Uncommon knowledge

How class affects your brain

Most of the kids who attend top colleges come from affluent families. As if that isn’t discouraging enough for kids from lower-class families, a new study at Northwestern University suggests that, even for kids who’ve already made it to a top university, coming from a lower-class background can wear them down. After talking about their own academic achievement, lower-class students ate more candy and had more trouble with self-control than more affluent students. This didn’t happen when they talked about a nonacademic topic, suggesting that lower-class students are more self-conscious about their academic status; the psychological pressure of discussing it wears them out. However, the researchers did find a way to psychologically undermine students from all backgrounds more equally: comparing them to students at an even more elite university!

Johnson, S. et al., ”Middle Class and Marginal? Socioeconomic Status, Stigma, and Self-Regulation at an Elite University,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Mom, get away!

One of the stereotypes of a detached personality is that such a person will not only avoid close relationships but must not have been loved by his or her mother. In a novel experiment, researchers found that the word “mom” does indeed have an automatic negative association for these people. The researchers asked people to stand in front of a screen that randomly displayed various words and push a lever as fast as possible upon seeing the words. People with more detached personalities pushed the lever away faster than other people in response to the word “mom” but not in response to other words.

Fraley, C. & Marks, M., “Pushing Mom Away: Embodied Cognition and Avoidant Attachment,” Journal of Research in Personality (forthcoming).

I am yours

A longstanding feminist critique of dating culture is that men are expected to be promiscuous, while women are expected to be loyal, doting partners. This may be unfair, but evolutionary psychology would suggest that women are compelled to signal their faithfulness to prospective partners because men can’t be certain about paternity, and are therefore wary of unfaithful women. In a recent study, women who were made to think about long-term romance reported that they wouldn’t want to go to a concert with — and would otherwise distance themselves from — another woman who is unfaithful to the men she dates. Women were not as put off by the company of a cheater if they were made to think about short-term romance or just hanging out with friends. Although men had a generally negative reaction towards a cheating friend, this reaction wasn’t particularly sensitive to the romantic context, suggesting that the signaling of faithfulness is more important for women.

Dosmukhambetova, D. & Manstead, A., “Strategic Reactions to Unfaithfulness: Female Self-Presentation in the Context of Mate Attraction Is Linked to Uncertainty of Paternity,” Evolution and Human Behavior (March 2011).

Sorting the dead

TV crime dramas like “CSI” usually present the autopsy as a clear-cut analytical exercise. However, criminal investigators and medical examiners are prone to biases just like everyone else. Comparing a nationally representative sample of death certificates to survey responses from next of kin, researchers found that the racial identity of decedents was often misclassified — at a rate of about 1 percent for whites, and up to almost 9 percent for Native Americans. Worse, misclassification to a particular race was more likely if the cause of death fit the stereotype for that race: Death by cirrhosis was associated with misclassification as Native American, while being murdered was associated with misclassification as black.

Noymer, A. et al., “Cause of Death Affects Racial Classification on Death Certificates,” PLoS ONE (January 2011).

Speed thinking

In the race to boost brain performance, some British psychologists have found one trick: the click. When various mental tasks were preceded by several seconds of clicking — compared to silence or white noise — people’s minds seemed to perform a little bit better. Not only was this the case for reaction times to basic stimuli, but math problems were solved slightly faster, data was recalled a little bit more fluently, and previously seen pictures were more likely to be recognized. The authors of the study aren’t exactly sure how clicks produce this effect but figure that the clicks might speed up the perception of time, speeding up the underlying thought process.

Jones, L. et al., “Click Trains and the Rate of Information Processing: Does ‘Speeding Up’ Subjective Time Make Other Psychological Processes Run Faster?” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (February 2011).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Hug to win!

Normally, touching co-workers is a big no-no. Unless you want your team to win. That’s the implication of a recent analysis of all NBA basketball teams during the 2008-2009 regular season. Researchers recorded all non-game-play touching (e.g., fist bumps, head slaps, high fives, hugs) among players in a game during the early part of the season. The amount of touching in this one game predicted both player and team performance the rest of the season, even when controlling for preseason expectations and early season performance. The relationship also held when controlling for player salary, which was highly correlated with touching. The overall effect of touching on performance appears to operate by increasing cooperation and trust among teammates.

Kraus, M. et al., “Tactile Communication, Cooperation, and Performance: An Ethological Study of the NBA,” Emotion (October 2010).

Protesting too much

It might seem odd that political partisans argue their ideology so fervently, even when faced with reasonable counter-arguments. Yet, recent research seems to confirm what many psychologists have long suspected — that self-doubt tends to increase the energy people put into persuading others. In one experiment, when people were asked to defend their opinion on the use of animals in laboratory testing, they wrote a longer defense if they wrote it with their nondominant hand (which is supposed to undermine confidence). In other experiments, people expended more effort to persuade others of their dietary or computer preferences if they had been asked to think about uncertain situations. Interestingly, the effect of doubt was attenuated if the person’s sense of self had also been affirmed.

Gal, D. & Rucker, D., “When in Doubt, Shout! Paradoxical Influences of Doubt on Proselytizing,” Psychological Science (November 2010).

Hard to read, easy to learn

Most economists will tell you that education is a key driver of economic competitiveness — for individuals and nations alike. So, when innovations come along that boost learning at little or no cost, we should pay close attention. And that’s exactly the secret behind one innovation suggested by a new study. Researchers gave people 90 seconds to memorize fictitious biology data and then distracted them for another 15 minutes. People who had been given the data in a somewhat-hard-to-read font recalled 87 percent of the data correctly vs. 73 percent for an easy-to-read font. To see if this could be repeated in real classrooms, the researchers asked teachers in a public high school in Ohio to hand out worksheets in somewhat-hard-to-read fonts to one of their sections, while worksheets in easy-to-read fonts were handed out to another section. Students in the sections with the harder-to-read fonts performed better on tests.

Diemand-Yauman, C. et al., “Fortune Favors the Bold (and the Italicized): Effects of Disfluency on Educational Outcomes,” Cognition (forthcoming).

Kindler, gentler roughnecks

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is undoubtedly one of the defining events of 2010. Among the factors that may have contributed to the accident was the safety culture aboard the rig. In a recent case study, professors at Harvard and Stanford spent time aboard two other rigs whose culture underwent a profound change. Although the initial motivation for the change was safety, the new operational culture also reformed the macho culture that normally prevails in the male-dominated industry. In the old days, as one rig manager put it: “They decided who the driller was by fighting. If the job came open, the one that was left standing was the driller. It was that rowdy.” After the changes, the workers discussed things more openly, were more supportive of each other, and didn’t try to show how tough they were all the time.

Ely, R. & Meyerson, D., “An Organizational Approach to Undoing Gender: The Unlikely Case of Offshore Oil Platforms,” Research in Organizational Behavior (forthcoming).

Can bad things make you happier?

To quote Friedrich Nietzsche: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” But is this really the case? Sure, it’s reasonable to expect that we can all adapt to suffering up to a point, but could it be that the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” are the key to happiness? Researchers surveyed a representative sample of Americans over the course of several years and found that well-being is related to the amount of prior adversity (e.g., sickness, violence, bereavement, family hardship, disaster), and that it follows a particular pattern: Experiencing some adversity in the past seemed to contribute to a sense of well-being, but too much trouble in the past — or too little — and the sense of well-being dropped.

Seery, M. et al., “Whatever Does Not Kill Us: Cumulative Lifetime Adversity, Vulnerability, and Resilience,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist

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Full article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/11/21/hug_to_win/

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Uncommon knowledge

Walmart makes us fat

One cause of increasing obesity is cheap food. Therefore, it should be no coincidence that the largest company in the world — whose motto is “Save money. Live better.” — may contribute to obesity. And, indeed, the geographic expansion of Walmart stores can explain 10.5 percent of the rise in American obesity since the late 1980s, according to a new study. This translates into a 2.3 percentage point increase in the probability of being obese for residents — especially women, low-income married people, and those in rural areas — near a Walmart store. Nevertheless, Walmart can still justify its motto; the extra medical cost associated with this obesity was only 5.6 percent of the savings enjoyed by the Walmart shoppers.

Courtemanche, C. & Carden, A., “Supersizing Supercenters? The Impact of Walmart Supercenters on Body Mass Index and Obesity,” Journal of Urban Economics (forthcoming).

We really do want to be more like Sweden

As the political fight over taxes and spending heats up in Washington again, it’s worth asking just how divided Americans are on the question of economic inequality. A recent study suggests that there is more consensus than one would assume. A nationally representative sample of people was shown three unlabeled pie charts representing an equal distribution of wealth, the mildly unequal distribution found in Sweden, or the more unequal distribution found in the United States. The overwhelming majority of people preferred the Swedish distribution over the United States distribution or the equal distribution. Even more surprising, this preference was similar for men and women, Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor.

Norton, M. & Ariely, D., “Building a Better America — One Wealth Quintile at a Time,” Perspectives on Psychological Science (forthcoming).

God or government?

When people think of a higher power, they tend to think of God. But, technically, there’s another higher power: government. And a team of researchers has found that the two entities serve as psychological substitutes for each other. For example, people in Malaysia were more apt to believe in a controlling God — a God that “is in control of events in the universe” — just before an election than just after an election. The mere fact that political uncertainty was higher before the election was enough to boost faith in that kind of involved deity. The same thing happened to Canadians after reading a fictitious news article predicting a fractured parliament, yet belief in a controlling God diminished if government was portrayed as a stabilizing force. Conversely, if people read a fictitious scientific article claiming that God intervenes in world affairs, they were less likely to support government. One implication of this phenomenon is that increasing instability in American politics may drive people to God — and to political candidates like Mike Huckabee.

Kay, A. et al., “For God (or) Country: The Hydraulic Relation between Government Instability and Belief in Religious Sources of Control,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (November 2010).

Blind, but not race-blind

Do blind people see race? To find out, a sociologist interviewed dozens of blind people, particularly those who had been blind since birth. Although they can’t literally see someone’s race, it seems that they do understand race in visual terms, by internalizing the way sighted people talk about race. For example, one blind white respondent noted that “white is pretty generic to me….Most black people look pretty much the same with a few exceptions. Of course it always depends on the person, but in general, they look pretty much the same I think.” This bolsters the notion that skin color is about more than just coloring; it incorporates a broad set of social characterizations about what it means to be “black” or “white.”

Obasogie, O., “Do Blind People See Race? Social, Legal, and Theoretical Considerations,” Law & Society Review (September/December 2010).

Get a grip

Next time you find yourself in need of extra willpower, firm up. In one experiment, researchers asked people to grab a pen in their left hand while they immersed their right hand in a bucket of ice water. Squeezing the pen allowed people to keep their hands in the ice water significantly longer than people who were asked to hold the pen loosely. In another experiment, after being primed to think about being healthy, people were asked to drink what they were told was a health tonic (but was really just diluted vinegar). Those who were also asked to contract their calf muscles and keep their heels lifted off the floor while drinking were able to drink more of the unpleasant tonic than people who didn’t lift their heels. The same pattern occurred when people were asked to grasp a pen when approaching a snack bar for healthy items: The firm grip made it easier to resist buying unhealthy snacks.

Hung, I. & Labroo, A., “From Firm Muscles to Firm Willpower: Understanding the Role of Embodied Cognition in Self-Regulation,” Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Full article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/11/14/walmart_makes_us_fat/

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Uncommon knowledge

The Honorable Senator’s buddies

These days, party affiliation seems to be the best predictor of whether a politician supports or opposes a particular policy. However, special interests still manage to drive a lot of votes, and one special interest — the politician’s own social network — has a measurable effect. Researchers at Harvard Business School found that members of Congress are significantly influenced by colleagues who happen to be alumni from the same school, especially if a vote is close and less important to home-state business interests. For votes that are important to home-state business interests, having more executives who went to the same school as the politician makes it more likely that the politician will vote in their favor. The importance of social networks even plays out on the Senate floor: How a senator votes is influenced by those senators who are seated nearby, above and beyond the influence of party and state.

Cohen, L. & Malloy, C., “Friends in High Places,” National Bureau of Economic Research (October 2010).

Just don’t make a single mistake

Women have slowly but surely advanced into traditionally male-dominated occupations, and some men have ventured into traditionally female-dominated roles. Yet, according to a new study, both women and men are in a precarious position in these domains. When people were asked to rate the competence of a male president of a women’s college or a female police chief — roles that don’t fit stereotypes — they were much less forgiving when he or she made a mistake. The same reaction occurred in the case of a female CEO of an aerospace engineering firm and a female chief judge.

Brescoll, V. et al., “Hard Won and Easily Lost: The Fragile Status of Leaders in Gender-Stereotype-Incongruent Occupations,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Go easy, he only hurt 10,000 people

Our legal system is grounded in notions of due process and reasonableness. Unfortunately, new research suggests a disturbing paradox: People tend to assign less punishment for harm to more people. When asked to judge fraud, people reacted more harshly to the offender if he had defrauded three people than if he had defrauded 30 people. Likewise, when asked to judge the culpability of executives of a food processing company who had knowingly shipped tainted food, people reacted more harshly if there were two victims than if there were 20 victims. People were also more willing to go along with a coverup if there were more victims. These effects were attenuated — though not reversed — if one of the victims was specifically identified. Nevertheless, an analysis of US jury verdicts in toxic liability cases revealed the same pattern: a significant negative correlation between the number of plaintiffs and punitive damages.

