Brain Power - Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them - Series - NYTimes.com

Brain Power - Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them - Series - NYTimes.com

Over the past four years, the couple has tested Building Blocks in more than 400 classrooms in Buffalo, Boston and Nashville, comparing the progress of children in the program with that of peers in classes offering another math curriculum or none at all. On tests of addition, subtraction and number recognition after one school year, children who had the program scored in the 76th percentile on average, and those who did not scored in the 50th percentile.

By the end of kindergarten, a year after the program has ended, those who had had it sustained their gains, scoring in the 71st percentile, on average.

Random Promotions � Cheap Talk

Random Promotions � Cheap Talk: "Random promotion outperformed a “promote the best” policy. It increases the chance that someone who is actually good at the job makes it to the next level."

Author William Poundstone Dissects the Marketing Tricks Built Into Balthazar's Menu -- New York Magazine

Author William Poundstone Dissects the Marketing Tricks Built Into Balthazar's Menu -- New York Magazine: "Consultants try to turn puzzles into stars, nudge customers away from plowhorses, and convince everyone that the prices on the menu are more reasonable than they look.”"

Author William Poundstone Dissects the Marketing Tricks Built Into Balthazar's Menu -- New York Magazine

Author William Poundstone Dissects the Marketing Tricks Built Into Balthazar's Menu -- New York Magazine: "Consultants try to turn puzzles into stars, nudge customers away from plowhorses, and convince everyone that the prices on the menu are more reasonable than they look.”"

Buying Green Makes You Do Bad Things

Buying Green Makes You Do Bad Things :
Do green products really make us better people? Does engaging in a virtuous act of consumption build on itself, making us more socially-conscious, in turn encouraging virtuous behavior in other areas of our lives? Or does buying these products make us feel better — but, in reality, make us act worse?

According to a new study, set to be published in the journal Psychological Science, the answer is — unsurprisingly for those of us with a cynical disposition toward human nature — the latter.

Buying Green Makes You Do Bad Things at SmartMoney.com

Buying Green Makes You Do Bad Things at SmartMoney.com

Do green products really make us better people? Does engaging in a virtuous act of consumption build on itself, making us more socially-conscious, in turn encouraging virtuous behavior in other areas of our lives? Or does buying these products make us feel better — but, in reality, make us act worse?

According to a new study, set to be published in the journal Psychological Science, the answer is — unsurprisingly for those of us with a cynical disposition toward human nature — the latter.

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com: "Jim Fallon recently made a disquieting discovery: A member of his family has some of the biological traits of a psychopathic killer."

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com: "Jim Fallon recently made a disquieting discovery: A member of his family has some of the biological traits of a psychopathic killer."

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com: "Jim Fallon recently made a disquieting discovery: A member of his family has some of the biological traits of a psychopathic killer."

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com Jim Fallon recently made a disquieting discovery: A member of his family has some of the biological traits of a psychopathic killer.

"These results will cause some problems at the next family party," he said, reviewing the data on his laptop in his backyard.

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com

What's on Jim Fallon's Mind? A Family Secret That Has Been Murder to Figure Out - WSJ.com Jim Fallon recently made a disquieting discovery: A member of his family has some of the biological traits of a psychopathic killer.

"These results will cause some problems at the next family party," he said, reviewing the data on his laptop in his backyard.

The 8 1/2 Laws of Rumor Spread

The 8 1/2 Laws of Rumor Spread: Most of us don't like to think of ourselves as gullible. But we're especially likely to accept as true—and do our best to spread—tales that have several specific characteristics that take aim at our best defenses.

Mind Hacks: You are kind, strong willed, but can be self-critical

Mind Hacks: You are kind, strong willed, but can be self-critical: "The tendency to see ourselves in vague or general statements has since been called the Forer effect or, alternatively, the Barnum effect, after the famous catchphrase attributed to the travelling circus impresario P.T. Barnum: 'There's a sucker born every minute!'"

FT.com / Tim Harford - How a celebrity chef turned into a social scientist

Tim Harford writes: "feeding primary school kids less fat, sugar and salt, and more fruit and vegetables, has a surprisingly large effect."

Wealth Happens - Wealth Distribution and the Role of Networks - HBS Working Knowledge

Wealth Happens - Wealth Distribution and the Role of Networks - HBS Working Knowledge "The finding suggests that the basic inequality in wealth distribution seen in most societies may have little to do with differences in the backgrounds and talents of their citizens."

