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Seven Steps to Reduce Bias in Hiring
The Wall Street Journal: Why is it that many of the world’s most advanced companies struggle to create diversified workforces, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on diversity training and recruitment? Implicit bias may be partly to blame, or the idea that even people with the best of intentions toward diversity can harbor attitudes and beliefs that affect their thoughts, feelings and actions outside of their awareness. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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Why Mind Wandering Can Be So Miserable, According to Happiness Experts
Smithsonian: For you, it could be the drive home on the freeway in stop-and-go traffic, a run without headphones or the time it takes to brush your teeth. It’s the place where you’re completely alone with your thoughts—and it’s terrifying. For me, it’s the shower. ... Killingsworth and Gilbert tested their app on a few thousand subjects to find that people’s minds tended to wander 47 percent of the time. Looking at 22 common daily activities including working, shopping and exercising, they found that people’s minds wandered the least during sex (10 percent of the time) and the most during grooming activities (65 percent of the time)—including taking a shower.
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New York Today: How Warm Weather Affects Our Behavior
The New York Times: Good morning on this beautiful Friday. This week, we’ve observed some odd behavior for February: people sunbathing in Washington Square Park, passers-by in shorts sipping iced coffee and commuters lining up near empty Citi Bike racks. Which got us thinking: How does warm weather affect our behavior? “Studies have shown that pleasant weather is associated with a few positive shifts in behavior,” said Vinita Mehta, a clinical psychologist practicing in Washington. We asked her to guide us through some of the research. ... Participants in a 2008 study in Germany kept a daily journal of their well-being, while data from nearby weather stations was collected.
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What Research Says About Humor in the Workplace
The Wall Street Journal: The use of jokes and comedy affects how confident we appear, how productive and creative we are and even how much status we achieve. Brad Bitterly and Maurice Schweitzer of the Wharton School join us with details. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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When You Need to Face Facts in Your Life
The Wall Street Journal: I’ve been having pain in my right knee. It hurts to exercise or sit cross-legged. Sometimes the pain wakes me up at night. I know I should see a doctor. But I worry he’ll tell me to stop doing yoga, which I love. And what if he says I need surgery? So I try to ignore the pain. Why do we sometimes resist the facts, even when we know they’re important? ... First, spend some time thinking about what you really value in life. Psychologists call this an affirmation invention.
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Spoiler alert: most people want to remain in the dark, finds study
The Guardian: Whether anticipating good news or bad, it turns out that most people would prefer to remain in the dark than sneak a glimpse of the future. According to research involving more than 2,000 participants, more than 85% would not want to know if their marriage would end in divorce, while a similar proportion wanted to remain ignorant of when they would die. Even for happy events, ignorance was often prized, be it in the case of Christmas gifts, or the upshot of a football match. Read the whole story: The Guardian
