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Bonuses More Satisfying When Spent on Others, Study Suggests
The holiday bonuses that employers began giving to their staffs at the turn of the last century have been shrinking — and even disappearing at some organizations — ever since the economy tumbled several years ago. But it turns out those end-of-the-year cash rewards may not be an effective way to motivate workers, anyway. A recent study suggests that encouraging employees to give money to others is a better morale booster than simply giving them cash to spend on themselves. In a recent report on PLOS One, a team of psychological scientists and business scholars discussed their findings on the effectiveness of “prosocial bonuses,” such as donations to charities on an employee’s behalf.
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A Psychologist’s Guide to Online Dating
The Atlantic: Edward Royzman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, asks me to list four qualities on a piece of paper: physical attractiveness, income, kindness, and fidelity. Then he gives me 200 virtual “date points” that I’m to distribute among the four traits. The more I allocate to each attribute, the more highly I supposedly value that quality in a mate. This experiment, which Royzman sometimes runs with his college classes, is meant to inject scarcity into hypothetical dating decisions in order to force people to prioritize. I think for a second, and then I write equal amounts (70) next to both hotness and kindness, then 40 next to income and 20 next to fidelity.
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No Fate! Or Fate. What’s Your Choice?
High on my list of guilty pleasures are the Terminator movies, especially T2, which I just watched again the other day. In a crucial scene in this futuristic thriller, hero Sarah Connor is close to despair in a Mexican desert camp, beaten down by the daunting responsibility of saving the world. Sitting alone at a picnic table, she dozes off and dreams of the nuclear devastation that has been foretold and of all the people who will perish. When she wakes with a start, she grabs her Bowie knife and begins carving into the table. She then jumps into action, as the camera lingers on the words she has scratched out: “No fate.” This epiphany transforms Sarah.
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When Sex Doesn’t Sell
Fast Company: Sex sells, but only at a high price, according to a new study. Overtly sexual advertising can make women downright angry, but they tend to view a sexualized ad for a luxury product more positively than the same ad selling a discount item, marketing researchers from the University of Minnesota, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of British Columbia found.
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Fotos können Erinnerung stören (Photos can interfere with memory)
ORF Austria: Wer Fotos von schönen Momenten im Urlaub macht, will eigentlich die Erinnerung festhalten. Das könnte aber eine Täuschung sein: Laut einer neuen Studie vergessen wir Erlebnisse eher, wenn wir sie fotografieren. Die Studienautorin und Psychologin Linda Henkel von der Fairfield University im US-Bundesstaat Connecticut nennt das "Aufnahme-Beeinträchtigungs-Effekt". Um das Phänomen zu untersuchen, bat die Forscherin Studienteilnehmer zu einer Tour durch ein Museum. Dabei sollten sie bestimmte Ausstellungsgegenstände beobachten, die eine Hälfte zudem Fotos von ihnen machen. Am nächsten Tag überprüfte Henkel ihr Gedächtnis.
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Retailers Fine-Tune Store Music to Reflect Brand, Make You Want to Shop
The Wall Street Journal: It is the factor that can keep shoppers happily browsing in the store for hours—or drive them out the door in a huff. Retailers are fine-tuning their stores' playlists as they wake up to the power of music to communicate a brand message and put shoppers in the mood to spend. One shopper's favorite song can make another shopper cringe. Big chains turn to specialists like Mood Media, based in Austin, Texas, and PlayNetwork, in Redmond, Wash., to design store playlists that match the values and design aesthetic of the brand and the lifestyle of its shoppers. Retailers might offer specific descriptions of their core customers and suggest specific artists and songs. ...
