Residents of Poor Countries Have a Great Advantage: Religion

An analysis of polling data from 132 nations shows that religious belief appears to be the main reason why people in poor countries see greater meaning in life than residents of wealthy countries, say Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia and Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Among the nations with the highest sense that life has meaning are Niger, Sierra Leone, Togo, Ethiopia, Laos, and Ecuador. By connecting daily experiences with a coherent belief system, religion plays a critical role in helping people construct meaning out of extreme hardship, the authors say.

SOURCE: Residents of Poor Nations Have a Greater Sense of Meaning in Life Than Residents of Wealthy Nations

A Simple Daily Intervention Decreases Employee Stress

A Simple Daily Intervention Decreases Employee Stress

Stress levels and physical complaints declined by roughly 15% after employees were directed to spend 10 minutes writing about three things that had gone well each day, says a team of researchers led by Joyce E. Bono of the University of Florida. At the end of the work day, the employees logged on to a website where they were asked to write about events large or small, personal or work-related, and explain why they had gone well. The findings suggest that this intervention could have important effects on employee stress and health, the researchers say.

SOURCE: Building Positive Resources: Effects of Positive Events and Positive Reflection on Work Stress and Health

Lavish Praise Can Backfire in Some Cases

Children whose self-esteem was at least 1.3 standard deviations below average reacted to lavish praise (“You made an incredibly beautiful drawing”) by becoming less willing to take on challenges, possibly out of fear that they might not be able to perform as “incredibly” well in the future, according to a study led by Eddie Brummelman of Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Children with high self-esteem did the opposite, responding to lavish praise by seeking greater challenges. Although many educators encourage parents and teachers to shower praise on pupils, adults should resist the temptation in the case of children who appear to have low self-esteem, the researchers say.

Teenager girl makes chewing gum's bubble

SOURCE: “That’s Not Just Beautiful–That’s Incredibly Beautiful!”: The Adverse Impact of Inflated Praise on Children With Low Self-Esteem

To Detect a Lie, Don’t Think About It

Research participants who did puzzles for 3 minutes after hearing a series of true and false statements were about 6 times better than other people at figuring out which of the statements had been lies, according to a team led by Marc-André Reinhard of the University of Mannheim in Germany. The finding suggests that unconscious thinking (like the kind you do when you’re working a puzzle) gives people a chance to integrate the rich, complex information needed for accurate lie detection, and it supports a theory that deception judgments are largely driven by intuitions that may be inaccessible to the conscious mind, the researchers say.

liar

SOURCE: Unconscious Processes Improve Lie Detection

Upward Mobility Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

A study of hundreds of low-income American youths shows that at age 19, those who had been rated as diligent and academically successful were less healthy than peers who had been labeled aggressive, difficult, and isolated, a team led by Gregory E. Miller of Northwestern University writes in The New York Times. Highly motivated people from low-income backgrounds often feel tremendous internal pressure to succeed, but behaving diligently all the time may leave them feeling exhausted and sapped of willpower, and they may let their health fall by the wayside, the researchers say.

SOURCE: Can Upward Mobility Cost You Your Health?

Super Bowl Ads Are Less Effective Than Others

Before-and-after interviews with more than 1,000 customers in 2012 and 2013 indicate that 80% of Super Bowl ads fail to increase purchases or purchase intent, according to research firm Communicus. That’s about 20 percentage points worse than the average of ads the firm tests. One limiting factor for Super Bowl commercials is that they tend not to run regularly after the game; another is that brand association sometimes gets lost in the highly entertaining story lines, the firm says.

SOURCE: Study: 80% of Super Bowl Ads Don’t Help Sales

Maybe this is one reason why some spots were broadcast online first?