Nordgren, L. & McDonnell, M.-H., “The Scope-Severity Paradox: Why Doing More Harm Is Judged to Be Less Harmful,” Social Psychological and Personality Science (forthcoming).

The look of a lawyer

Maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you’d be smart to judge a lawyer from his yearbook photo. Ratings of “facial dominance” and “maturity” of the managing partners of top US law firms from both their college yearbooks and current professional photos were associated with the profitability of their firms. It’s not clear whether faces just happen to reflect a personality already destined to be successful, or whether the faces themselves, in fitting a certain stereotype of success, help open doors.

Rule, N. & Ambady, N., “Judgments of Power from College Yearbook Photos and Later Career Success,” Social Psychological and Personality Science (forthcoming).

Boys, girls, and competition

Males are seen as more competitive, especially in areas like sports, business, and technology, and this competitive attitude is often credited for their relative success. But does this supposed competitive advantage actually exist? Several economists ran an experiment with elementary school students to find the answer. Each student was matched against another student to see who would get the most questions right on a timed math quiz. Students were re-matched and re-quizzed several times in the course of an hour. Boys did significantly better on the first quiz, but then their competitive advantage petered out. They did no better than the girls on subsequent quizzes. In fact, boys’ superior performance on the first quiz couldn’t even be reproduced in another trial two weeks later. So while the boys seemed to experience an initial jolt of competitive juices, the spur of competition doesn’t appear to be a durable explanation for the gender gap. Still, as the authors note, if boys seek out competitive situations more than girls do — even if boys aren’t inherently better competitors — that may be enough to give them an edge.

Cotton, C. et al., “The Gender Gap Cracks Under Pressure: A Detailed Look at Male and Female Performance Differences during Competitions,” National Bureau of Economic Research (October 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Full article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/11/07/the_honorable_senators_buddies?

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Uncommon knowledge

Do you swear to tell the truth?

Getting kids to tell the truth can be challenging. Most parents likely think that talking with their kids about the morality of lying is the best approach, but new work suggests another way. Researchers asked kids between the ages of 8 and 16 to take a trivia test and told them that they would win $10 if they answered all the questions correctly. The kids were also told that the answers were inside the testing booklet but to not cheat, even though they’d be left in a room alone. What the kids didn’t know was that a couple of the questions had no real answers, and the experiment was being recorded by hidden cameras. After finishing the test, the kids were asked whether they had peeked at the answers. The majority of them had indeed cheated, and the overwhelming majority of those who peeked lied about it when first asked. Asking the kids to think about the morality of lying made little difference in getting the kids to recant. However, if the kids were asked to promise to tell the truth — the same approach used in the legal system — a significant number of the liars recanted.

Evans, A. & Lee, K., “Promising to Tell the Truth Makes 8- to 16-year-olds More Honest,” Behavioral Sciences & the Law (forthcoming).

If you send me to my room, the terrorists have won

Terrorism is bad enough as a security threat, but a team of researchers in Europe has found that thinking about terrorism can affect how we treat our own children. After being shown pictures of terrorism or reading or writing about terrorism, both parents and nonparents endorsed stricter parenting practices. Moreover, this pattern was confirmed with an experiment on actual behavior inside homes. After seeing pictures of terrorism, parents were more impatient, and showed more negative facial expressions, toward their children.

Fischer, P. et al., “Causal Evidence that Terrorism Salience Increases Authoritarian Parenting Practices,” Social Psychology (Fall 2010).

The case for making homework a choice

Motivating kids to learn is at the heart of education. According to a new study, there is a simple but effective way to encourage kids to want to learn on their own: give them a choice. In an experiment, high school students who were allowed to choose their homework assignments (covering the same material) reported more interest, enjoyment, and competence regarding their homework, and they scored higher on a subsequent test of the material.

Patall, E. et al., “The Effectiveness and Relative Importance of Choice in the Classroom,” Journal of Educational Psychology (forthcoming).

The ‘freeze’ response

In the wild, animals are known to freeze if they sense danger lurking nearby. This behavior — including bradycardia (slowed heart rate) — has been demonstrated in humans, too. But, of course, we aren’t usually being hunted in our neighborhoods and workplaces, so researchers wondered if the same effect also occurs for social threats. Women were fitted with biometric sensors and asked to stand on a motion-measuring platform while viewing different facial expressions. When they saw angry faces, the women “froze” — their bodies swayed less, and their heart rates dropped.

Roelofs, K. et al., “Facing Freeze: Social Threat Induces Bodily Freeze in Humans,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Full article and photo: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/10/24/do_you_swear_to_tell_the_truth/

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Uncommon knowledge

The seamy side of victory

Elections have consequences, as some politicians are known to say. Unfortunately, one of those consequences is not very politically correct. An analysis of Google searches around the time of the 2004, 2006, and 2008 elections found that there were more queries for pornography right after the election in states that voted for the party that prevailed at the national level. In other words, residents of red states were more interested in pornography right after Bush won reelection in 2004, while residents of blue states were more interested in pornography right after the Democrats won in 2006 and 2008. The authors attribute this to testosterone, which has been shown to rise in people after they win a competition.

Markey, P. & Markey, C., ”Changes in Pornography-Seeking Behaviors following Political Elections: An Examination of the Challenge Hypothesis,” Evolution and Human Behavior (forthcoming).

Posing matters

The stereotype of a boss has him sitting at his desk in the corner office with his feet kicked up and arms stretched out, whereas the stereotype of a subordinate has him hunched over in his cubicle. This is no accident, and it’s not just symbolic. A new study has found that differences in the way one sits or stands induce different psychological and physiological effects. Experimental subjects were told they were part of a study on the placement of electrocardiography electrodes and were asked to hold their bodies in a couple of positions, one minute at a time. For half of the subjects, the two positions represented high-power poses, expansive with limbs stretched out. For the other subjects, the two positions represented low-power poses, contracted with limbs held inward. Subjects who had been positioned in a high-power pose subsequently felt more powerful, and were more willing to take a gamble.

Carney, D. et al., ”Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Half a conversation, fully annoying

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that using a cellphone makes it harder to pay attention to other things going on around you. Thus, many states now restrict cellphone use while driving. Now, with a new study, it looks like they may have to consider curbing conversations by passengers, too. When people could hear one side of a phone conversation in the background, they performed worse on tasks that demanded attention. This did not happen to people overhearing the full dialogue, a monologue, or when the audio of the conversation was filtered so that its content could not be understood. All of this suggests that unpredictable speech is an extra distraction and may also explain why overhearing a cellphone conversation at a party or a movie can be more annoying than overhearing other conversations.

Emberson, L. et al., ”Overheard Cell-Phone Conversations: When Less Speech Is More Distracting,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

The power of preoccupation

Whenever you’re trying to take it easy or just trying to fall asleep, do you find yourself preoccupied with something stressful, like a deadline or a presentation? Although it’s normal, it doesn’t really seem like a good use of time. Yet, according to a team of researchers, it may be just that. After people were told that they’d be taking a geography test–recalling the names of all 50 states–in the near future, they then had more trouble getting geographical thoughts out of their minds during an intervening task that was supposed to clear their minds instead. People who were told they wouldn’t have to take the test, or who were told they would simply be counting the letters in states’ names as fast as possible, had almost no thoughts about geography in the intervening task. This suggests that the brain is only forcing itself to prepare in the face of a challenge that could benefit from preparation.

Morsella, E. et al., ”The Spontaneous Thoughts of the Night: How Future Tasks Breed Intrusive Cognitions,” Social Cognition (October 2010).

The good-guy penalty

For fans of the TV show ”Survivor,” this study will come as no surprise, though it did surprise the researchers behind it. They expected–and found–that people have a dim view of someone in a group who takes a lot and contributes little. However, they also found that people have a dim view of someone who takes little and contributes a lot. It’s not that group members consider such a benevolent person to be clueless or unpredictable–in fact, a person who takes little and contributes little is fine–it’s just that the person’s benevolence raises the standards for everyone else, and that doesn’t seem to win many friends.

Parks, C. & Stone, A., ”The Desire to Expel Unselfish Members from the Group,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (August 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Full article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/10/10/the_seamy_side_of_victory/

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Uncommon knowledge

What makes people vote

Although an important role for the government is helping poor people, the poor themselves are less likely to vote than more affluent citizens. Some of this may be due to transportation or job constraints, but an experiment with public housing residents in Boston before the 2007 municipal elections confirms that motivation plays a big role. Residents were divided into three groups. The first group was not contacted. The second group was visited where they lived, and urged to vote. And the final group received visits, but also copies of their turnout history. While a simple face-to-face appeal improved the odds that someone would vote from around 10 percent to the 15-20 percent range, showing voters their turnout history boosted the voting odds to around 25 percent. 

Davenport, T., “Public Accountability and Political Participation: Effects of a Face-to-Face Feedback Intervention on Voter Turnout of Public Housing Residents,” Political Behavior (September 2010).  

The age advantage

Many parents delay their kids’ entry into kindergarten to make sure their kids are at the top of the class from a developmental standpoint. A recent study is sure to reinforce this strategy. Compared to kids born right after the age-eligibility cutoff date, kids born right before the cutoff date are 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As a result, kids born right before the cutoff date are more likely to be using drugs like Ritalin, and this disparity persists as they move into higher grades. The author of the study found that teachers were much more likely than parents to report concerns about ADHD — consistent with the theory that some teachers are misinterpreting normal age-related behavioral differences in the classroom. 

Elder, T., “The Importance of Relative Standards in ADHD Diagnoses: Evidence Based on Exact Birth Dates,” Journal of Health Economics (September 2010).  

Time is more than money

Contrary to the old saying, time is not always money. A researcher at a top business school has found that thinking about time causes people to behave differently than thinking about money. In one experiment, people who walked into a cafe were asked to fill out a questionnaire — laced with words related to either time or money — after which participants continued to go about their business in the cafe, while being surreptitiously watched. Those who had been exposed to words about money spent more time working; those who had been exposed to words about time spent more time socializing. When participants exited the cafe, those who had been exposed to words about time were happier, on account of their socializing. 

Mogilner, C., “The Pursuit of Happiness: Time, Money, and Social Connection,” Psychological Science (September 2010).  

When not to interrupt

You’re just about to complete that 20-page report. You’ve spent hours on it. All of a sudden, your boss walks up and asks you to work on something else. How frustrating! And new research suggests that your productivity on the next task will take a hit. In several experiments, people were asked to complete a task (e.g., sorting cards, finding hidden words) and were then interrupted early in the task, late in the task, or after completion. People who had been interrupted late in the previous task were significantly more impaired on the subsequent task. The authors attribute this to the extra self-control — and associated mental depletion — required to break away from a task just as you’re about to finish it. 

Freeman, N. & Muraven, M., “Don’t Interrupt Me! Task Interruption Depletes the Self’s Limited Resources,” Motivation and Emotion (September 2010).  

We misunderstand our friends

How well do you know your friends? Researchers at Yahoo conducted a survey via Facebook in early 2008 to gauge actual and perceived agreement among friends regarding politics. For example, “Does [your friend] sympathize with the Israelis more than the Palestinians in the Middle East situation?” or “Would [your friend] pay higher taxes for the government to provide universal health care?” Although friends agreed more than strangers, there was still plenty of disagreement. There was also more ignorance of each other’s positions than one might expect, even among friends who discussed politics, and especially in areas where positions differed. Instead of relying on issue-specific discussion, friends seem to be projecting their own views and stereotypes on each other. 

Goel, S. et al., “Real and Perceived Attitude Agreement in Social Networks,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (forthcoming).  

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. 

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Full article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/10/03/what_makes_people_vote/

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Uncommon knowledge

A surprise benefit of minimum wage

The minimum wage has been politically controversial for most of the last century, even though it affects a marginal share of the labor force and evidence of significant job loss is inconclusive. Now one economist would like us to consider another effect of the minimum wage: finishing high school. By curtailing low-wage/low-skill jobs, the minimum wage motivates young people to stay in school and become skilled. This effect then generates what the author calls an “educational cascade” by setting an example for the upcoming class of students. He estimates that the average male born in 1951 gained 0.2 years — and the average male born in 1986 gained 0.7 years — of high school due to the cumulative effect of the minimum wage.

Sutch, R., “The Unexpected Long-Run Impact of the Minimum Wage: An Educational Cascade,” National Bureau of Economic Research (September 2010).

Bearing false witness

False confessions and false eyewitness testimony are never-ending challenges for the judicial process. Although coercive interrogation is blamed in many of these situations, new research illustrates just how little coercion is needed. In an experiment, people played a quiz game for money. Later, they were told that the person who had sat next to them during the game was suspected of cheating. They were shown a 15-second video clip of the person sitting next to them cheating, even though the video clip was doctored and no cheating actually happened. They were asked to sign a witness statement against the cheater, but they were explicitly told not to sign if they hadn’t directly witnessed the cheating, aside from seeing it in the video. Nevertheless, almost half of those who saw the video signed the statement. Some of those who signed the statement even volunteered additional incriminating information.

Wade, K. et al., “Can Fabricated Evidence Induce False Eyewitness Testimony?” Applied Cognitive Psychology (October 2010).

