Entries Tagged as 'psychology'

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Mind Hacks: We go with the flow

When they were presented [with physical exercise instructions] in an easy-to-read print font (Arial), readers assumed that the exercise would take 8.2 minutes to complete; but when they were presented in a difficult-to-read print font, readers assumed it would take nearly twice as long, a full 15.1 minutes (Song & Schwarz, 2008b). They also thought [...]

Monday, July 16th, 2007

Brain teaser

Can you count how many times the ball passes between the white shirt players? It’s surprisingly difficult. Via

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

How Not to Talk to Your Kids : The Inverse Power of Praise

Should tell your kids they’re smart? Not according to Po Bronson’s recent article in New York Magazine: …Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it. For the past ten years, psychologist Carol Dweck and her team at Columbia (she’s now at Stanford) studied the effect [...]

Saturday, May 20th, 2006

Psychology of persuasion

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1109515 Psychology Persuasion May 2nd 2002 From The Economist print edition Scientists are uncovering ways of making messages more persuasive. Politicians and salesmen use such tricks already. Who can afford not to read on? AKG YOUR correspondent was not sure whether to write this piece. But Eric Knowles, a professor of social psychology at the [...]

Friday, May 12th, 2006

Women can read men like books

Evolutionary psychology Oochy woochy coochy coo May 11th 2006 From The Economist print edition Women can read men like books A GROUP of scientists has discovered that women are attracted to men who are fond of children. In years gone by, that announcement might have qualified for one of the late Senator William Proxmire's Golden [...]