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Woman’s touch can fuel risk-taking behaviour

May 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 12 (ANI): A comforting, maternal pat on the back can make a person throw caution to the wind, concludes a new study.

The research has been published online in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

If a female experimenter patted a participant on the back, they”d risk more money than if she just talked to them, or if a man did the patting, the study found.

The researchers think this comes from the way that mothers use touch to make their babies feel secure. When we are infants, we receive a lot of touch from our mothers. This creates a sense of attachment, which makes a baby feel secure. This helps the youngster”s sense of adventure; they”re more willing to take the risks that come with exploring unfamiliar contexts and strange situations.

Jonathan Levav of Columbia University and Jennifer J. Argo of the University of Alberta wanted to know what happens when those babies grow up: Does physical contact also affect how willing adults are to take risks?

Participants were tested to see if they would take risks, such as investing money or taking a gamble. When they started the experiment, they were greeted in different ways: by a female or male experimenter and with a light, comforting touch on the shoulder, a handshake, or no physical contact at all. At the end of the experiment, they also filled out surveys that assessed how secure they felt. The researchers found that participants who were touched felt more secure and took bigger risks than those who weren”t – but only if they were touched by a woman. The effect was stronger for a touch on the back than for a handshake, but went away entirely for participants who were touched by a man.

The results suggest that a woman”s touch works the same on adults as it does on infants: making them feel more secure and more willing to take risks. (ANI)

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Children’s copycat behavior is universal

May 4, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 4 (ANI): A particular kind of imitation – overimitation, in which a child copies everything an adult shows them – appears to be a universal human activity, rather than something the children of middle-class parents pick up, claims a new study.

Scientists “have been finding this odd effect where children will copy everything that they see an adult demonstrate to them, even if there are clear or obvious reasons why those actions would be irrelevant,” says psychologist Mark Nielsen, of the University of Queensland in Australia. “It”s something that we know that other primates don”t do.” If a chimpanzee is shown an irrelevant action, they won”t copy it – they”ll skip right to the action that makes something happen.

But it”s not clear that the results found in child psychology research apply to all people, Nielsen says.

This research is usually done with children who live in Western cultures, whose parents are well educated and middle to upper class. And these parents are constantly teaching their children. But parents in indigenous cultures generally don”t spend a lot of time teaching.

“They may slow what they”re doing if the child is watching, but it”s not the kind of active instruction that”s common in Western cultures,” says Nielsen.

So he teamed up with Keyan Tomaselli, an anthropologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, who has worked for decades in Bushman communities in southern Africa.

The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

For the experiments, the children were shown how to open a box – but in a complicated way, with impractical actions thrown in. For example, the adult would drag a stick across a box, then use a stick to open the box by pulling on a knob – which is a lot easier if you just use your fingers. Most of the children copied what the adults did, even if they”d been given the opportunity to play with the box first and figure out how it worked. This was just as true for Bushman children as for the Australian children.

But aren”t the children just following the rules of what appears to be a game? “That kind of is the point,” says Nielsen. “Perhaps not a game, but certainly, when I demonstrate the action, it”s purposeful. So from the mind of a child, perhaps there”s a reason why I”m doing this.” This willingness to assume that an action has some unknown purpose, and to copy it, may be part of how humans develop and share culture, he says. “Really, we see these sorts of behaviors as being a core part of developing this human cultural mind, where we”re so motivated to do things like those around us and be like those around us.” (ANI)

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A little motivation can improve eyesight

April 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 30 (ANI): Eyesight markedly improved when people were experimentally induced to believe that they could see especially well, a new study found.

Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer and her colleagues reported the finding in the April Psychological Science.

The boffins emphasize that such expectations actually enhanced visual clarity, rather than simply making volunteers more alert or motivated to focus on objects.

In the study, “20 men and women who saw a reversed eye chart — arranged so that letters became progressively larger further down the chart, with a giant “E” at the bottom — accurately reported more letters from the smallest two lines than they did when shown a traditional eye chart with the big letters on top. All volunteers had normal eyesight.

These results reflect people”s expectation, based on experience with standard eye charts, that letters are easy to see at the top and become increasingly difficult to distinguish on lower lines, the researchers suggest.

Participants who said they thought that they could improve their eyesight with practice displayed a bigger vision boost on the reversed chart than those who didn”t think improvement was possible, but only for the next-to-smallest line. Both groups did equally well at reading the smallest, topmost line”, reports Discovery News. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: 20 Men, boffins, colleagues, discovery news, Ellen Langer, expectation, Eye Chart, Eye Charts, giant, harvard university, Improve Eyesight, men and women, motivation, participants, psychological science, university psychologist, Visual Clarity, volunteers

Blinking eyes indicate a wandering mind

April 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 30 (ANI): You tend to blink more often when you”re daydreaming or when your mind is wandering off, concludes a new study.

Cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Smilek, of the University of Waterloo, studies how people pay attention — and don”t.

For the new study, he was inspired by brain research that shows, when the mind wanders, the parts of the brain that process external goings-on are less active.