The cure for sadness: pain

For most people, pain is not fun. However, a recent study finds that, when you’re not having fun, pain can help. Several hundred people were tested to see how much pain — in the form of increasing pressure or heat applied to their hands — they could tolerate. Not surprisingly, people reported being less happy after the experiment. But less happy is not necessarily the same as more unhappy. Indeed, negative emotions were also attenuated after the experiment, especially for women and people with more sensitive emotions. In other words, physical pain helped dull emotional pain.

Bresin, K. et al., “No Pain, No Change: Reductions in Prior Negative Affect following Physical Pain,” Motivation and Emotion (September 2010).

That reminds me of…me!

In a series of experiments, researchers have transformed Descartes’s famous phrase (“I think, therefore I am”) into something like this: “I am reminded of myself, therefore I will think.” People presented with a resume or product paid more attention to it if it happened to have a name similar to their own. As a result of this increased attention, a high-quality resume or product got a boost, while a low-quality resume or product was further handicapped. However, in a strange twist, people who sat in front of a mirror while evaluating a product exhibited the opposite effect: Quality didn’t matter for a product with a similar name but did matter otherwise. The authors speculate that too much self-referential thinking overloads one’s ability to think objectively.

Howard, D. & Kerin, R., “The Effects of Name Similarity on Message Processing and Persuasion,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Defensive sleeping

The odds that you’ll need to fend off an attacker entering your bedroom at night are pretty small. Yet, according to a recent study, our evolutionary heritage — formed when we had to survive sleeping outdoors — instills a strong preference for bedrooms designed less by the principles of Architectural Digest than by those of “Home Alone” or “Panic Room.” When shown a floor plan for a simple rectangular bedroom and asked to arrange the furniture, most people positioned the bed so that it faced the door. They also positioned the bed on the side of the room behind the door as it would be opening, and as far back from the door as possible, a position that would seem to give the occupant the most time to respond. If the floor plan included a window on the opposite side of the room from the door, people were inclined to move the bed away from the window, too.

Spörrle, M. & Stich, J., “Sleeping in Safe Places: An Experimental Investigation of Human Sleeping Place Preferences from an Evolutionary Perspective,” Evolutionary Psychology (August 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Simple steps to happier politics

It’s easy to be discouraged by our polarized political environment. A new study suggests there may be an easy way out. Right before the 2008 presidential election, prospective voters were asked to complete an online survey. Some of the participants were assigned a brief self-affirmation exercise, where they had to choose the personal trait (from a list of 10) that was most important to them and write a sentence or two explaining that choice. Other participants encountered the same list but had to choose the trait that was least important and explain why someone else might find it important. All participants then viewed video clips from the last presidential debate. Those who were “affirmed,” who wrote about what was most important to them, moderated their partisan views of Obama, with Republicans becoming less harshly critical and Democrats less gushing in their enthusiasm. Even more surprising, though, was that this pattern held up after the election: When the researchers e-mailed Republicans 10 days after the election, the affirmed Republicans had a significantly more favorable outlook on Obama’s presidency. So maybe Senator Al Franken had the right idea with his famous Saturday Night Live skit “Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley.”

Binning, K. et al., “Seeing the Other Side: Reducing Political Partisanship via Self-Affirmation in the 2008 Presidential Election,” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy (forthcoming).

Green = weak?

Marketers may assume that “green” products are more appealing to consumers, especially to environmentally conscious consumers. But according to a recent study, green branding sends a signal that can undermine other essential features of a product. Specifically, green products tend to be associated with gentleness, not strength. For example, people were more interested in eco-friendly baby shampoo than eco-friendly car shampoo, tires, or laundry detergent. The researchers also found a similar effect in an experiment with hand sanitizer during flu season. They put two bottles of sanitizer — one was green-colored and labeled “eco-friendly,” while the other was just clear and labeled “regular” — on a table. If they knew they were being watched, most people used the green version, but if no one seemed to be watching, most people used the regular version.

Luchs, M. et al., “The Sustainability Liability: Potential Negative Effects of Ethicality on Product Preference,” Journal of Marketing (September 2010).

The problem with talking about it

A common refrain in conflicts is to “talk it out.” While this may be effective in certain situations, some forms of talk may make the problem worse. A psychologist at Princeton University conducted an experiment in war torn eastern Congo with a radio-broadcast soap opera designed to reduce ethnic hostility. In some broadcast areas, the soap opera was followed by a 15-minute talk show. After a year of the broadcast, researchers interviewed a large sample of Congolese in the listening area. Although the talk show had the intended effect of increasing discussion among listeners, it also had the unintended effect of increasing intolerance. Apparently, the talk show provoked more contentious discussion and made people even more aware of ethnic grievances.

Paluck, E., “Is It Better Not to Talk? Group Polarization, Extended Contact, and Perspective Taking in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (September 2010).

Who prays, stays

In a previous column, I wrote about a study showing that prayer can reduce alcohol consumption. The researchers behind that study have now come out with a study showing that prayer can curtail another vice: infidelity. Among a sample of several hundred college students, those who reported praying more for their partner were less likely to report cheating six weeks later. Of course, this pattern could simply mean that the kind of people who pray don’t tend to be the kind of people who cheat. So the researchers randomly assigned students to pray (in this case, for their partner) for four weeks. Compared to those who were assigned to undirected prayer or to think positive thoughts about their partner, praying for one’s partner reduced reported cheating behavior. The researchers videotaped a bunch of couples actually discussing the future of their relationship. Independent assessments of these discussions found greater commitment by those who had prayed for their partner.

Fincham, F. et al., “Faith and Unfaithfulness: Can Praying for Your Partner Reduce Infidelity?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Write unclearly

It almost goes without saying that one should write clearly. But that depends. According to a new study, if your goal is education, you may not want to write too clearly. In one experiment, people read a short story by Mark Twain that was printed in a font that was either easy or difficult to read; the story was also presented as either a “Historical Analysis Study” or a “Short Story Study.” When read as a short story for enjoyment, the story was rated better in the easy-to-read font, but, as a historical analysis, the story was rated better in the hard-to-read font. In another experiment, while reading the same Twain story, some people were asked to furrow their brow, an action that has been shown to induce the perception of complexity. Among those who furrowed their brow, the story was rated better when read as a historical analysis, but worse when read for enjoyment.

Galak, J. & Nelson, L., “The Virtues of Opaque Prose: How Lay Beliefs about Fluency Influence Perceptions of Quality,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Don’t hold that thought

At some point, you’ve probably heard (or even uttered) the phrase “try not to think about…” Unfortunately, a recent study suggests that this is likely to backfire. Researchers asked regular smokers to spend a week either suppressing or promoting thoughts about smoking, without changing their actual smoking habits. Those who had tried to suppress their thoughts ended up smoking more the following week. The researchers also found that smokers who tended to suppress thoughts in their everyday lives reported having tried and failed to quit smoking more times than other smokers.

Erskine, J. et al., “I Suppress, Therefore I Smoke: Effects of Thought Suppression on Smoking Behavior,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

How helplessness changes what you believe

Atheists may wonder why people believe in God, while believers may wonder about them. But perhaps their worlds are not so different after all. In an experiment with mostly secular Dutch university students, researchers found that people are quite willing to change their worldview to maintain some semblance of order. First, the students were asked to recall a situation where they lacked control and to come up with several reasons why the future is uncontrollable. Then they were asked to choose which of two theories “provides the best framework to explain the origin of life on this planet.” The students who had contemplated being without control were more inclined to endorse intelligent design — or, alternatively, a more deterministic version of evolution — over the randomness of standard evolutionary theory.

Rutjenslow, B. et al., “Deus or Darwin: Randomness and Belief in Theories about the Origin of Life,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

What narcissists are good for

At work, in the news, or on “reality” shows like “Survivor” or “The Apprentice,” narcissism and success seem to go hand-in-hand. However, according to a new study, the direct influence of narcissists is probably less important than their indirect influence. While the study finds that narcissists are perceived to be more creative — ostensibly because they do a better job of selling themselves — there is little objective evidence of their superior creativity. Yet, the narcissist manages to create more than a self-serving reputation; he can also stimulate his peers to be more creative, especially if there is another narcissist competing for attention. Of course, like cooks in a kitchen, a group can sustain only so many narcissists before it breaks down.

Goncalo, J. et al., “From a Mirage to an Oasis: Narcissism, Perceived Creativity, and Creative Performance,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (forthcoming).

Prison, engine of crime

The incarceration rate in this country quadrupled between 1975 and 2005. Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding the reasons behind this surge, the assumption all along has been that prison does what legislators and judges expect it to do: reduce crime. However, a new analysis challenges this assumption. While prison tends to reduce crime by keeping dangerous people off the street and deterring future crime, most inmates get released back into the community, where they may have trouble reintegrating, leading to more crime. The question is whether the number of crimes averted by the incapacitation and deterrent effect of prison is greater than the number of additional crimes caused by inmates after their release. Indeed, the analysis finds that prison is a net creator of crime, especially violent crime.

DeFina, R. & Hannon, L., “For Incapacitation, There Is No Time Like the Present: The Lagged Effects of Prisoner Reentry on Property and Violent Crime Rates,” Social Science Research (forthcoming).

The weak link in privacy: you

With the Internet reaching into every corner of our lives, many people are understandably concerned about privacy. Or so they say. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that people are unwittingly flexible when it comes to disclosing sensitive information. For example, the researchers presented hundreds of students with computer surveys asking questions about “the types of behaviors that college students engage in.” Some of the surveys had an informal look (with the title “How BAD Are U???”) and some of the surveys had an official look (with the title “Carnegie Mellon University Executive Council Survey on Ethical Behaviors”). Students were more willing to admit bad behavior — especially for more intrusive questions — and reported less concern about their privacy in the informal-looking survey, even though one would expect the official-looking survey to offer more protection from misuse. As the authors note, “marketers may be particularly successful in obtaining private information when they make the fewest promises to protect consumers’ privacy.”

John, L. et al., “Strangers on a Plane: Context-dependent Willingness to Divulge Sensitive Information,” Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

When left is right

Right is right, left is wrong. Because most people are righthanded, this bias has become customary. Thus, according to a recent paper, “the Latin words for right and left, dexter and sinister, form the roots of English words meaning skillful and evil, respectively,” and “according to Islamic doctrine, the left hand should only be used for dirty jobs, whereas the right hand is used for eating,” and “the left foot is used for stepping into the bathroom, and the right foot for entering the mosque.” But what do lefthanders think? The authors of the paper compared the gestures made by the presidential candidates in the final debates of the 2004 and 2008 elections to the phrases that were spoken at the same time. John McCain and Barack Obama, who are both lefthanded, preferred their left hands for positive comments and their right hands for negative comments, while the pattern was reversed for George W. Bush and John Kerry, who are both righthanded.

Casasanto, D. & Jasmin, K., “Good and Bad in the Hands of Politicians: Spontaneous Gestures during Positive and Negative Speech,” PLoS ONE (July 2010).

Couples therapy

Some marriages are healthier than others, both figuratively and literally. A team of researchers observed the social interactions of several dozen married couples. The researchers also collected blood samples from everyone and created small blisters on each person’s forearm, and then monitored the healing process. The level of two hormones (oxytocin and vasopressin) in a person’s blood was associated with both the quality of that person’s marital communication and how quickly that person’s wound healed. Those with higher levels of these hormones were more positive and less negative with their partner and exhibited faster wound healing.

Gouin, J. et al., “Marital Behavior, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and Wound Healing,” Psychoneuroendocrinology (August 2010).

Teen sex and TV

As long as humans have communicated, they have probably debated the question of whether kids are influenced by lurid content. The issue is a big part of the culture wars and is especially acute in the age of cable TV and the Internet. However, a reanalysis of data from a widely cited study suggests that lurid media content may be getting too much blame. The original study in the journal Pediatrics surveyed hundreds of middle-school students about their media exposure and virginity and followed up with them two years later. Although the authors of the original study claimed to find an effect, the authors of this latest analysis — using a “more stringent approach” — found no effect of media exposure on the age when adolescents began to have sex. Instead, it appears that the kind of adolescent who has sex at an earlier age also just happens to be the kind of adolescent who consumes lurid media content.

Steinberg, L. & Monahan, K., “Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexy Media Does Not Hasten the Initiation of Sexual Intercourse,” Developmental Psychology (forthcoming).

The prejudice of the times

In this country, most discussions about race are concerned with blacks and Latinos. Blacks still confront the legacy of slavery, while Latinos are at the center of the immigration debate. Another group, Asian-Americans, has seemingly managed to stay above the fray. But is this wishful thinking? Perhaps, according to a new study. After reading an editorial about the economic downturn, participants became more prejudiced against Asian-Americans, but not against blacks. An editorial about global warming didn’t have the same effect. The authors attribute this to the perception that Asian-Americans are more of a competitive threat with regard to jobs and other economic resources.

Butz, D. & Yogeeswaran, K., “A New Threat in the Air: Macroeconomic Threat Increases Prejudice against Asian Americans,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Slogan backlash

A slogan is a set of words designed to influence your thoughts. You know this, and, according to a new study, your subconscious does, too. In fact, your subconscious tries to employ its own reverse psychology. When people were asked to remember slogans related to saving money, they were inclined to spend more later on; likewise, when remembering slogans related to spending money, people were inclined to spend less. However, brand names seem to get the job done: People spent less after being asked to remember a brand related to saving money, and people spent more after being asked to remember a brand related to spending money. So perhaps every company should have a brand like Tiffany and a slogan like “Every Day Low Prices.”

