times: THE solution to one of America’s most vexing problems — our soaring rates of obesity and diet-related diseases — may have its roots in early childhood, and even in utero. Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a nonprofit research organization in Philadelphia, have found that babies born to mothers who eat a diverse and varied diet while pregnant and breast-feeding are more open to a wide range of flavors. They’ve also found that babies who follow that diet after weaning carry those preferences into childhood and adulthood. Researchers believe that the taste preferences that develop at crucial periods in infancy have lasting effects for life.
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Nudity Found to Offer New Social Benefits
Scientific American: When meeting someone for the first time, your impression of that person may be different if you meet that person at a formal dinner party, a cocktail party, or a pool party. These settings typically influence how the person dresses and how much skin they expose. Whether you consciously pay attention to a person’s exposed skin or not, focusing on their body may have unintended consequences. We often assume that focusing too much on a person’s body and physical characteristics objectifies and dehumanises that person. A 2012 study in Psychological Science showed both men and women viewed other women portrayed as “sexy” as objects. ...
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Are All of Your Photo Memories Actually Making You Forget?
Slate: We’ve all done it; we’ve all taken a zillion pictures on that beach vacation or at a wedding. And why not? It’s easier than ever with a camera burning a hole in our pockets at all times. Not to mention, it’s not just easier to take the well-timed photo, it’s easier than ever to share our Instagrammed lives. But is all that memory-making actually making you forget? A new study in the journal Psychological Science says it's quite possible. The study, which set out to find out how taking photographs impacts our memory, used undergraduate students as subjects. The students were led on a tour around a museum and instructed to photograph certain objects and simply observe others.