“And we thought, ok, if that”s the case, maybe we”d see that the body would start to do things to prevent the brain from receiving external information,” Smilek says. “The simplest thing that might happen is you might close your eyes more.” So, Smilek and his colleagues, Jonathan S.A. Carriere and J. Allan Cheyne, also of the University of Waterloo, set out to look at how often people blink when their mind wanders.

Fifteen volunteers read a passage from a book on a computer. While they read, a sensor tracked their eye movements, including blinks and what word they were looking at. At random intervals, the computer beeped and the subjects reported whether they”d been paying attention to what they were reading or whether their minds were wandering — which included thinking about earlier parts of the text.

The participants blinked more when their minds were wandering than when they were on task, the team reports in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

“What we suggest is that when you start to mind-wander, you start to gate the information even at the sensory endings — you basically close your eyelid so there”s less information coming into the brain,” says Smilek. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: blink, Blinking Eyes, brain research, Carriere, cognitive neuroscientist, colleagues, eye movements, J Allan, jonathan, participants, parts of the brain, paying attention, psychological science, Random Intervals, science journal, Sensory Endings, Simplest Thing, University Of Waterloo, volunteers, Wandering Mind

How to build a committed workforce?

April 28, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, April 28 (ANI): Asking workers to reflect on their organisation”s history can help build a committed workforce, according to a new American research.

The study, titled “Company, country, connections: Counterfactual origins increase organizational commitment, patriotism and social investment,” was conducted by researchers from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

It will be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science.

Author Adam Galinsky, Morris and Alice Kaplan professor of ethics and decision in management, said: “Institutions that can communicate a compelling historical narrative often inspire a special kind of commitment among employees. It is this dedication that directly affects a company”s success and is critical to creating a strong corporate legacy.”

Galinsky, along with Kellogg professors Hal Ersner-Hershfield and Brayden King and Haas professor Laura Kray explored how reflecting counterfactually on an institution”s origins – that is, thinking about “what if” scenarios – can have a bearing on employees” actions and commitment.

Their findings show that when employees are asked to think about an alternative universe where their company did not come into being, they come to see their company”s current circumstance and future trajectory in a more positive light.

This “near-loss” mentality increases their commitment toward the institution and overall morale.

The researchers point to FedEx as an example.

The courier service successfully positions its origin story by leading people to reflect on what would have happened had FedEx founder Fred Smith chosen not to fly to a Las Vegas casino one fateful night in 1973 to help his troubled company meet payroll.

King said: “The result for FedEx is a deep employee appreciation and the recognition by top magazines as one of the best companies to work for.

“The key to generating these sentiments is reminding employees how things could have turned out differently for their company.”

Lead author Ersner-Hershfield said: “Businesses can better position themselves to prosper when they clearly articulate their origin stories to employees.

“In order for companies to effectively communicate their narrative, they should ask themselves whether there were key meetings, events or people during the economic crisis, without which the company”s outlook would have taken a turn for the worse. Focusing on how things could have turned out differently fosters a positive view of the current circumstances among employees and thus generates an increased sense of commitment.”

Ersner-Hershfield added: “Our study demonstrates that this process is a universal one, applying also to countries and personal connections.”

According to Galinsky, these results suggest “that this link is an endemic aspect of the human mind: Ruminating on origin stories and reflecting back on what might have happened rather than what actually took place leads to increased commitment.” (ANI)

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Anticipating quick results boosts performance

March 31, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 31 (ANI): The more desperate students are to receive their grades, the more they are likely to perform in class, according to a new study.

Psychological scientists Keri L. Kettle and Gerald Haubl of the University of Alberta in Canada wanted to investigate how the timing of expected feedback impacts individuals” performance.

For the experiment, they recruited students enrolled in a class that required each student to give a 4-minute oral presentation.

The presentations were rated by classmates on a scale from 0 (poor) to 10 (excellent) and the average of these ratings formed the presenter”s grade for that part of the course.

Students received an email 1 day, 8 days, or 15 days before their presentation and were invited to participate in this research study. Students agreeing to volunteer in the study were informed when they would receive feedback on their presentation and were asked to predict their grades.

Participating students were randomly assigned to a specific amount of anticipated feedback delay, which ranged from 0 (same day) to 17 days.

It was found that students who were told they would receive feedback quickly on their performance earned higher grades than students who expected feedback at a later time.

In addition, when students expected to receive their grades quickly, they predicted that their performance would be worse than students who were to receive feedback later.

The pattern suggests that anticipating rapid feedback may improve performance because the threat of disappointment is more prominent.

“People do best precisely when their predictions about their own performance are least optimistic,” noted the authors.

Although the experiment took place in a classroom, the authors concluded that these findings “have important practical implications for all individuals who are responsible for mentoring and for evaluating the performance of others.”

The study has been published in Psychological Science. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: boosts, Canada, classmates, Course Students, Desperate Students, disappointment, email, Feedback Delay, Gerald Haubl, Mentoring, Minute Oral Presentation, psychological science, Rapid Feedback, Scientists, Study Students, University of Alberta

Fast food makes us impatient

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 26 (ANI): Fast food is not only bad for health, it can trigger impatience and hasty behaviour in people, a new study has found.