Laran, J. et al., “The Curious Case of Behavioral Backlash: Why Brands Produce Priming Effects and Slogans Produce Reverse Priming Effects,” Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Red = hot

Ladies, you can skip this item; it won’t be of much interest to you. Guys, after reading this item, you can’t say this column has never done anything for you! An international team of researchers has determined that red is your new favorite color. In multiple experiments with women around the world, the sexual attractiveness of men was enhanced by the color red, compared to colors like white, gray, green, or blue. Red appears to make men more attractive by subconsciously signaling higher status.

Elliot, A. et al., “Red, Rank, and Romance in Women Viewing Men,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (August 2010).

Different language, different feelings

Languages aren’t just neutral instruments for communication. A new study suggests that they subconsciously promote cultural affiliation. Bilingual Moroccans reacted more positively to Moroccan names when using Arabic than when using French. Likewise, bilingual Hispanics reacted positively to Spanish names when using Spanish but reacted somewhat negatively to Spanish names when using English. The authors also note that another recent study demonstrated the same effect in bilingual Arab Israelis, who reacted more positively to Arab names when using Arabic than when using Hebrew.

Ogunnaike, O. et al., “The Language of Implicit Preferences,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

When in doubt, call yourself an underdog

If there’s one thing Americans are good at, it’s playing the underdog. When judging two companies — one that “started in a garage with very few resources” and “struggled to succeed” versus another that was “well resourced” and “favored to succeed” — Americans favored the former over the latter. The same effect occurred for chocolate brands with different brand biographies and was enhanced for consumers who thought of themselves as underdogs. Although the effect was found overseas too (in Singapore), it wasn’t as strong as it was in America. The research also found that a successful underdog biography combined a disadvantaged situation with passion and determination. Having just one or the other was not enough.

Paharia, N. et al., “The Underdog Effect: The Marketing of Disadvantage and Determination through Brand Biography,” Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming).

What Cramer is good for

If you play the stock market, odds are that you’ve heard of Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money.” Even though he’s just one more in a long line of market soothsayers — and has had some notable busts — thousands of investors watch his show, so he does have an impact. Indeed, a recent analysis confirms that his picks, especially for small-company stocks, can move the market. More importantly, though, the authors of the analysis conclude that “returns over a 6-month horizon provide some evidence in favour of Cramer’s stock-picking ability.” However, they also note that if you bought a small-company stock right after he recommended selling it, you got the best returns of all.

Lim, B. & Rosario, J., “The Performance and Impact of Stock Picks Mentioned on ‘Mad Money’,” Applied Financial Economics (July 2010).

Incest and attraction

Not only do laws and customs proscribe incest, but it’s generally assumed that we’re biologically programmed to avoid it. According to new research, though, there is “some truth” to the Freudian view that people have an innate incestuous inclination. In one experiment, men and women were asked to rate the sexual attractiveness of opposite-sex strangers. Unbeknownst to some of the participants, the researchers subliminally flashed a picture of the participant’s opposite-sex parent before showing the picture of the stranger. Participants were more attracted to strangers after being exposed to the subliminal picture of their parent. In another experiment, the researchers morphed the images of strangers with the participant’s own face. The combined images were seen as more attractive. On the other hand, when participants were told that a face had been morphed with their own — even if it hadn’t — they were less attracted to it.

Fraley, C. & Marks, M., “Westermarck, Freud, and the Incest Taboo: Does Familial Resemblance Activate Sexual Attraction?” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Have less, give more

ACCORDING TO a team of psychologists, the lower classes are a cut above. Given the opportunity to share money with an anonymous person, people who considered themselves lower in socioeconomic status shared more. When asked how much of one’s salary should be donated to charity, they designated a higher percentage. And, when confronted with a distressed person in need, they offered more help. These differences don’t seem to be innate. For example, after simply asking people to contemplate their socioeconomic status relative to those with higher socioeconomic status, people became more charitable. The authors theorize that people in the lower strata of society are particularly motivated by a greater dependence on — and, thus, concern for — social relationships, though affluent individuals may be more inclined to abstract charity (e.g., the environment).

Piff, P. et al., “Having Less, Giving More: The Influence of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (forthcoming).

The Iraqi currency surge

THE DECADELONG debate over Iraq and Afghanistan has typically focused on the question of whether to surge or to pull out. While few doubt the surge played some role in the relative pacification of Iraq, a recent paper proposes another factor: the appreciation of the Iraqi currency, the dinar, between 2004 and 2008. Because many of the insurgents were paid mercenaries — not ideological extremists — fund-raising was a key driver of insurgent activity. However, by eroding the purchasing power of the foreign money that initially fueled the insurgency, the appreciation of the currency forced insurgent leaders to raise money inside Iraq — for example, by extortion — thereby undermining popular support. So what drove up the currency in the first place? Rising oil prices and the stimulus provided by Coalition spending.

Berck, P. & Lipow, J., “Did Monetary Forces Help Turn the Tide in Iraq?” Defense & Security Analysis (June 2010).

Big money

Researchers at Northwestern University asked people to think about being a boss or a subordinate, or to write about a powerful or powerless experience, and then asked them to draw the outline of a quarter from memory as accurately as possible. People who thought about being without power drew larger quarters. The same effect occurred for poker chips, with increasingly valuable chips (of the same size) being drawn increasingly larger for people without power. The effect disappeared when the objects to be drawn had no value and was reversed when smaller objects were more valuable, all suggesting that the brain is trying to compensate.

Dubois, D. et al., “The Accentuation Bias: Money Literally Looms Larger (and Sometimes Smaller) to the Powerless,” Social Psychological and Personality Science (July 2010).

Vote Hussein!

A BIG ISSUE in the 2008 presidential campaign was Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein. Some conservatives went out of their way to highlight the name — to remind voters of Obama’s foreign heritage — while liberals and the Obama campaign were correspondingly wary of its use. But was it actually a liability? No, according to a new study. In a sample of voters who were polled towards the end of the 2008 campaign, there were no major changes in favorability or voting intention as a result of being reminded of Obama’s full name. Unsurprisingly, conservatives became somewhat less favorable, while liberals became somewhat more favorable, after seeing the full name. More surprising was that moderates and independents became more favorable towards Obama — what the authors believe was a “dirty politics” backlash — though overall voting intentions didn’t change.

Block, R. & Onwunli, C., “Managing Monikers: The Role of Name Presentation in the 2008 Presidential Election,” Presidential Studies Quarterly (September 2010).

The marriage bubble

MANY PEOPLE assume that the decline of marriage in the last few decades is exceptional. An analysis by an economist at Clemson suggests instead that what we think of as the heyday of marriage — the middle of the 20th century — was actually pretty special. In fact, the 1890s were more like the 1990s than the 1950s. What changed, though, in the early 20th century were two things that greased the wheels of the marriage market. First, an improving labor market for men made them more desirable as husbands. Second, the wave of ethnically diverse immigrants who arrived around the turn of the century was gradually assimilated, which expanded the pool of acceptable mates.

Cvrcek, T., “America’s Settling Down: How Better Jobs and Falling Immigration Led to a Rise in Marriage, 1880-1930,” National Bureau of Economic Research (July 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Love the one you’re with

Most of us probably assume that people who are trapped in repressive regimes like Cuba or North Korea really want to get out. A new study suggests instead that it’s the very fact of being trapped that helps people defend the system. When Canadians were led to believe that it would be harder to emigrate in the future, they became more willing to attribute social inequality to innate differences rather than systemic discrimination. Likewise, when university students were led to believe that it would be harder to transfer, they were less willing to support criticism of the university. So, just as people can go to great lengths to rationalize bad decisions and personal defects, they’ll stick up for the group they’re stuck with.

Laurin, K. et al., “Restricted Emigration, System Inescapability, and Defense of the Status Quo: System-Justifying Consequences of Restricted Exit Opportunities,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

What would it take to lose your vote?

Experience suggests that politicians can retain support even in the face of multiple flip-flops, disappointments, and scandals. But is there a limit to what they can get away with? A couple hundred people from Iowa were asked to learn about four fictitious presidential candidates competing in a party primary. Researchers polled people several times during the process of learning about the candidates. In general, when people first encounter negative information about a favored choice, they tend to react defensively by boosting support. (Thus, people can actually end up liking a less-than-ideal candidate more than their ideal candidate.) Eventually, though, a stream of negative information forces people to reconsider.

Redlawsk, D. et al., “The Affective Tipping Point: Do Motivated Reasoners Ever ‘Get It’?” Political Psychology (August 2010).

Fighting telemarketers

When that telemarketer calls your home just after you’ve finished a long day at work, it can be hard to summon the strength to resist. If only you had been warned! Indeed, according to a new study, people are much more able to resist persuasion in moments of weakness when warned ahead of time. To make people vulnerable, the researchers asked them to perform mentally exhausting tasks. Then they were given a sales pitch. Those who weren’t warned were much more likely to give in. A warning seems to give people the opportunity to prepare themselves to resist persuasion, by setting aside some of their limited mental energy, though this comes at some cost to their mental performance in the meantime.

Janssen, L. et al., “Forewarned Is Forearmed: Conserving Self-Control Strength to Resist Social Influence,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Family values

The term “family values” is typically associated with certain conservative political positions. Now a study in Britain finds that another kind of “family values” — close family ties — makes people more conservative in everyday social life. Researchers visited low-income households and asked people to play a game that measured trust. Researchers gave the subject money and told them they could keep it, or give it to a stranger, who, in turn, would have the opportunity to return twice as much money. Those with close family ties — those who were married or saw their family more frequently, for example — were less trusting. The authors theorize that this is because people with close family ties have less time and need to interact with strangers.

Ermisch, J. & Gambetta, D., “Do Strong Family Ties Inhibit Trust?” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (forthcoming).

The reckless toddler gender gap

In the nature vs. nurture debate, you can add another notch to the nurture side. Researchers asked parents of toddlers to react to imaginary scenarios of their child engaging in reckless behavior. Although there wasn’t much difference in how mothers and fathers reacted, there was a difference based on the sex of the child. With boys, parents reacted with anger and discipline, but with girls, the reaction was generally disappointment and a concern for safety. Underlying these differences was a belief that boys are inherently predisposed to reckless behavior, while girls can learn to follow rules, suggesting that parents are imposing gender norms from a very young age.

Morrongiello, B. et al., “Understanding Gender Differences in Children’s Risk Taking and Injury: A Comparison of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Reactions to Sons and Daughters Misbehaving in Ways that Lead to Injury,” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (July-August 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

How prayer prevents drinking

A recent study supports an interesting approach to curbing alcohol consumption: regular prayer. In surveys, people who reported praying more often also reported less alcohol consumption and fewer alcohol-related problems, and more prayer was associated with less consumption and fewer problems over the next several months. Of course, people who pray a lot may be less prone to drink anyway, so the researchers randomly assigned people to regular prayer or nonprayer tasks and then asked them to report their alcohol consumption after four weeks. Those who were assigned to pray drank significantly less than those who weren’t.

Lambert, N. et al., “Invocations and Intoxication: Does Prayer Decrease Alcohol Consumption?” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors (June 2010).

Fame, enemy of your town

The reality show genre has flourished during the past decade, bringing fame and fortune to many people. But along with the good comes the bad. Two economists at Occidental College in Los Angeles analyzed crime rates in Laguna Beach before and after the debut of MTV’s popular reality show of the same name, which followed the social lives of some of the town’s affluent teenagers. Compared with a similar neighboring beach town (Dana Point), Laguna Beach experienced an increase in nonresidential burglaries, auto thefts, and rapes, ostensibly caused by the town’s newfound fame. Residential crime might have increased too but, as the authors speculate, may have been blunted by the prevalence of gated communities.

Chioue, L. & Lopez, M., “The Reality of Reality Television: Does Reality TV Influence Local Crime Rates?” Economics Letters (forthcoming).

Don’t go after insurgents too hard

The question of how aggressively to target insurgents has been a central issue in the Afghanistan policy debate, especially during the recent transition from General McChrystal to General Petraeus. Current policy is focused on defense, rather than attack, to avoid civilian casualties, but many, including the troops themselves, have complained. Now, a detailed analysis from a team of civilian researchers and a US Army counterinsurgency expert has come down on the side of restraint. The average counterinsurgency incident generates an additional six violent insurgent incidents during the following six weeks. Revenge appears to be the driving factor, especially given that the insurgent response is locally concentrated.

Condra, L. et al., “The Effect of Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq,” National Bureau of Economic Research (July 2010).

The unhappy middle school

Unlike 19th-century schools and contemporary private schools, most public school systems have a separate “middle school” for grades 6 through 8 or 7 and 8. Is this good for students? Researchers at Columbia University analyzed achievement data from New York City public schools and found that students who transitioned from an elementary school to a middle school did worse in math and English than students in K-8 schools who didn’t transition. Parents and students also reported being less satisfied with middle schools. The authors estimate that the impact of this situation — if it persists past middle school — could be worth thousands of dollars in lifetime earnings, and it appears to be more severe for already low-performing students. It does not appear to be caused by any difference in resources or class size but may have something to do with the effect on young adolescents of bringing so many students together from different elementary schools.

Rockoff, J. & Lockwood, B., “Stuck in the Middle: Impacts of Grade Configuration in Public Schools,” Journal of Public Economics (forthcoming).