Predictably Irrational � Blog Archive � The value of advice (by Alon Nir)

Predictably Irrational � Blog Archive � The value of advice (by Alon Nir): "Expert advice attenuated activity in areas of the brain that correlate with valuation and probability weighting. Simply put, the advice made the brain switch off (at least to a great extent) processes required for financial decision-making."

The Gendered Situation of Chess � The Situationist

The Gendered Situation of Chess � The Situationist: "When players were unaware of the sex of opponent (control condition), females played approximately as well as males. When the gender stereotype was activated (experimental condition), women showed a drastic performance drop"

Social Facilitation: How and When Audiences Improve Performance � PsyBlog

Social Facilitation: How and When Audiences Improve Performance � PsyBlog: "[W]hen other people are watching us we get more alert and excited and this excitement fires up what he called our 'dominant response'. Dominant responses are things like well-practised skills or particular habits. If this dominant response fits with the situation then our performance is enhanced, but if the dominant response is inappropriate then we tend to perform poorly."

The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect � A True/Slant Contributor

Neuroworld � Blog Archive � The Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect � A True/Slant Contributor: "[W]e’re constantly calculating the trade-off between being able to see ourselves as good people and the cost of engaging in all that non-advantageous goodness.

You might expect that being prompted (primed) to think of yourself as a good person would make you more altruistic or moral — but, in fact, the exact opposite appears to be the case. Primed to think about what a good person you are, your most likely reaction is to think you’ve paid your morality dues and go on about your business."

Smile for the camera - it might help you stay happily married

Smile for the camera - it might help you stay happily married

"The bigger your grin in your high-school yearbook photo, the more likely you are to have a successful marriage, according to a new study."

Tactile illusions: Seven ways to fool your sense of touch - New Scientist

Tactile illusions: Seven ways to fool your sense of touch - New Scientist "It's surprisingly easy for your body to fool your brain."

The Bad Apple: Group Poison

The Bad Apple: Group Poison: "Phelps found that the bad apple's behavior had a profound effect -- groups with bad apples performed 30 to 40 percent worse than other groups. On teams with the bad apple, people would argue and fight, they didn't share relevant information, they communicated less."

Success is all in the mind

Success is all in the mind There's probably no such thing as innate talent or, if there is, it's overrated. The only thing he will allow is that very occasionally certain physical gifts, such as height in a basketballer, will help. But in every other case, what's at work in such massive successes as golfer Woods is a complex cognitive process that pushes the body and mind to extraordinary heights.

Mind Hacks: Never mind the quality, look at the width

Mind Hacks: Never mind the quality, look at the width: "In the study, when the reward was described as rising from 3 cents to 300 cents cooperation increased - but when it was described as rising from 3 cents to 3 dollars, it had no effect."

Overcoming Bias: Conscious Control

Overcoming Bias: Conscious Control: "[T]he MIT group has identified a handful of common social signals that predict the outcomes of sales pitches, the success of bluffing in poker, even subjective judgements of trust. These signals include the `activity level', effectively the fraction of time the person speaks; their `engagement' or how much a person drives the conversation; and `mirroring', which occurs when one participant subconsciously copies another's prosody and gesture."

Born to Be a Trader? Fingers Point to Yes. - washingtonpost.com

Born to Be a Trader? Fingers Point to Yes. - washingtonpost.com: "A new study has found that men who were programmed in the womb to be the most responsive to testosterone tend to be the most successful financial traders, providing powerful support for the influence of the hormone over their decision-making.

'Testosterone is the hormone of irrational exuberance,' said Aldo Rustichini, a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota"

The Cost of Fearing Strangers - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

The Cost of Fearing Strangers - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com: "The proportion of murder victims who knew their assailants to victims killed by strangers is about 3-to-1."

The Cost of Fearing Strangers - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

The Cost of Fearing Strangers - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com: "In the U.S., the proportion of murder victims who knew their assailants to victims killed by strangers is about 3-to-1."

The Cost of Fearing Strangers - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

The Cost of Fearing Strangers - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com: "In the U.S., the proportion of murder victims who knew their assailants to victims killed by strangers is about 3-to-1."

Preach What You Plan To Practice - washingtonpost.com

Preach What You Plan To Practice - washingtonpost.com: "The most effective way to get people to change their behavior revolves around the clever use of . . . hypocrisy. When people feel not only that they are failing themselves but also that are failing to live up to what they tell other people to do, they change their behavior -- and stick to it."

Do we compete more against fewer competitors?

Marginal Revolution: Do we compete more against fewer competitors?: "The more people you're competing against, it turns out, the less motivated and competitive you are. ... Students taking standardized tests in more crowded venues got lower scores."