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."