Sealing off bad memories

For many people, dealing with bad memories can be an ongoing nightmare. Some research, though, suggests that simple acts can help. A new study has even demonstrated that psychological closure is aided by literal enclosure. First, people were asked to write about a regrettable decision or an unfulfilled desire. Next, some were asked to seal their disclosure in an envelope before handing it in, and some were just asked to hand it in. Those who had sealed their disclosure in an envelope felt better afterwards. Likewise, people who read a news story about a baby’s tragic death were subsequently able to forget more of the story and get more closure if they placed the story in an envelope.

Li, X. et al., “Sealing the Emotions Genie: The Effects of Physical Enclosure on Psychological Closure,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Green and fat

Next time you reach for that “healthy” product at the grocery store, think carefully about the consequences. According to psychologists at the University of Michigan, an “organic” label acts as a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card for people concerned about their weight. If told that some Oreo cookies were “made with organic flour and sugar,” people judged them to have fewer calories, even when labeled with the same number of calories. This bias was especially strong for environmentalists. People also judged exercise as less important for someone trying to lose weight if that person had just eaten an “organic” rather than a regular dessert.

Schuldt, J. & Schwarz, N., “The ‘Organic’ Path to Obesity? Organic Claims Influence Calorie Judgments and Exercise Recommendations,” Judgment and Decision Making (June 2010).

Know fair

You don’t have to watch too many hours of sports to witness a “bad” call. And if the call goes against your team, it’s infuriating. But what if the call goes against the other team? Would that bother you, too? A new study suggests that at least the players themselves are bothered. From analyzing videotapes of over a hundred NBA games, researchers found that players made just over 50 percent of their first free-throws after a dubious foul. Normally, players shoot over 70 percent on their first free-throw. However, free-throw percentages were back to normal on the second free-throw and closer to normal on the first free-throw when the player’s team was behind, suggesting that fairness only goes so far.

Haynes, G. & Gilovich, T., “ ‘The Ball Don’t Lie’: How Inequity Aversion Can Undermine Performance,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

How down payments affect marriage

Who says money can’t buy love? An economist at the University of Georgia has found evidence that helping people save also greases the wheels of the marriage and divorce market. In the late ’90s, hundreds of low-income individuals in Tulsa, Okla., were randomly assigned to receive funds they could use to help make a down payment on a house. Initially unmarried individuals were over 40 percent more likely to be married after four years in the program. Meanwhile, initially married individuals were even more likely to be divorced after only 18 months in the program. Not surprisingly, divorces were especially likely among those with already poor spousal relations; couples with good relations were actually less likely to divorce.

Eriksen, M., “Homeownership Subsidies and the Marriage Decisions of Low-Income Households,” Regional Science and Urban Economics (forthcoming).

The ‘Lie to Me’ effect

Tomorrow night, you can watch one of the final episodes of season two of “Lie to Me,” a crime drama on Fox based on a real-life psychologist who reads body language to determine if someone is lying. But just as some have observed a “CSI effect” (which can lead people to develop unrealistic expectations of forensic science), there also appears to be a “Lie to Me effect.” People were randomly assigned to watch an episode of “Lie to Me,” an episode of another crime drama (“Numb3rs”), or no show at all. Then they watched a series of interviews, half of which were truthful. Those who watched the “Lie to Me” episode were more likely to think people were lying but were actually less accurate in figuring out who lied. Moreover, according to the authors, “when looking at the evidence generated across several hundred individual studies, the idea of ‘Lie to Me’ is highly implausible and almost certainly misleading.”

Levine, T. et al., “The Impact of ‘Lie to Me’ on Viewers’ Actual Ability to Detect Deception,” Communication Research (forthcoming).

When helping hurts

One of the big debates in foreign policy is whether foreign aid works. Political scientists at New York University looked down the street, at the United Nations, for clues. Because the United States has been known to try to influence Security Council members by promising aid, the rotating two-year terms of nonpermanent members provide a test of the effect of foreign aid. Compared to countries not on the Security Council, countries on the Security Council experienced lower economic growth, became less democratic, and were less friendly to the press for several years after being elected to their two-year term. This pattern was largely confined to nondemocratic regimes and casts doubt on the wisdom of providing generous aid to such regimes.

Bueno de Mesquita, B. & Smith, A., “The Pernicious Consequences of UN Security Council Membership,” Journal of Conflict Resolution (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Protection from hurt feelings

Everyone has experienced pain and sickness at some point in their lives. For such physical ailments, one of the first things we do–or are instructed to do by medical providers–is take a pain reliever, like acetaminophen (a.k.a., Tylenol). But physical pain isn’t the only kind of pain. Our feelings can also be hurt. So researchers wondered whether acetaminophen, which acts on the central nervous system, could blunt social pain, too. In one experiment, healthy college students were randomly assigned to take acetaminophen or a placebo twice a day for three weeks. Those who took acetaminophen reported experiencing significantly fewer hurt feelings. In a second experiment, another set of healthy college students was randomly assigned to take acetaminophen or a placebo twice a day for three weeks. At the end of the three weeks, the students were scanned in an MRI machine while playing a virtual ball-tossing game with two other players. After a while, the other players stopped tossing the ball to the subject. Those who had taken the acetaminophen exhibited significantly less neural activity in areas of the brain previously associated with experiencing social and physical pain.

DeWall, N. et al., ”Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t succeed

The main argument against repealing ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is that knowledge of the presence of homosexuals in one’s military unit will be distracting and will compromise unit cohesion and effectiveness. A related question, though, is whether the current policy helps or hurts the performance of homosexuals themselves. In several experiments, researchers at Cornell University asked students–both heterosexual and homosexual–to conceal their sexual orientation during a short interview. Compared to students who were not asked to conceal their sexual orientation, those who had concealed their sexual orientation performed significantly worse on subsequent cognitive and physical tasks. The effect appears to result from the depletion of self-control–in other words, getting tired–from having to monitor one’s own speech.

Critcher, C. & Ferguson, M., ”Concealment and Ego Depletion: Does ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Hinder Performance?” Cornell University (June 2010).

Martini madness, without the martini

It’s common knowledge that alcohol makes people less inhibited and more aggressive. But less well known is that this common knowledge itself makes people more aggressive. In one experiment, researchers found that people who were exposed for just a fraction of a second to a picture of an alcohol bottle were significantly faster at processing aggressive words. This effect was as strong as the effect from seeing pictures of weapons and affected people of different ages, occupations, education, and drinking history. A second experiment showed that even subliminally presented alcohol-related words could induce people to react more aggressively to a bad situation.

Subra, B. et al., ”Automatic Effects of Alcohol and Aggressive Cues on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (forthcoming). ————–

The real story of global IQ

Many hypotheses have been advanced to explain international differences in IQ. One prominent hypothesis is that these differences are a function of climate, with colder climates demanding the evolution of greater intelligence. A new study finds a more potent explanation: infectious disease. By taxing the body’s metabolic and developmental processes, infectious diseases can easily compromise brain function. In a statistical analysis comparing the effects of infectious disease, average winter high temperature, average years of education, and gross domestic product per capita, infectious disease was, by far, the best predictor of average national IQ. Climate came in second, while education and the economy barely registered.

Eppig, C. et al., ”Parasite Prevalence and the Worldwide Distribution of Cognitive Ability,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (forthcoming).

He just doesn’t sound right

Did Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent help him become governor of California? Hardly, according to psychologists at the University of Chicago. Their research suggests that, if anything, accented speakers are perceived as less credible–not because of prejudice, but because it’s harder to understand them. Native English speakers listened to statements of arcane trivia recorded by other native speakers, mildly accented speakers, and heavily accented speakers. Statements made by both mildly and heavily accented speakers were deemed less likely to be true, even though the researchers made it clear that all the statements were written by the researchers. Remarkably, listeners still tended to doubt a statement by a heavily accented speaker, even when they were told the purpose of the experiment beforehand.

Lev-Ari, S. & Keysar, B., ”Why Don’t We Believe Non-Native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Superstition works, kind of

In our modern, enlightened society, most people claim not to be superstitious. Yet in high-stakes situations, many of those same people adopt superstitious beliefs such as lucky clothes, numbers, or places. Is this just a sign of emotional weakness? Is it metaphysical uncertainty? It turns out that such beliefs may help. In a putting game with a golf ball, people sank significantly more putts after they had been told that their ball was the lucky one. The effect also held up in intellectual challenges; for example, people performed better on a memory game when they had a lucky charm with them, compared to when they didn’t. In general, superstitions gave people a greater sense of self-efficacy.

Damisch, L. et al., “Keep Your Fingers Crossed! How Superstition Improves Performance,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Hanukkah as competitive sport

If you’re a Jewish American, Hanukkah probably means a lot to you. This is, however, surprising to Jews from Israel, for whom Hanukkah is not a big holiday. Three Jewish economists examined the idea that this may have something to do with Christmas. Analyzing data from a national survey, they found that Jews with young children were more likely to celebrate Hanukkah than other Jewish holidays. The authors then analyzed data on local retail purchases of Jewish products. Stores in areas with a lower share of Jews sold more Jewish products around Hanukkah. This seems to suggest that Jewish families feel they have to compete for the loyalty of their children, especially when everyone else is celebrating Christmas.

Abramitzky, R. et al., “Is Hanukkah Responsive to Christmas?” Economic Journal (June 2010).

Ladies last

Have you ever ordered a drink at Starbucks, only to wait for what seemed like forever? If you’re a woman, now you have a case to make. Researchers from Middlebury College visited eight coffee shops in Boston, where they observed the time it took for a random sample of customers to receive their orders. On average, women waited about 20 seconds (24 percent) longer than men, even for the same kind of order. The difference in wait times was smaller in stores with more female employees and almost twice as long in stores with no female employees. According to the authors, some form of discrimination is probably taking place, perhaps including “benevolent” behavior like flirting.

Myers, C. et al., “Ladies First? A Field Study of Discrimination in Coffee Shops,” Applied Economics (May 2010).

The risky sibling

If you’re a younger sibling, you’ve probably felt pressure at one time or another to distinguish yourself in the family. And maybe you’ve wondered if this experience has changed you. According to a review of 24 previous studies, you’re probably more willing to take risks. Later-born siblings were more likely to engage in dangerous sports, like football or skydiving. Researchers also analyzed data on 700 brothers who played major league baseball and found that younger brothers were much more likely to try to steal bases and were more likely to succeed. Younger brothers were also more likely to be hit by pitches (indicative of a more aggressive batter) and notched better batting statistics. The differences were especially pronounced when the brothers were closer in age, suggesting that sibling rivalry generates extra motivation for younger brothers to stand out.

Sulloway, F. & Zweigenhaft, R., “Birth Order and Risk Taking in Athletics: A Meta-Analysis and Study of Major League Baseball,” Personality and Social Psychology Review (forthcoming).

More money, less happy

One of the big puzzles in economic psychology is why people don’t seem to get happier beyond a certain point of affluence. Unsatisfying jobs or nagging envy can obviously play a role, but researchers think they’ve found another key mechanism linking money to happiness. People with more money find it harder to savor positive experiences. The power of money to dampen enjoyment doesn’t just apply to the wealthy — in an experiment, people shown a picture of a large stack of cash then consumed a piece of chocolate more quickly and appeared to enjoy it less than people who hadn’t seen the money.

Quoidbach, J. et al., “Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away: The Dual Effect of Wealth on Happiness,” Psychological Science (June 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

How to get Johnny to study

How do we motivate kids — especially kids in rough situations — to want education? Researchers at the University of Michigan studied middle school students in Detroit and found that, while almost 90 percent expected to go to college, only half wanted a career that actually required education. And this difference was critical. Students whose career goals did not require education (e.g., sports star, movie star) spent less time on homework and got lower grades. The good news is that the researchers found it was easy to make education more salient, and thereby motivate kids. When students were shown a graph depicting the link between education and earnings, they were much more likely to hand in an extra-credit homework assignment the next day than if they were shown a graph depicting the earnings of superstars.

Destin, M. & Oyserman, D., “Incentivizing Education: Seeing Schoolwork as an Investment, Not a Chore,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming)

The spirit of capitalism

One of the classic works of sociology is “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” by Max Weber, who argues that the former facilitates the latter. Scholars have been trying to test this theory ever since, typically by analyzing economic patterns at the international level. An ideal scientific test of the theory, however, would require randomly indoctrinating one group of people with one religion and another group of people with another religion. This is obviously easier said than done, but economists at Cornell and Yale universities have figured out a very rough approximation. They recruited over 800 students — including Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and atheists — and asked them to take a sentence-unscrambling test. Half of the students were given some sentences that contained religious references, as a way to subconsciously activate each student’s religious values. The students were then asked to make various economically relevant decisions. A few of the findings: Protestants became more willing, but Catholics less willing, to contribute to the public good. Catholics also expected others to contribute less and were more willing to take risks. Jews were willing to work more for a given wage.

Benjamin, D. et al., “Religious Identity and Economic Behavior,” National Bureau of Economic Research (April 2010).

The adult effects of teen consent laws

Although the rate of abortion climbed in the decade after the US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, it has since fallen off, and there’s no consensus on why. A new analysis gives some credit to parental notice and consent laws, which require minors to involve at least one parent in the abortion decision. But the surprise is that the laws appear to affect the abortion rates among adults as well. The first states to pass parental involvement laws have the lowest abortion rates for adult women and experienced the earliest declines, even among conservative states. The authors suggest that parental involvement laws have a long-term effect on behavior, changing the choices people make even after they become adults. Enacting a parental involvement law in 1994, for example, reduced abortion rates among adult women in 2000 by an estimated 9.6 percent.

