Category: psychology
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The Science of Shopping
The Economist has a fascinating and eye-opening article looking at the ‘science of shopping’. Mind Hacks reviews the article: The piece discusses the psychology of big store marketing, touching on three areas: store layout and environment design, ‘neuromarketing’ and customer tracking. It’s interesting that much of the fuss in the media has focused on ‘neuromarketing’…
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Moving Past Conspicuous Consumption
Rob WalkerâNew York Times columnist (Consumed) and author of Buying Inâcalls for an end to conspicuous consumption, the purchasing of lavish goods purely to project wealth, and a move towards the invisible badge: Thorstein Veblen introduced the idea of “conspicuous consumption” in The Theory of the Leisure Class, in 1899. And it’s still being recycled…
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The Importance of Teasing
Outlawing teasing as a form of bullying is a step too far, says psychologist Dacher Keltner in The New York Times, as current research shows that teasing is “a form of social play [âŚ] essential for learning to manage complex social interactions”. The reason teasing is viewed as inherently damaging is that it is too…
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Intelligence’s Effect on Sperm Quality
The Economist presents a short article on how intelligence predictsâamong other health benefitsâsperm quality. Something I pointed to a couple of months ago when research results were first coming through. Recently, it has been discovered that an individual’s [intelligence] is correlated with many aspects of his health, up to and including his lifespan. One possible…
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Counterfactual Thinking and the First Instinct Fallacy
Counterfactual Thinking and the First Instinct Fallacy (pdf); a research paper on whether or not it’s better to change your answer when taking multiple-choice tests. The abstract: Most people believe that they should avoid changing their answer when taking multiple-choice tests. Virtually all research on this topic, however, suggests that this strategy is ill-founded: most…
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Raising Smart Children: Concentrate on Effort, not Ability
An old Scientific American article looks at the findings from three decades of research into how to raise intelligent children. Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or abilityâalong with confidence in that abilityâis a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that…
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A Perfect Memory
Hypermnesia is the conditionâusually associated with a variety of mental illnessesâof having unusually exact, vivid memories. Spiegel interviews Jill Price, 42, a Californian woman with hypermnesic super-memory. In addition to good memories, every angry word, every mistake, every disappointment, every shock and every moment of pain goes unforgotten. Time heals no wounds for Price. “I don’t…
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The Myth of Urban Loneliness
Urban loneliness is the idea that people in denselyâpopulated urban areas are lonelier than people in disperse areas such as the countryside. However, a fascinating article in New York Magazine looks at the ‘science of loneliness’ and suggests that urban loneliness is a myth. I found this comment, on an evolutionary psychology theory of loneliness, intruiging: Cacioppo, co-author…
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Menu Consultants (or: Tips to Hack Restaurants)
A short piece in Time profiling Gregg Rapp: a “menu engineer” who optimises restaurant menus to maximise profits. The first step is the design. Rapp recommends that menus be laid out in neat columns with unfussy fonts. The way prices are listed is very important. “This is the No. 1 thing that most restaurants get…
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The Correlation Between Poverty and IQ
The Mouse Trap, Sandy Guatam’s excellent blog on cognitive and developmental psychology, discusses the correlation between a low IQ and poverty, and the implications thereof. What are the implications for society of a more mechanistic understanding of the effects of childhood poverty on brain development? To different degrees, and in different ways, we regard children as the responsibility of…