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A Face-to-Face Request Is 34 Times More Successful than an Email
Harvard Business Review: Imagine you need people to donate to a cause you care about. How do you get as many people as possible to donate? You could send an email to 200 of your friends, family members, and acquaintances. Or you could ask a few of the people you encounter in a typical day—face-to-face—to donate. Which method would mobilize more people for your cause? Despite the reach of email, asking in person is the significantly more effective approach; you need to ask six people in person to equal the power of a 200-recipient email blast. Still, most people tend to think the email ask will be more effective.
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Where did I put those keys? – the psychology of foraging
The Guardian: One of the big questions in vision research over the past 40 years has asked how we effectively search around our visual environment. Search is something that we unwittingly engage in every day of our lives – whether it’s looking for our car keys, scrabbling around for a lost contact lens, or rummaging around in a bag for a lost pen lid. But the way in which researchers have classically tested the limits of visual search have looked very different to what we might think of as search in the real world. ...
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How Loneliness Begets Loneliness
The Atlantic: “I’m clearly a textbook case of the silent majority of middle-aged men who won’t admit they’re starved for friendship, even if all signs point to the contrary,” wrote Billy Baker in his recent exploration of male loneliness in The Boston Globe. Perhaps one reason the piece made so many internet rounds is just how many people could relate: Last year Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that Americans are “facing an epidemic of loneliness and social isolation.” ... John Cacioppo: When you look across studies, you get levels anywhere from 25 to 48 percent [of people reporting being lonely].
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How Attention ‘Deficits’ May Actually Benefit Kids
Forbes: Children’s attention has been the subject of a lot of discussion in the last few decades, and its “deficits” the cause of much frustration, contention and, in many cases, medication. A new study from The Ohio State University finds that there’s at least one pretty logical reason for kids’ wandering attention: Compared to grownups, kids aren’t quite as good at paying attention to what they’re told to—but they’re better at paying attention to what they aren’t. This may mean that kids ultimately pick up more details about their environments than grownups do.
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Eyewitness Confidence Can Predict Accuracy of Identifications, Researchers Find
A new report challenges the perception that eyewitness memory is inherently fallible, finding that eyewitness confidence can indicate the accuracy of identifications made under “pristine” conditions.
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Some Strategies to Limit Sugary Drinks May Backfire
One potential strategy for complying with serving limits on sugary drinks — offering smaller cup sizes with free refills — may actually increase individual consumption of sugar-filled beverages.