Medoff, M., “State Abortion Policy and the Long-Term Impact of Parental Involvement Laws,” Politics & Policy (April 2010).

Increasing consumption by mistake

In a recent book, titled “Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness,” Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein — both esteemed professors and friends of President Obama — advocate for subtly manipulating the way choices are framed so as to nudge people towards the socially preferred outcome. Yet it seems that not everyone is on board. Economists at UCLA analyzed the energy consumption of customers in California who were issued special utility bills comparing their own usage to that of their neighbors, with the goal of nudging people to conserve more. Liberals, and those surrounded by liberals, cut back their consumption. Conservatives tended to increase their consumption.

Costa, D. & Kahn, M., “Energy Conservation ‘Nudges’ and Environmentalist Ideology: Evidence from a Randomized Residential Electricity Field Experiment,” National Bureau of Economic Research (April 2010).

Productivity through hanging out

The ideal employee is supposed to be singularly focused on his or her job. Taking breaks or socializing at work is generally considered a sign of inefficiency. Nevertheless, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are finding evidence that, to some extent, the opposite may be true. Workers in a large call center at a major bank were asked to wear special badges designed by the researchers to track social interaction. Two teams of workers were allowed to take breaks together as a group, while two other teams had to take staggered breaks (the status quo for workers in the call center). Teams with a simultaneous break developed a stronger social bond, and this social bond was associated with higher productivity.

Waber, B. et al., “Productivity through Coffee Breaks: Changing Social Networks by Changing Break Structure,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology (January 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

It’s true, your boss is a psychopath

Watching the news some days, you’d think a lot of companies were run by psychopaths. And, according to a recent study, some might well be. One of the authors of the study was hired by companies to evaluate managers — mostly middle-aged, college-educated, white males — for a management development program. It turns out that these managers scored higher on measures of psychopathy than the overall population, and some who had very high scores were candidates for, or held, senior positions. In general, managers with higher scores were seen as better communicators, better strategic thinkers, and more creative. However, they were also seen as having poor management style, not being team players, and delivering poor performance. But, apparently, this didn’t prevent some of them from being seen as having leadership potential. The authors conclude that “the very skills that make the psychopath so unpleasant (and sometimes abusive) in society can facilitate a career in business even in the face of negative performance ratings.”

Babiak, P. et al., “Corporate Psychopathy: Talking the Walk,” Behavioral Sciences & the Law (March/April 2010).

Why women get the tough assignments

In one of the most famous lines from Shakespeare, King Henry V urges his men “once more unto the breach.” Nowadays, though, it looks like women are the ones who are urged unto the breach. British researchers analyzed data from the 2005 parliamentary elections and found that, among candidates challenging the incumbent party, women were chosen to run for seats that were seen as more difficult to win. The researchers also conducted an experiment asking people to rate several political candidates, two of whom had essentially the same qualifications, except that one was a man and the other was a woman. When the election was portrayed as hard to win, most people — regardless of gender — preferred the female candidate, while only a quarter preferred the female candidate when the election was portrayed as winnable.

Ryan, M. et al., “Politics and the Glass Cliff: Evidence That Women Are Preferentially Selected to Contest Hard-To-Win Seats,” Psychology of Women Quarterly (March 2010).

A touch builds confidence

If you have the Midas touch, everything you touch — figuratively, in most cases — turns to gold. If you’re a woman, everyone you touch — literally — goes for the gold. In several experiments, researchers found that both men and women were more willing to take a gamble after being touched briefly on the back of the shoulder by a woman. A regular handshake with a woman did not have the same effect, nor did touching or handshakes by men. However, the effect was attenuated when people were feeling secure (after writing an essay about a secure time in their lives). According to the authors, “a simple pat on the back of the shoulder — by a female — in a way that connotes support may evoke feelings that are similar to the sense of security afforded by a mother’s comforting touch in infancy.”

Levav, J. & Argo, J., “Physical Contact and Financial Risk Taking,” Psychological Science (June 2010).

They aren’t playing our song

One of the major grievances of people living outside the United States, especially in the developing world, is that they are at the mercy of American cultural imperialism. To what extent is this actually true? Two economists at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed music singles charts around the world going back decades. There’s little evidence that countries are favoring foreign artists. Moreover, language and geographical barriers are still important, notwithstanding the rise of MTV and the Internet. Each country’s share of music in the global market is roughly proportional to the size of its economy. In fact, Sweden, Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand contribute more to the global music market, relative to the size of their economies, than the United States.

Ferreira, F. & Waldfogel, J., “Pop Internationalism: Has A Half Century of World Music Trade Displaced Local Culture?” National Bureau of Economic Research (May 2010).

Can I have a few minutes to myself?

There’s no “I” in team, and, unfortunately, there may not be as many good ideas in a team either. A recent study found that a hybrid individual-team process generates better ideas than a purely team process. Students in an upper-level product design class at the University of Pennsylvania were asked to generate ideas for two different kinds of products. For one kind of product, they brainstormed and selected ideas in teams. For the other kind of product, they worked separately as individuals before coming together into teams. The resulting ideas for both kinds of products were then assessed independently by MBA students and potential customers. The hybrid process generated significantly more and better ideas.

Girotra, K. et al., “Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea,” Management Science (April 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Full article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/06/20/its_true_your_boss_is_a_psychopath/

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Uncommon knowledge

Daughters make you Republican

Some studies have found that having more daughters makes people more liberal. The theory is that parents perceive conservative policies as constraining the freedom of women. A new analysis by sociologists at New York University contests this finding. Controlling for gender, religion, age, education, and marital status, the analysis indicated that having a higher proportion of daughters relative to sons was associated with being Republican or conservative. The authors of this latest study suggest that conservative policies “support the genetic fitness of women by capitalizing on each pregnancy, reducing male promiscuity, and increasing paternal investment in children” and ultimately maximizing the number of grandchildren, despite restricting the freedom of daughters.

Conley, D. & Rauscher, E., “The Effect of Daughters on Partisanship,” National Bureau of Economic Research (April 2010).

Strengthen your system through disease

Many people take vitamins and supplements as a way to boost their immune systems. However, psychologists may have found a cheaper and more effective approach. In an experiment, men and women were randomly assigned to view images of furniture, people with diseases, or people with guns. Blood was drawn from the participants before and after each session. Those who viewed images of people with diseases exhibited a significantly greater immune system response than those who viewed images of furniture or people with guns. This effect doesn’t appear to be caused by stress, which was higher when viewing images of people with guns, nor does it appear to be caused by disgust, since those who reported more disgust had no more of an immune system response.

Schaller, M. et al., “Mere Visual Perception of Other People’s Disease Symptoms Facilitates a More Aggressive Immune Response,” Psychological Science (May 2010).

Race-based umpiring

Are baseball umpires swayed by race? A team of economists analyzed every pitch in regular-season Major League Baseball games from 2004 to 2008. During this time, about a third of ballparks had installed cameras to track umpire accuracy. The economists found that, in ballparks with the cameras and in closely watched situations (large crowds, pivotal calls), umpires exhibited no bias. But in situations with less scrutiny, umpires biased their calls in favor of a pitcher of the same race. By itself, the bias was not large; however, the effect was apparently amplified as pitchers anticipated the bias and took fewer risks when the umpire was of a different race. When the umpire was the same race, pitchers threw more often to the edge of the strike zone.

Parsons, C. et al., “Strike Three: Umpires’ Demand for Discrimination,” American Economic Review (forthcoming).

Even for bullies, better to be handsome

Intuition, experience, and a long line of research tell us that good-looking people have an advantage in life. New research suggests that this advantage even benefits bullies. Photos of seventh-graders were rated by college students for facial attractiveness, and the seventh-graders’ social behavior was assessed by their teachers. Unattractive seventh-graders suffered reduced popularity if they were socially or physically aggressive. Attractive seventh-graders suffered no reduction in popularity for aggressive behavior. This was true for both boys and girls.

Rosen, L. & Underwood, M., “Facial Attractiveness as a Moderator of the Association between Social and Physical Aggression and Popularity in Adolescents,” Journal of School Psychology (forthcoming).

The black-mayor effect

Minority politicians, including Barack Obama, generally need strong minority support to get elected. But what does the minority community get in return for that support? An analysis by economists at George Mason University found that the election of a black mayor in a city with a large black population yields significant gains in employment and income for blacks, especially through local government hiring, contracting, and advocacy. The benefits for blacks don’t appear to depress white employment and income.

Nye, J. et al., “Do Black Mayors Improve Black Employment Outcomes? Evidence from Large U.S. Cities,” George Mason University (April 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

Beware of chivalry

People generally think of discrimination as a manifestation of negative attitudes about another social group. Yet, in the case of gender discrimination, it can also be motivated by ostensibly benevolent attitudes, with the aim of protecting women. Though perhaps not as offensive as hostile sexism, new research finds that benevolent sexism can damage a woman’s career, too. In surveys, women managers reported having fewer challenging experiences and less negative feedback in their jobs, something that may hinder their opportunities for development and advancement. In experiments, men who held paternalistic attitudes towards women were less likely to recommend challenging experiences for women subordinates.

King, E. et al., “Benevolent Sexism at Work: Gender Differences in the Distribution of Challenging Developmental Experiences,” Journal of Management (forthcoming).

Educated smokers quit sooner

A new analysis of smoking suggests that educational background is a critical component of people’s health, affecting how quickly new ideas are acted on. On Jan. 11, 1964, the surgeon general issued the first widely publicized report about smoking’s negative health effects. By analyzing data collected from pregnant women between 1959 and 1966, two researchers found that educated women cut back their smoking almost immediately on the release of the surgeon general’s report, while less educated women actually increased their smoking. This divergence of smoking rates — and the associated rate of newborn health problems — between people of different educational backgrounds continued all the way up until the mid-1980s, when the rates began converging. The effect of education was amplified by the level of education of one’s community, such that educated people surrounded by other educated people were especially likely to quit.

Aizer, A. & Stroud, L., “Education, Knowledge and the Evolution of Disparities in Health,” National Bureau of Economic Research (March 2010).

What video games do to judgment

Though not yet up to the standards of the Matrix movies, video games are becoming increasingly realistic. This has prompted many studies of whether video games induce violent behavior, but an even broader question is whether experience with video games can skew judgment. In a new experiment, researchers asked people to play True Crime, a game where the player is a police officer who must catch as many criminals as possible, by any means necessary. After two hours of play, participants were asked to judge real-life cases where either a civilian or a police officer had committed a particular crime. Compared to people who hadn’t played the video game, those who had were significantly more lenient on the police officers.

Lee, K. et al., “Will the Experience of Playing a Violent Role in a Video Game Influence People’s Judgments of Violent Crimes?” Computers in Human Behavior (forthcoming).

E-mail makes lying easier

If you’ve ever caught yourself writing something on the Web or in an e-mail that you would never have written in a letter, you’re not alone. A recent study confirmed that people are more willing to bend the truth in e-mail. In one experiment, anonymous business students were asked to divvy up an imaginary pot of money between themselves and another person. Students who were required to submit their decision by e-mail were more likely to misrepresent the size of the pot than students who were required to submit their decision using pen and paper. Likewise, in an experiment involving real money and without anonymity, business managers misrepresented the size of a pot of money in an e-mail communication more than they did in a paper communication.

Naquin, C. et al., “The Finer Points of Lying Online: E-Mail versus Pen and Paper,” Journal of Applied Psychology (March 2010).

The war really did come home

What is the true cost of war? The psychological trauma that many Vietnam combat veterans experienced led some of them to violence in civilian life. An economist analyzed survey and personnel data on Vietnam veterans and found that combat exposure increased their propensity for subsequent violent acts. The economist also estimated the social cost of this post-combat violence to be around $65 billion in 2007 dollars.

Rohlfs, C., “Does Combat Exposure Make You a More Violent or Criminal Person? Evidence from the Vietnam Draft,” Journal of Human Resources (March 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

Men are from hunt, women are from gather

The conventional wisdom is that men have better spatial skills, while women have better verbal skills, but a new study offers a more nuanced view. Researchers tracked men and women from a rural village in Mexico as they foraged for mushrooms. Using GPS and activity monitors, the researchers found that men were less efficient–they traveled farther, went higher, and exerted more effort than women for the same amount of mushrooms. Women also collected a greater variety of mushrooms from more sites. This pattern is consistent with the theory that, during the hunter-gatherer period of human evolution, women honed spatial skills needed for gathering while men honed spatial skills needed for hunting.

Pacheco-Cobos, L. et al., ”Sex Differences in Mushroom Gathering: Men Expend More Energy to Obtain Equivalent Benefits,” Evolution and Human Behavior (forthcoming).

Autism comes in clusters

The number of autism diagnoses has increased dramatically during the last several decades. Some blame the environment, some blame pathogens, and some blame changing diagnostic standards. Researchers at Columbia University think we should add another cause to the mix: social influence. Analyzing data from California, the researchers found that a child who lived closer to other children with autism was more likely to be subsequently diagnosed with autism. Of course, this fact alone could be explained by something in the environment, a pathogen, or local medical culture. However, there wasn’t a similar change in diagnoses of mental retardation, the effect held up even with controls for individual and community characteristics, and the effect was strongest for younger children and high-functioning autism–observations inconsistent with alternative explanations.

