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  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 11/29/2012 • 0 Comments

    The Science of Persuasion

    One of the most interesting books I read this year was Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive by Robert B. Gialdini, Noah J. Goldstein and Steve J. Martin. As someone who consistently meets walls when trying to pitch my ideas, I found the book helpful because it offered (new to me) ways to get someone to fully listen to you or get on your side. The 50 mini narratives are based in science and psychology, and they all fall into one of six categories: reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and consensus. 

    If you haven't read the book and you'd like to know more about how to be persuasive, watch the video below from Influence at Work. And please let us know in the comments if you've used any of these strategies successfully in your personal or professional lives.



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 08/20/2012 • 0 Comments

    Your Luggage Says A Lot About You

    Virgin Atlantic recently released research that shows the luggage we carry and what we pack says a lot about the type of travelers we are and also the type of people we are in general.

    According to the study, one in five people (20 percent) can’t remember the last time new luggage was purchased, while more than half (55 percent) would only upgrade their suitcase if it was worn-out or broken.

    At the other end of the scale are the luggage kings and queens. Ten percent of those surveyed admit to buying luggage to trump their travel companions. Young people are also influenced by the designer cases they see on the arms of celebs, with 25 percent of 16-24 year olds admitting they would buy new luggage to copy a celebrity.

    “Virgin Atlantic carries over six million bags around the world each year and we have seen a lot of changes since our first flight in 1984," said Joe Thompson, general manager of Airport Operations at Virgin Atlantic. "Gone is the standard suitcase and luggage is now seen as a fashion statement with many passengers checking in a variety of designs including leather holdalls, leopard print cases and designer trunks.”

    But what does your luggage say about you? Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with behavioral expert Judi James to put your suitcase under the microscope.

    Designer Trunks 

    “For these passengers, luggage defines their achievements and their status in life and they believe all economy class passengers should stand aside in respect as they sweep through the airport in true A-list style," James said. "This is the Greta Garbo of holiday makers, someone who is outwardly saying ‘I want to be alone’ although with all the matching designer gear and huge, blackout designer shades what they’re really saying is ‘Look at me! Aren’t I rich and famous?”

    The Crazy Colored Set

    Leopard print, zebra stripes and fluorescent colored cases are easily spotted on the conveyor belt but what sort of person chooses this type of luggage? 

    “Attention-seeking and slightly scatty, this is the noisy, dramatic traveler who will hold up the queue while they hunt for their passport or dash off to get duty free just as boarding has been announced," James said. "They’re the zany friend you take on holiday only to wish you could tip them off the pier on day two of your break, although by the end of the first week, you've probably given up fighting it and bought the same sombrero and fluorescent bikini and started to join in the fun.”

    The Holdall 

    Packing light is something that not many people can do but what type of passengers can fit their holiday essentials into a holdall? 

    “This is the Mary Poppins of travelers, the one who manages to pack everything they need into one piece of luggage, finding space for things the rest of us forget like adapter plugs and baby wipes, and yet still has room for a different bikini for every day of the holiday," James said. "Frighteningly practical and terrifyingly confident, this optimist will tend to be the most seasoned traveler of the lot because for them it’s all about low drama planning rather than last-minute panics."

    The Corporate Case 

    “These passengers know they’ve made it so there’s no need to be flashy, especially during the financial crisis when they believe it might seem crass to flaunt their wealth," James said. "There’s a very practical side to this rather focused and determined person, too, meaning a time-managed flight that includes working on the laptop or catching up on some well-earned power-napping.”

    The Rucksack

    “Still living in the glory days of their gap year, this traveler is unashamedly the eternal teen, loving to imagine that they can lead the freewheeling, commitment-free lifestyle forever," James said. "They hate being pinned down or pressured into any form or responsibility, and they like to think they can go anywhere the wind decides to blow them. They cherish their good causes but they can also have a tendency to be tactless or unfeeling at times, usually with the excuse that ‘I was just being honest’ or ‘I was just being myself'."

    Personally, I'm the holdall. What kind of luggage do you carry?



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 03/07/2012 • 0 Comments

    Ambition Doesn't Always Equal a Successful Life

    I'm going to begin by saying there's nothing wrong with ambition. If you want a corner office, a seat at the table, or any other achievement that proves you've arrived, then go for it. How you want to live your life is your own doing. However, I will say that ambition doesn't always equal success.

    According to a new study forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology, ambitious people are barely happier than less ambitious people. 

    “If ambition has its positive effects, and in terms of career success it certainly seems that it does, our study also suggests that it carries with it some cost,” said Timothy Judge, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “Despite their many accomplishments, ambitious people are only slightly happier than their less-ambitious counterparts, and they actually live somewhat shorter lives.”

    Judge tracked 717 high-ability people over seven decades, measuring ambition during all phases of their lives. The individuals' education levels ranged from Ivy League schools to high school diplomas. 

    “Ambitious kids had higher educational attainment, attended highly esteemed universities, worked in more prestigious occupations and earned more,” Judge said. “So, it would seem that they are poised to ‘have it all.’ However, we determined that ambition has a much weaker effect on life satisfaction and actually a slightly negative impact on longevity (how long people lived). So, yes, ambitious people do achieve more successful careers, but that doesn’t seem to translate into leading happier or healthier lives.”

    Judge's research, however, didn't show the reason why ambitious people have shorter lives.

