Trends

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Why You Might Make a Better Decision After a Quick Game of Solitaire

Research participants were nearly twice as likely to give the correct response to a complex decision-making problem if they were distracted by a simple three-minute number-matching task before being asked for their answers, says a team led by Marlène Abadie of the University of Toulouse in France. A more-demanding distraction had no such effect: Participants had a 75% chance of giving the right answer after the easy task, but just a 40% chance after a tougher task or if there was no distractor at all. During an easy distraction, the brain seems to unconsciously enhance the memory of a problem’s essence, the researchers say.

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What Would You Do Differently If You Could See Yourself 20 Years Older?

Undergraduates who had gazed at their 40-year-old selves in virtual “mirrors” were 74% less likely to cheat for extra cash on a subsequent trivia test, says a team led by Jean-Louis van Gelder of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement and Hal E. Hershfield of NYU. This and another experiment suggest that one reason people make self-defeating choices such as engaging in unethical behavior is that their ability to imagine their future selves is limited. They’re less inclined to indulge in illegal acts if they can see vivid images of themselves such as the computer simulations presented by the researchers.

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Narcissistic CEOs Take Bold Action When There’s an Appreciative Audience

Highly narcissistic CEOs were nearly 3 times more likely than very un-narcissistic leaders to take bold steps to embrace potentially disruptive technologies when media interest in the disruption was high. But when interest was low, the narcissistic CEOs showed no such heightened propensity to act, says a team led by Wolf-Christian Gerstner of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. The research, which analyzed the U.S. pharmaceutical industry when biotech was disrupting it, measured such actions as acquisition of biotech firms as a function of CEO narcissism (calculated by factors including the leaders’ prominence in annual reports). Narcissistic CEOs, who crave admiration, tend to take bold action when there’s an audience that is likely to see their actions as daring, the researchers suggest.

Narcissistic CEOs Take Bold Action When There's an Appreciative Audience

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Hard Times May Make You More Likely to Gamble Away Your Money

Do people with bleak economic prospects hold more tightly to their money? No, they’re more likely to gamble it away, says a team led by Michael J.A. Wohl of Carleton University in Canada. In an experiment, people were more than twice as likely to gamble $10 on slot machines if they first read an article warning of an unstable economic climate, poor job prospects, and higher costs. Periods of hardship can lead people to make risky and detrimental financial decisions, the researchers say.

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Do You Work Until You’ve Earned Enough, or Until You’re Just Too Tired to Work More?

In an experiment, people who were paid in chocolates for choosing to listen to unpleasant noises “overearned” by 6.48 chocolates, on average: They earned 10.74 but ate just 4.26 (they weren’t allowed to take any home), revealing a persistent tendency to mindlessly accumulate unneeded rewards, says a team led by Christopher K. Hsee of the University of Chicago. The researchers compare overearning to overeating: In the past, people earned so little that they were driven to earn as much as possible, but today, productivity advancements enable many to overearn, a behavior whose negatives include forgoing the pleasures of leisure and family time.

 

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SOURCE: Overearning

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NeuroMarketing Tip: Use Babies Images

Our brain is wired to pay attention to faces and especially baby faces. Whenever possible, use baby images in your advertising.

Here is a eye tracking study done on a webpage with a baby picture. Where is the hot spot here?

use baby images

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Boomers and Seniors Favor the Web

Although the web is a somewhat recent phenomenon for baby boomers and seniors in the US, boomers now spend more time online than with any other form of media, including TV, and seniors are not far behind. Smartphones and tablets are playing a bigger role in the online activities of both boomers and seniors, who use the devices for a variety of activities, including to shop for purchases.
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