Liu, K. et al., ”Social Influence and the Autism Epidemic,” American Journal of Sociology (March 2010).

Need a negotiator? Hire Grandpa

Older is indeed wiser, according to new research. A team of psychologists asked adults to read several newspaper articles describing situations involving group conflict and then answer questions about the outcome of the conflict. Transcripts of the answers were then scored by independent reviewers on the basis of how well the answers appreciated the perspectives, dynamics, and opportunities for resolution of the conflict. Older people scored significantly higher on each dimension. This finding was replicated in a similar experiment where people read three ”Dear Abby” letters describing relational conflict. Overall, the biggest jump in wisdom occurred between middle and old age, and age contributed to wisdom even more than IQ.

Grossmann, I. et al., “Reasoning about Social Conflicts Improves into Old Age,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (April 2010).

Predators near schools

In recent years, especially in the wake of TV shows like NBC’s “To Catch a Predator,” many jurisdictions have passed laws requiring paroled sex offenders to register their addresses in public databases and to live far away from schools or playgrounds, on the theory that proximity equals temptation and opportunity. The theory makes sense, but the evidence is beginning to cast doubt on it. For example, an analysis of data from Florida compared convicted sex offenders who were charged with another sex offense to a similar group of convicted sex offenders who were not charged with another sex offense during the same period. The addresses of all the offenders were mapped relative to the addresses of all schools and day care centers. The analysis found ”no empirical association between where a sex offender lives and whether he reoffends sexually against a minor.’’ Even more worrisome, as the authors note, is that other research has shown that making it harder for ex-cons to re-integrate may actually increase the likelihood of re-offending.

Zandbergen, P. et al., “Residential Proximity to Schools and Daycares: An Empirical Analysis of Sex Offense Recidivism,” Criminal Justice and Behavior (May 2010).

Who doesn’t go to college

Economics has generally assumed that people pursue opportunities that generate more benefits than costs, and that if people are short on cash they will simply borrow the money. For example, economists have argued that people will pursue education to the extent that the benefits (e.g., future earnings) exceed costs (e.g., tuition, lost wages), even if they have to go into debt. Sociologists have a slightly different view. According to a recent analysis, it’s not the case that those most apt to benefit from a college education are also the most likely to get it. Instead, the analysis found the opposite: the consequences of not getting a college education–in potential earnings–are biggest for the most socio-economically disadvantaged people, yet they are much more underrepresented at the college level.

Brand, J. & Xie, Y., “Who Benefits Most from College? Evidence for Negative Selection in Heterogeneous Economic Returns to Higher Education,” American Sociological Review (April 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

Something in the Way He Moves

As if politicians didn’t have enough to worry about, a recent study found that voters assess a politician’s health from his movement, which, in turn, affects votes. Brief video clips of Barack Obama and John McCain from their second presidential debate were converted into unnamed stick-figure animations and were shown side-by-side to people who were asked to assess each figure’s traits and decide who to vote for. The best predictor of voting was the perceived health of the moving figure. The researchers repeated the experiment with stick-figure versions of British politicians David Cameron and Gordon Brown, and, again, the perceived health of the figure was the best predictor of the voting. In both experiments, though, there was no consensus on what constituted “healthy” movements and, thus, no consensus on which figure was healthier. With a little more time, of course, researchers may yet learn how politicians can tailor their mannerisms to different audiences.

Kramer, R. et al., “Perceived Health from Biological Motion Predicts Voting Behaviour,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (April 2010).

Light bulbs = ideas

Students and employers take note: Light bulbs are illuminating in more than one way. A team of psychologists conducted several experiments to see whether a nearby light bulb would improve insightful problem-solving. Compared to people in a room with an overhead fluorescent light, people in a room with an unshaded 25-watt light bulb performed better on tests of spatial, verbal, and mathematical insight. A shaded 40-watt bulb didn’t have the same effect, the effect didn’t seem to be caused by a change in mood, nor was the effect observed for problems that didn’t require insight. So, turning on a light bulb may indeed be the mark of a good idea.

Slepian, M. et al., “Shedding Light on Insight: Priming Bright Ideas,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (July 2010).

Feeling like knockoff

If you find yourself short on cash and tempted to buy a cheap imitation product, think again — it comes with a hidden cost. Psychologists recruited women to try on what were billed as authentic brand-name sunglasses or counterfeit sunglasses. In reality, all of them were $300 brand-name sunglasses. Women who thought they were wearing counterfeit sunglasses were much more likely to be dishonest — as the counterfeit sunglasses made them feel inauthentic — and to perceive others as dishonest.

Gino, F. et al., “The Counterfeit Self: The Deceptive Costs of Faking It,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Better vision through belief

Eyesight obviously depends on the eyes, but it’s easy to forget that it also depends on the brain. Researchers conducted experiments to see whether eyesight would improve if people did things they associated with good eyesight. ROTC students at MIT were tested on their ability to read letter markings on drawings of airplane wings presented outside the window of a flight simulator. Some of the students were told that the flight simulator was working and were allowed to operate it, pretending to be a pilot, and other students were told that the simulator was broken and that they would sit in it without really using it. The students who played pilot were able to read significantly more letters. Likewise, in another experiment, people were told that exercise would improve eyesight and either did jumping jacks — an activity associated with being an athlete, which is associated with good eyesight — or skipped around a room. People who did jumping jacks were subsequently better at reading an eye chart. The researchers also found that people who read an inverse eye chart — with the smaller letters at the top — were able to read significantly more of the smaller letters, suggesting that it’s easy to trick the brain into seeing better.

Langer, E. et al., “Believing Is Seeing: Using Mindlessness (Mindfully) to Improve Visual Acuity,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

The eyes have it

Poker players often wear sunglasses, believing that their own eye movements will reveal their thoughts. New research lends support to this intuition. Twelve right-handed men were asked to call out a bunch of random numbers, while their eye positions were measured. When the men looked to the left or down, the next number they named was likely to be lower, whereas looking to the right or up preceded naming a higher number. In addition, a larger change in eye position was associated with a larger difference from one number to the next.

Loetscher, T. et al., “Eye Position Predicts What Number You Have in Mind,” Current Biology (23 March 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

Think like a child

In books and movies, children are often the ones who see the truth before everyone else does. In real life, too, it’s no secret that adults often have trouble thinking outside the box. With this in mind, psychologists wondered if they could make college students more creative just by telling them to think like children. The students were asked to imagine that school had been canceled for the day and to describe how they would react. Half the students were also told to think about the situation as if they were 7 years old. These students subsequently generated more creative responses.

Zabelina, D. & Robinson, M., “Child’s Play: Facilitating the Originality of Creative Output by a Priming Manipulation,” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (February 2010).

The beauty of doing the right thing

If you’ve ever been too eager to trust a good-looking person, maybe it’s just because you’re hard-wired that way. Psychologists scanned women in an MRI machine while they rated the attractiveness of men’s faces; the women were also scanned while they rated the morality of various behaviors. The medial orbitofrontal cortex, a part of the brain which is known to process reward, was more activated when thinking about either an attractive face or a moral behavior. Conversely, the insula, a part of the brain which is known to process disgust and suffering, was more activated when thinking about either an unattractive face or an immoral behavior. This pattern suggests that the brain thinks about beauty and morality in the same way — as rewarding stimuli — whereas ugliness and immorality are tantamount to punishment.

Tsukiura, T. & Cabeza, R., “Shared Brain Activity for Aesthetic and Moral Judgments: Implications for the Beauty-Is-Good Stereotype,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (forthcoming).

Opposing the editorial page

In a widely covered incident in the summer of 2008, The New York Times came under fire for rejecting an op-ed by Senator John McCain that was submitted in response to an op-ed by Senator Barack Obama that the newspaper had published. To conservatives, the incident epitomized liberal bias in the mainstream media. To test this proposition, researchers at Yale University randomly sent a pro-Obama or pro-McCain letter — saying the same thing, but with one or the other name — to 100 large newspapers around the country in October 2008. One-third of the newspapers receiving the pro-McCain letter expressed interest, but only one-fifth of the newspapers receiving the pro-Obama letter expressed interest. Newspapers were more likely to express interest in a letter if it went against the position expressed by their editorial page, which explains the greater interest in pro-McCain letters, since Obama was endorsed by more of the newspapers. This suggests that editorial page editors are driven more by a desire for balanced and contrarian reporting than sheer bias.

Butler, D. & Schofield, E., “Were Newspapers More Interested in Pro-Obama Letters to the Editor in 2008? Evidence from a Field Experiment,” American Politics Research (March 2010).

The mental cost of video games

Before buying that new video game for your child, read on. In “the first randomized, controlled test of the effects of video-game ownership,” researchers offered video game systems to parents of boys in elementary school who didn’t already have a system. Another group of families didn’t get a system (until the end of the study, as a reward). Boys who had a system spent less time on academics after school and lagged their peers in reading and writing. The only good news was that math skills didn’t suffer, but the authors note that this is probably because there are fewer after-school math activities for video games to displace.

Weis, R. & Cerankosky, B., “Effects of Video-Game Ownership on Young Boys’ Academic and Behavioral Functioning: A Randomized, Controlled Study,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

The morality bank

When are people more likely to suffer ethical lapses — after careful consideration, or in the heat of the moment? According to a recent study, snap decisions tend to be more ethical ones. The study showed having more time to deliberate led business students to make somewhat less ethical decisions. People also tended to follow an ethical decision with a less ethical decision, and vice versa, producing a back-and-forth of relatively ethical and unethical decisions. This was true even when the initial decision — either ethical or unethical — was made for them, suggesting that people act as if they have a morality bank account, earning and spending moral credit. The authors advise that “managers should not tell people to think about the ethical implications of their choices” nor “flatter their co-workers: Telling people that they are ethical might give them moral credits that they can use to justify their subsequent unethical decisions.”

Zhong, C. et al., “Compensatory Ethics,” Journal of Business Ethics (March 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

How to stop procrastinating

Recent research has suggested that forgiveness is good for your health. But it may also be good for your study habits. Students who procrastinated in studying for an exam — but forgave themselves for doing so — procrastinated less and got a higher grade on a subsequent exam. One might normally expect such a self-forgiving student to keep on procrastinating. However, self-forgiveness mitigated the guilt and rumination — and desire to procrastinate further to avoid these negative feelings — that resulted from the initial bout of procrastination, making it easier to study for the next exam.

Wohl, M. et al., “I Forgive Myself, Now I Can Study: How Self-Forgiveness for Procrastinating Can Reduce Future Procrastination,” Personality and Individual Differences (forthcoming).

Africa: the good news

The conventional wisdom about Africa is that it’s stagnant and dysfunctional. Yet, according to a new economic analysis, this may be history. While there was indeed little progress in the 1980s, there seems to have been a lot since the 1990s. Up until then, 40 percent of the population lived on less than one dollar a day; by 2006, that number dropped by 10 percentage points. Likewise, GDP per capita has surged. The growth appears to be widespread, and not confined to a subset of advantaged countries. The authors point out that “these results contradict the 2008 Millennium Development Goals Report” of the United Nations and that, if it weren’t for conflict in Congo, those goals could actually be reached two to three years ahead of schedule. Moreover, this growth does not appear to have exacerbated inequality and, in fact, appears to have reduced it.

Sala-i-Martin, X. & Pinkovskiy, M., “African Poverty is Falling…Much Faster than You Think!” National Bureau of Economic Research (February 2010).

What power does to your appetite

While power may corrupt in the political sense, new research suggests that it also corrupts in the hedonistic sense. In one experiment, people were asked to recall a situation where they either had power or were powerless. Later, they were presented with a plate full of cheese crackers as part of a purported taste test. People who had been primed with power ate as many crackers as their hunger dictated, but people who had been primed with powerlessness only ate what they thought they should, regardless of hunger. In another experiment, people expecting to occupy a position of power consumed food in proportion to its appeal, whereas people expecting to occupy a powerless position only ate what they thought they should, regardless of taste. These results bolster the theory that power causes people to rely more on impulse, feeling, and experience.

Guinote, A., “In Touch With Your Feelings: Power Increases Reliance on Bodily Information,” Social Cognition (February 2010).

Gen Me at work

Much has been written about the supposedly self-centered attitudes of today’s youth, but is this trend reflected in their work ethic? To find out, researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of high school seniors in 1976, 1991, and 2006. The most recent generation — a.k.a. “Generation Me” — places a greater emphasis on leisure time than Generation X and especially Baby Boomers. Significantly more seniors in 2006, compared to 1976, thought that having more than two weeks of vacation was “very important,” wanted a job where they could work slowly, were less interested in working overtime, were more likely to see their jobs as just a way to make a living, and were less interested in intrinsic rewards and social interaction. The one exception to this trend is that Generation Me is a little less driven by extrinsic rewards than Generation X (though still more so than Baby Boomers). The authors concede that young people may be justified in seeking a better work-life balance, given that many jobs today demand more hours and offer less vacation time.

Twenge, J. et al., “Generational Differences in Work Values: Leisure and Extrinsic Values Increasing, Social and Intrinsic Values Decreasing,” Journal of Management (forthcoming).

Does attractive mean friendly?