    “Perhaps the investments they make in their careers come at the expense of the things we know affect longevity: healthy behaviors, stable relationships and deep social networks,” he said. “If your biggest wish for your children is that they lead happy and healthy lives, you might not want to overemphasize professional success. There are limits to what our ambitions bring us—or our children.”

    How ambitious are you? How do you measure personal or professional success? Please let us know in the comments. 



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 01/27/2012 • 0 Comments

    Focus on the Negative

    You first have to get people to notice what’s wrong with a current system if you want people to change the system. That’s the idea behind a new study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, which finds that people pay attention to negative information about the system when they believe the status quo can change.

    “Take America’s educational system. You could find some flaws in that system,” said India Johnson, a graduate student at Ohio State University (OSU) who did the new study with Professor Kentaro Fujita. “But we have to live with it every day, so people tend to focus on the positive and reinforce the system. Sometimes, though, people are motivated to change things—that’s what brought about the U.S. civil rights movement and the changes in Tunisia and Egypt this year, for example. In order to actually change the system, you’ve got to know what’s wrong with it. 

    Johnson wondered, “How can we get people to stop looking at the positive information and kind of shift gears and focus on the negative information?” 

    Psychological scientists have found that people who want to change—to do better at work, for example—are willing to take the short-term pain of hearing negative information about themselves, if they actually believe that bearing this pain will actually help them improve in the long run. Johnson wondered if the same was true for thinking about the whole social system.

    In one experiment, students started by reading one of two scenarios about a student who was unhappy with the freshman orientation at OSU. Some participants read that he had successfully improved the system; others read that he’d failed, although he still believed in change. Then each participant was told that the U.S. Department of Education had published an external review of the university, and they were given a choice between reading a section of the report that focused on the university’s strengths or a section on its weaknesses.

    Participants who had read a paragraph about change were more likely to want the negative information about the university, while others preferred the report on positive information. Other experiments found that people were more willing to read negative information if it came from a diagnostic and therefore, trustworthy source, and if it was about their own university, rather than another one nearby.

    “In order for people to feel like they can actually affect the world and actually do something, they have to view the world as changeable,” Johnson said. “If you want people to be able to make that leap, you have to first get them to that point. Then they’ll be willing to seek out the negative information.” 

    Of course, there are more steps to changing the system than just finding out what’s wrong with it. 

    “Even after you get the negative information, you might say, this is too much. I can’t do anything about it,” Johnson said. 

    Johnson plans to do more research on the next steps to bringing about social change.

    (Story materials provided by the Association for Psychological Science.)



  • Posted by Michael Pinchera at
    12:00AM 12/20/2011 • 0 Comments

    Enough with the Jargon!

    Growing annoyance with the mainstream overuse of vague, misleading and nonsensical business jargon is growing. OK, so I have no proof of that, but I was pleased today to read that some business leaders are demanding more straight-forward language and less jargon.

    Business psychologist Dr Rob Yeung says bosses need to bin the fancy language and revert to straight-taking to motivate staff.

    ‘It may become confusing or irritating for employees to hear the same tired clichés when they don’t see such management jargon being turned into useful action. Jargon can be confusing and unnecessary so much of the time, therefore managers would be better off thinking about how to communicate in plain English.’

    Read more at The Daily Mail

    Image (CC) subsetsum



  • Posted by Jason Hensel at
    12:00AM 04/20/2011 • 0 Comments

    De-clutter Your Brain

    Lapses in memory occur more frequently with age, yet the reasons for this increasing forgetfulness have not always been clear.

    According to new research from Concordia University, older individuals have reduced learning and memory capacity because their minds tend to be cluttered with irrelevant information when performing tasks. Published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, these findings offer new insights into why aging is associated with a decline in memory and may lead to practical solutions.

    “The first step of our study was to test the working memory of a younger and older population and compare the results,” said Mervin Blair, first author, psychology Ph.D. student and a member of Concordia’s Centre for Research in Human Development (CRDH). “In our study, working memory refers to the ability of both retaining and processing information.”

    Some 60 participants took part in the study: Half were an average of 23 years old, while the other half was about 67 years old. Each participant was asked to perform a working memory task, which included recalling and processing different pieces of information.

    “Overall, we showed that our older population had reduced working memory than the younger population,” Blair said. “Younger adults were better than the older adults at recalling and processing information.”

    The next step was to determine if there was a time frame when the ability to delete irrelevant information, known as inhibition deletion, changed. This was measured using a sequential memory task. Images were displayed in a random order and participants were required to respond to each image in a pre-learned manner. Once again, the youngsters outperformed their older counterparts. “

    Analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between the ability to clear irrelevant information and working memory ability. 

    “Poor inhibition predicted a decline in the recall component of working memory and it also predicted decline in the processing component of working memory,” Blair said “Basically, older adults are less able to keep irrelevant information out of their consciousness, which then impacts on other mental abilities.”

    For those who are having trouble remembering, Blair suggests that focusing and reducing mental clutter may help. 

    “Reduce clutter; if you don’t, you may not get anything done.”

    Keeping a mind clutter-free can be more difficult as people age, especially during periods of stress when people focus on stressors, yet Blair says relaxation exercises can help de-clutter the brain. What’s more, the brain continues to function optimally into old age when it is mentally stimulated by learning a new language, playing an instrument, completing crossword puzzles, keeping an active social life and exercising.

    (Story materials provided by Concordia University.)