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The Secret to Success Is Giving, Not Taking
Scientific American: We all know what successful people look like. They are are the ones who do whatever it takes, the ones with the sharp elbows, the ones who know how to take what is theirs. But there is a different, better path to success, argues Adam Grant, in “Give and Take.” Grant, a professor of management at Wharton, shares research which suggest that some of the most successful people — not just in business, but in many realms — are in fact classic “givers,” people who genuinely try to help those around them. How could this be? He took questions from Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook. Read the whole story: Scientific American
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What a Conspiracy Theorist Believes
The New Yorker: On a four-point scale, from one (strongly disagree) to four (strongly agree), please rate the following statements: “The Apollo moon landings never happened and were staged in a Hollywood film studio”; ”Princess Diana’s death was not an accident but rather an organized assassination by members of the British Royal Family who disliked her”; “The Coca-Cola Company intentionally changed to an inferior formula with the intent of driving up demand for their classic product, later reintroducing it for their financial gain”; and “Carbon dioxide emissions resulting from human activities cause climate change.” Questions like those formed the core of one of the most intriguing studies…
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Is the Music of the 1960s Really the Best Ever?
The Huffington Post: I had the good fortune to come of age during the richest musical epoch -- well, ever. The Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Dylan, Janis Joplin, Zappa. I could go on and on. The '60s witnessed an unparalleled burst of musical creativity, ranging from Cream to CCR to Hendrix and to Neil Young and Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. There is simply no match -- not before nor since -- for this outpouring of enduring song. And what's more, nobody really disputes this. ... For analysis, Krumhansl grouped these song samples into five-year periods, so that each of 11 periods contained excerpts from ten songs.
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Successful ‘Don Draper’ type salesmen don’t achieve best figures
The Telegraph: When people think of a stereotypical salesperson they're likely to conjure up someone who's extrovert, gregarious, and assertive - just like the dapper executive played by Jon Hamm. However, new research reveals that "ambiverts" - people who are neither introverted nor extroverted, but who fall somewhere in between - tend to be the most effective salespeople. Doctor Adam Grant, of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, was driven to explore the relationship between sales and personality traits after realising there was a significant gap in research on the topic.
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Move Over Extroverts, Here Come the Ambiverts
Forbes: One of the prevailing personality stereotypes we rarely question is that extremely extroverted people do best in sales. On the flip side, extremely introverted people may as well not even try to sell anything because it’s a foregone conclusion that they simply can’t. A new study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that not only are these stereotypes wrong, but there’s an entirely different personality type that stands well above the others in sales prowess. The study was conducted by researcher Adam Grant of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, also author of the book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.
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Would Angry Teens Chill Out If They Saw More Happy Faces?
NPR: All day long we're surrounded by faces. We see them on the subway sitting two by two, pass them on the sidewalk as we make our way to work, then nod to them in the elevator. But most of those faces don't tell us much about the emotional life of the person behind the face. "People don't just go around the world smiling or grimacing or frowning," says psychologist Marcus Munafo of the University of Bristol. "The majority of the facial expressions that you come into contact with — people walking past you in the street, for example — will be ambiguous to some extent." Read the whole story: NPR