A question that has puzzled mankind for ages is whether physically attractive people also tend to have more attractive personalities. A recent study says yes. Researchers first asked men and women to assess their own personalities. Meanwhile, photos of these men and women were shown to other people, who made an independent assessment of physical attractiveness. The researchers found that the men and women who were seen as more physically attractive also identified themselves as more agreeable and sociable. It is easy to imagine that the personalities of physically attractive people evolve over time to become more agreeable and sociable, building on the positive social feedback that comes from being desirable. But the researchers found that agreeable and sociable people groomed themselves better, explaining their attractiveness advantage.

Meier, B. et al., “Are Sociable People More Beautiful? A Zero-Acquaintance Analysis of Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Attractiveness,” Journal of Research in Personality (forthcoming).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

What raises murder rates

A recent analysis of global homicide rates came up with some interesting conclusions. It turns out that the proportion of young males, population density, degree of urbanization, and income inequality are not significant predictors of the homicide rate. Instead, ethnic and linguistic diversity, education, and the quality of governing institutions were the most significant factors. Although it’s not surprising that ethnic strife and law enforcement matter for the homicide rate, there was a surprising effect found for education: An extra year of school for the average female increased the homicide rate almost as much as one less year of school for the average male.

Cole, J. & Marroquín Gramajo, A., “Homicide Rates in a Cross-Section of Countries: Evidence and Interpretations,” Population and Development Review (December 2009).

What executives’ voices give away

A good interrogator can often detect dishonesty by paying close attention to the way someone talks. A new analysis of corporate earnings conference calls suggests that Wall Street might benefit from these same skills. Using sophisticated voice analysis software, researchers found that the emotions of the executives who were grilled by stock analysts on these calls were predictive of future company performance. When executives were positive, positive future news releases and earnings surprises were more likely, and likewise for negative emotions and negative performance. Nevertheless, although these emotions did induce a market reaction, the analysts themselves generally incorporated positive but not negative emotions into forecasts, so stock prices didn’t completely anticipate the bad news.

Mayew, W. & Venkatachalam, M., “The Power of Voice: Managerial Affective States and Future Firm Performance,” Duke University (November 2009).

It’s cheaper to say you’re sorry

Don’t offer me money, just say you’re sorry. That’s the conclusion of a customer-service experiment with a company selling goods on eBay. Customers who gave the company neutral or negative evaluations – a rare and public signal of disapproval – were randomly offered either an apology, a small amount of money, or a larger amount of money to rescind their evaluation. Even though the apology was nothing more than a self-serving corporate message, customers were twice as likely to rescind their evaluation if offered the apology than if offered money.

Abeler, J. et al., “The Power of Apology,” Economics Letters (forthcoming).

”A” is for achievement

In case you haven’t noticed, subliminal influences are everywhere. In some of the latest experiments, researchers found that incidental exposure to letters associated with grades (like “A” or “F”) can enhance or undercut subsequent performance on tests. When “Test Bank ID: A” or “Subject ID: A” was written in the corner of their test pages, students performed significantly better on analogy and anagram tests compared to tests with “F” instead of “A” written in the corner. Although none of the students expected this effect, it seems to have worked by increasing motivation – students with “A” tests generated more achievement-oriented words on a word-completion test.

Ciani, K. & Sheldon, K., “A versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Performance,” British Journal of Educational Psychology (March 2010).

Handsome is as handsome drives

Sure, we all know the stereotype about guys driving fancy cars to impress the ladies. But is there a real effect, and does it also apply to men who see women driving fancy cars? Psychologists in Britain showed people photographs of an average-looking man or woman, each seated in either a Bentley Continental or a Ford Fiesta. Consistent with the stereotype, women thought the man looked more attractive in the fancier car. However, a fancy car didn’t make the woman more attractive to the men.

Dunn, M. & Searle, R., “Effect of Manipulated Prestige-Car Ownership on Both Sex Attractiveness Ratings,” British Journal of Psychology (February 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon knowledge

He just looks Republican

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you can probably judge political partisans by theirs. Psychologists at Tufts University showed people photos of white Democratic and Republican politicians and college students. People were able to guess the political affiliation of the person in the photo at a rate significantly better than chance. There was no significant difference in how accurately people perceived the political affiliation of men vs. women. When asked to assess the traits of people in the photos, people perceived powerful-looking individuals to be Republicans and warm-looking individuals to be Democrats, though only perceptions of having a powerful appearance actually correlated with political affiliation.

Rule, N. & Ambady, N., “Democrats and Republicans Can Be Differentiated from Their Faces,” PLoS ONE (January 2010).

In prices, precise is nice

Note to real estate agents: You’re leaving money on the table! Researchers at Cornell University conducted multiple experiments and analyses to demonstrate what they call the “price precision effect.” When people are presented with comparable prices, the one that is rounded (i.e., has more zeros) is perceived to be bigger, even if it’s slightly smaller. People seem to be thrown for a loop by a large, yet precise, number, causing them to misinterpret it as a smaller number and, thus, be willing to pay more. The same pattern was found in a survey of prospective home buyers and in transaction data from the Multiple Listing Service. According to the authors, if there are two comparable homes listed for $485,000 and $484,880, the latter can be expected to sell for about $1,200-$1,450 more.

Thomas, M. et al., “The Price Precision Effect: Evidence from Laboratory and Market Data,” Marketing Science (January-February 2010).

Power corrupts, starting with you

Hardly a day goes by without us hearing about the hypocrisy of some powerful person. But are these just a few bad apples? To find out, researchers primed people to think about power and then asked them to report how acceptable it would be for others or themselves to entertain unethical behavior, such as over-reporting travel expenses, breaking traffic laws, under-reporting income, or stealing a bike. Those who were put in a powerful frame of mind were significantly more hypocritical – in other words, they demanded better behavior from others than from themselves. In contrast, those who were put in a low-power or illegitimate-power frame of mind exhibited what the authors call “hypercrisy” – demanding more from themselves than from others.

Lammers, J. et al., “Power Increases Hypocrisy: Moralizing in Reasoning, Immorality in Behavior,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Botox numbs the sadness muscle

Because emotions are often revealed in subtle facial expressions, reading faces (or “tells”) is important in domains like poker and law enforcement. Conversely, a team of researchers has found that disabling these expressions may disable the emotions, too. Patients who were about to receive Botox injections in their frown muscle were asked to read sentences describing angry, happy, or sad situations and then press a button to indicate understanding. When the same patients were tested two weeks after treatment, they took significantly longer to indicate their understanding of angry and sad, but not happy, sentences. This result suggests that the brain doesn’t just send signals to the body but also relies on subtle signals from the body to inform higher-level thinking.

Havas, D. et al., “Cosmetic Use of Botulinum Toxin-A Affects Processing of Emotional Language,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Math anxiety starts with the teacher

As if teachers didn’t have enough to worry about, new research suggests that they should to be mindful of their own anxieties. According to psychologists at the University of Chicago, the level of math anxiety reported by first- and second-grade teachers – who are nearly all women – reduced the math achievement of girls, but not boys, over the course of the school year. Girls seem to be picking up on the stereotype that girls are not as good at math as boys. Indeed, girls whose math achievement suffered the most were also the ones who most endorsed the stereotype, as measured by whether they drew a boy or girl in response to a story about a student who was good at math. The effect did not appear to be due to math-anxious teachers being worse math teachers, since the boys were not affected.

Beilock, S. et al., “Female Teachers’ Math Anxiety Affects Girls’ Math Achievement,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Feb. 2, 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

Sometimes high is sexy, sometimes low

When describing positions of relative status, people often use adjectives related to height, as in “top choice,” “up the food chain,” or “high end.” A recent study finds that this association even extends to judgments about the attractiveness of the opposite sex. Women rated pictures of men as more attractive when they were presented in the top half of a screen. Men, however, rated pictures of women as more attractive when they were presented in the bottom half of a screen. The authors see this as consistent with the evolutionary view that men prefer submissive mates, while women prefer dominant ones.

Meier, B. & Dionne, S., “Downright Sexy: Verticality, Implicit Power, and Perceived Physical Attractiveness,” Social Cognition (December 2009).

Dishonesty lurks in the shadows

It’s said that sunlight is the best disinfectant, but this insight may apply to more than just the disclosure of information. In several experiments, researchers found that light levels influence selfish behavior. People who were placed in a dimly lit room were significantly more likely to cheat than people placed in a well-lit room. Likewise, people who were asked to wear sunglasses were less generous in a sharing game than people who were asked to wear clear glasses. This pattern appears to be the result of an increased sense of anonymity in lower light levels, even though light levels did not confer any actual increase in anonymity.

Zhong, C. et al., “A Good Lamp is the Best Police: Darkness Increases Dishonesty and Self-Interested Behavior,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Exercising self-control

Self-control IS a key trait associated with success in life, so the obvious question to ask is whether (and how easily) self-control can be improved. New research suggests that it might be easier than we think. People were randomly assigned to try doing one of four possible tasks – avoid eating sweets; squeeze a handgrip, twice a day, for as long as possible; solve simple math problems a few minutes a day; or keep a diary recording any acts of self-control – over a two-week period. The researchers also administered a standard test of self-control both before and after the two-week period. The results indicated that the first two tasks, which take self-control to perform, yielded a significant increase in self-control. There was no effect for the other two tasks. Self-control, then, is a muscle that can be strengthened.

Muraven, M., “Building Self-Control Strength: Practicing Self-Control Leads to Improved Self-Control Performance,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).

When calorie counts help business

In some jurisdictions, chain restaurants are now required to post calorie information on their menus. There’s an ongoing debate about whether the benefits of these regulations – especially in reducing the burden of obesity – outweigh the costs to business. Researchers at Stanford University were able to persuade Starbucks to hand over data on every transaction at their stores in New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia around the time that New York City implemented its calorie-posting law. The researchers also obtained transaction data for a large sample of Starbucks cardholders during the same period and conducted in-store surveys in Seattle and elsewhere, around the time that Seattle implemented its own calorie-posting law. In New York City – as compared to Boston and Philadelphia where no such law went into effect – food purchases, but not beverage purchases, contained significantly fewer calories after the law went into effect, and even fewer calories for people who had previously consumed the most calories. The survey data found that customers had been overestimating calories in beverages and underestimating calories in food. Although one might expect the law to hurt business by reducing demand, the data showed no effect on Starbucks, and, in fact, Starbucks stores close to Dunkin’ Donuts actually gained some sales, perhaps because some customers of the latter were put off by the calorie content of doughnuts. Moreover, there was an increase in the average price per item purchased, suggesting that profitability increased, too.

Bollinger, B. et al., “Calorie Posting in Chain Restaurants,” National Bureau of Economic Research (January 2010).

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.

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Uncommon Knowledge

The seduction of cloud cover

In a previous column, I wrote about a study which found that college admissions officers were tougher on applications that were reviewed on cloudier days. A new study by the same author finds another weather pattern in college admissions, only this time, it’s the students. Applicants who visited on cloudier days were significantly more likely to enroll, if they were accepted. The author attributes this to the positive association between sunny weather and outdoor activities, and their corresponding negative association with studying. Therefore – and contrary to what you might expect – a sunny day leaves a bad impression. 

Simonsohn, U., “Weather to Go to College,” Economic Journal (forthcoming).  

Law & Order & Crushing your opponent

If you’re a lawyer, or you just watch a lot of “Law & Order,” you may want to deliberate on the following study. People who were subliminally or incidentally exposed to legal words were then significantly more inclined to think competitively, see others as less trustworthy, and pursue their own self-interest. The authors of the study blame the Anglo-American system, with its norms of adversarial, zero-sum confrontation. Moreover, the increasingly pervasive legal style of thinking – in government, business, and entertainment – has arguably caused a vicious cycle, where legal thinking leads to cynicism, which encourages people to resort to more legal thinking. 

Callan, M. et al., “The Effects of Priming Legal Concepts on Perceived Trust and Competitiveness, Self-Interested Attitudes, and Competitive Behavior,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).  

Love the work, hate the Star Trek figurines

With women now making up a large share of the labor force, their persistent under-representation in technical fields has become a major issue. While the debate often gets bogged down in nature-vs.-nurture arguments, there may be some simple, practical steps that can be taken in the meantime. One possibility: decor. Across several experiments, students were placed in, or asked to imagine, rooms with either stereotypically geeky objects (e.g., Star Trek paraphernalia, junk food, computer stuff) or nongeeky objects (e.g., nature photos, coffee mugs, general-interest magazines). Women exhibited much less interest than men in pursuing a computer science major or job opportunity if the room contained geeky objects. However, women seemed to be more interested than men if the room contained nongeeky objects. This was true regardless of the gender ratio of their hypothetical peers. In other words, simply being in an environment with geeky objects turns many women off, when they might otherwise be just as, if not more, interested than men in a technical career. 

Cheryan, S. et al., “Ambient Belonging: How Stereotypical Cues Impact Gender Participation in Computer Science,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (December 2009).  

The truth about testosterone

Legend has it that testosterone makes people aggressive. In a provocative twist on this story, new research suggests that testosterone is getting a bad rap. Sixty women were given a single dose of either testosterone or a placebo. Several hours later, they played a sharing game. Women who received the testosterone were actually more generous than women who received a placebo. However, women who believed they had received testosterone were much less generous than women who believed they had received a placebo. The authors conclude that, consistent with some prior research, testosterone promotes seeking social status, not being aggressive, but that the common assumption of a link between testosterone and aggression can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, giving people an excuse to be aggressive. 

Eisenegger, C. et al., “Prejudice and Truth about the Effect of Testosterone on Human Bargaining Behaviour,” Nature (forthcoming).  

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. 

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