Letters Remain

Tag: psychology

  • Social Networks and Their Far-Reaching Influence

    In a short and balanced review of Connected–“a scientific look at the ties that bind us together”–we are treated to some interesting findings on social networks and their myriad external effects–including how far these effects ‘travel’ through said networks. Controlling for environmental factors and the tendency of birds of a feather to flock together […]…

  • Long-Term Thinking and Climate Change

    One of the reasons the general public are slow in acting on climate change in the manner the situation’s importance demands is our reluctance to think too far beyond our immediate time horizon. However this shouldn’t stop us. That is the suggestion of Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, who extols the virtues of long-term thinking more eloquently than…

  • Taxes (Not Subsidies) Control Calorie Intake

    It’s not surprising to discover that in an experiment looking at how taxes and subsidies can be used to influence healthier food purchases it was the taxing of unhealthy food that improved choices, not the subsidisation of healthy options. Strangely, though, it turns out that the health food subsidies actually worsened choices (the study theorises that…

  • Nature Improves Attention

    When studying complex tasks, taking a moment away from the problem is a proven way to refocus one’s thoughts. How different surroundings affect this “attention restoration” has now been studied and it has been discovered that the more complex a problem, the more a natural (non-urban) scene benefits our focus and study–whether this natural scene…

  • (Insincere) Flattery Works

    Flattery–even exaggerated, insincere and obvious flattery–works. That’s the conclusion from a study looking at whether compliments initially dismissed as “meaningless flattery” in advertising copy work on an implicit, unconscious level. They do. What this research suggests […] is that the implicit positivity we experience as a result of viewing [positive advertising] images could play an important role in what…

  • Framing Financial Loses to Conservatives

    In a series of novel framing experiments, researchers have shown that our self-identified political leanings correlate with how we perceive financial losses. Hundreds of online participants chose between various flights, computers and so on. In each case they could plump for a cheaper option or a more expensive, greener option, the latter including either a ‘tax’…

  • Selling Premium Goods

    In a short profile of ‘luxury sales consultant’ Jean-Marie Brücker, we discover a few psychological techniques he teaches to his clients on how to sell high-end luxury goods: Describe an item in terms of its ‘value’ rather than it’s ‘price’ or ‘cost’. Sell a story (‘romance’ and ’emotions’) rather than ‘products’. The macaroon technique: sandwiching the…

  • Typography, Pronunciation and Cognitive Fluency

    How easy something is to read and understand significantly affects how we perceive it in terms of its risk, beauty, difficulty, credibility and truthfulness. Factors that influence this cognitive fluency include typography (typeface choice, contrast, etc.), ease of pronunciation, familiarity and how much the words rhyme. The cover story of this month’s The Psychologist is…

  • Derren Brown’s Bertram Effect Experiment Text

    I love the Bertram effect. It’s likely the cognitive bias / psychological experiment that I think of the most. While the text from the original experiment is good, it’s from 1948. In the brilliant Tricks of the Mind and his 2000s TV show of the same name, Derren Brown updated the experiment, using his own text (reproduced…

  • Perceived Complexity and Will Power

    While willpower and dedication matter considerably in sustaining a resolution and reaching a desired goal, the perceived complexity of the process can have a big influence on whether we are likely to achieve that goal or not. This conclusion comes from a study showing how the subjective “cognitive complexity” of a diet was a major factor…