The original idea behind fast food is to increase efficiency, allowing people to quickly finish a meal so they can move on to other matters.

Now, researchers at the University of Toronto have found that the mere exposure to fast food and related symbols can make people impatient, increasing preference for time saving products, and reducing willingness to save.

“Fast food represents a culture of time efficiency and instant gratification,” said Chen-Bo Zhong, who co-wrote the paper with colleague Sanford DeVoe.

“The problem is that the goal of saving time gets activated upon exposure to fast food regardless of whether time is a relevant factor in the context,” Bo Zhong added.

In one experiment, the researchers flashed fast food symbols, such as the golden arch of McDonald”s, on a computer screen for a few milliseconds, so quick that participants couldn”t consciously identify what they saw.

They found that this unconscious exposure increased participants” reading speed in a subsequent task compared to those in a control condition, even when there was no advantage to finishing sooner.

In another study, participants who recalled a time when they eat at a food restaurant subsequently preferred time-saving products—such as two-in-one shampoo—over regular products.

A final experiment found people exposed to fast food logos exhibited greater reluctance for saving —choose a smaller immediate payment rather than opting for a much larger delayed payment.

The study is to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: computer screen, Devoe, fast food, Food Restaurant, forthcoming issue, golden arch, Immediate Payment, Instant Gratification, Milliseconds, Preferred Time, psychological science, Reading Speed, Relevant Factor, reluctance, sanford, Saving Time, shampoo, Study participants, Time Efficiency, university of toronto

Seal romance-related items away to get over split

March 25, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 25 (ANI): If you”re finding hard to get over a failed love interest, then here”s something that can help you: stick your disappointment in a box or envelope and you”ll feel better.

According to a study from the Rotman School of Management, the physical act of enclosing materials related to an unpleasant experience, such as a written recollection about it, improves people”s negative feelings towards the event and created psychological closure. Enclosing materials unrelated to the experience did not work as well.

“If you tell people, ”You”ve got to move on,” that doesn”t work,” said Dilip Soman, who holds the Corus Chair in Communication Strategy at the Rotman School and is also a professor of marketing, who co-wrote the paper with colleagues Xiuping Li from the National University of Singapore and Liyuan Wei from City University of Hong Kong.

“What works is when people enclose materials that are relevant to the negative memories they have. It works because people aren”t trying to explicitly control their emotions.”

Prof. Soman believes the findings point to new angles on such things as fast pick-up courier services and pre-paid mortgage deals that relieve people”s sense of debt burden. If people realize that the memory of past events or tasks can be distracting, perhaps there is a market for products and services that can enclose or take away memories of that task.

The paper is to be published in Psychological Science. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: angles, closure, communication strategy, Courier Services, Debt Burden, disappointment, emotions, Findings Point, love interest, Mortgage Deals, national university of singapore, Negative Feelings, Physical Act, psychological science, recollection, Rotman School Of Management, school of management, Soman, university of singapore, Unpleasant Experience

Happiness lies in earning more than peers!

March 23, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 23 (ANI): The secret to happiness lies in earning more money than your peers, according to a new study.

Christopher Boyce, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick in England, suggests that it does not matter how much wealth people make as long as they are doing better financially than their fellow mates.

We tend to be happy “as long as we”ve got more than the people around us,” Live Science quoted him as saying.

It apparently takes from the concept of “doing better than the Joneses,” which is common among children. For example, a toy gets ditched as soon as a shinier toy in the hands of another child is spotted.

Boyce insists it holds true for adults as well.

He added: “You might buy a new car. But if your neighbor has just bought the very same car, that new car doesn”t seem as good as it once was if you were the only one to have that car.”

The researchers studied the British Household Panel Survey data between 1997 and 2004, in which more than 80,000 participants rated how dissatisfied or satisfied overall.

They compared the subjects” income with various reference groups, including geographical region, gender and education, and age.

It was found that a person”s life satisfaction was primarily linked to the income position within each peer group.

The researchers cited the results to explain why when national economies grow, average happiness levels do not necessarily increase.

Boyce said: “It”s about having more than everyone else, which is why our nations are not increasing in happiness on average.

“Our study underlines concerns regarding the pursuit of economic growth. There are fixed amounts of rank in society – only one individual can be the highest earner.

“Thus, pursuing economic growth, although it remains a key political goal, might not make people any happier.”

The study has been published in a recent online edition of the journal Psychological Science. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Christopher Boyce, department of psychology, economic growth, fellow mates, Gender And Education, Geographical Region, happiness levels, household, Joneses, Life Satisfaction, national economies, neighbor, new car, panel survey, peer group, psychological science, Reference Groups, Survey Data, university of warwick, Warwick England

Happiness lies in earning more than peers!

March 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 20 (ANI): The secret to happiness lies in earning more money than your peers, according to a new study.