Does It Pay to Be Optimistic? - NYTimes.com

Does It Pay to Be Optimistic? - NYTimes.com "dispositional optimists experience significantly better job search outcomes than pessimists with similar skills"

Dan Ariely � Blog Archive Humans and the slime mould �

Dan Ariely � Blog Archive Humans and the slime mould Even for slime mould relativity matters, suggesting that it is a very basic form of decision making!

The Economics Of Trust - Forbes.com

The Economics Of Trust - Forbes.com "Trust matters, but if you really want to bask in its effects, make sure you start at the top of the heap."

Heavy, rough and hard – how the things we touch affect our judgments and decisions | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine

Heavy, rough and hard – how the things we touch affect our judgments and decisions

Joshua Ackerman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown that the properties that we feel through touch – texture, hardness, weight – can all influence the way we think.

Managers: Hired To Be Fired

Managers: Hired To Be Fired: "We miss the effects of randomness in life because when we assess the world, we tend to see what we expect to see. We in effect define degree of talent by degree of success and then reinforce our feelings of causality by noting the correlation. That’s why although there is sometimes little difference in ability between a wildly successful person and one who is not successful, there is usually a big difference in how they are viewed."

This column will change your life: Are you an Asker or a Guesser? | Life and style | The Guardian

Are you an Asker or a Guesser?: "We are raised, the theory runs, in one of two cultures. In Ask culture, people grow up believing they can ask for anything – a favour, a pay rise– fully realising the answer may be no. In Guess culture, by contrast, you avoid "putting a request into words unless you're pretty sure the answer will be yes… A key skill is putting out delicate feelers. If you do this with enough subtlety, you won't have to make the request directly; you'll get an offer. Even then, the offer may be genuine or pro forma; it takes yet more skill and delicacy to discern whether you should accept.""

BBC News - Brain 'splits to multi-task'

BBC News - Brain 'splits to multi-task': "An inability to deal with more than two things at a time may be 'hard-wired' into our brain, research suggests."

A C.E.O. Beauty Contest

A C.E.O. Beauty Contest - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com Chief executive officers look more competent than the general populace

What Can Cricket Data Tell Us About Labor Luck? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

What Can Cricket Data Tell Us About Labor Luck?: "luck might figure more widely in labor market outcomes than commonly believed."

How to quickly and easily make people like you more: - Barking up the wrong tree

How to quickly and easily make people like you more: - Barking up the wrong tree: "Results revealed that mimickers and mimickees became more affectively attuned to each other due to bidirectional influences of mimicry. Additionally, both mimickers and mimickees reported more feelings of having bonded with each other and rated the interaction as smoother."