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Money can buy happiness — if you know how to use it
The Washington Post: As humans, we are almost always aspiring to land the next promotion or the next big raise, or to strike it rich some other way. But a new report offers hope for those of us who have yet to win the lottery. Researchers at the University of Cambridge concluded in a study released this month that money can indeed buy happiness. But the secret, they found, is not how much cash you have. It’s what you do with the money you have. ...
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Why ‘Modern’ Work Culture Makes People So Miserable
Fortune: Dan Lyons’ account of his time at the software company HubSpot describes a workplace in which employees are disposable, “treated as if they are widgets to be used up and discarded.” And HubSpot is scarcely unique: The description of Amazon’s work environment is just one of many similar cases. An increasing number of companies offer snacks, foosball, and futuristic jargon to keep employees’ minds off their long hours and omnipresent economic insecurity. Whether that works, and for how long, is an open question. Read the whole story: Fortune
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Don’t Grade Schools on Grit
The New York Times: Philadelphia — THE Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once observed, “Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” Evidence has now accumulated in support of King’s proposition: Attributes like self-control predict children’s success in school and beyond. Over the past few years, I’ve seen a groundswell of popular interest in character development. As a social scientist researching the importance of character, I was heartened. It seemed that the narrow focus on standardized achievement test scores from the years I taught in public schools was giving way to a broader, more enlightened perspective.
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The Psychological Cost of Boring Buildings
New York Magazine: New Yorkers have long bemoaned their city being overrun by bland office towers and chain stores: Soon, it seems, every corner will either be a bank, a Walgreens, or a Starbucks. And there is indeed evidence that all cities are starting to look the same, which can hurt local growth and wages. But there could be more than an economic or nostalgic price to impersonal retail and high-rise construction: Boring architecture may take an emotional toll on the people forced to live in and around it. Read the whole story: New York Magazine
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Is The Mind’s Approach More Like A Scientist Or A Trial Lawyer?
NPR: Consider two very different views about the human mind. In the first view, people are like scientists. They go about the world gathering data, constructing theories and using those theories to guide their interactions with the world. As new evidence comes in, they revise their beliefs accordingly. In the second view, people are more like trial lawyers. They already know what they want to conclude (innocent or guilty, pro or con), and they go about seeking and construing evidence to favor that conclusion. Rather than matching their beliefs to the evidence, they match the evidence to their beliefs. Read the whole story: NPR
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You Have More Influence Over People Than You Think
Cosmopolitan: Do you hesitate to ask people for favors simply because you assume they'll say no? A new study suggests others are far more likely to do your bidding than you probably think. For 10 years, psychologist, Vanessa K. Bohns, Ph.D., and colleagues from Cornell University asked hundreds of participants in multiple studies to pose random requests to over 14,000 strangers. (Among them: "Can I borrow your phone?" "Will you lie for more?" and, "Would you sponsor me in a race?") ... Why, then, does just saying what you want still seem so ominous?
