I’ve written before about the imposter syndrome, the idea that a person can have any success is due to external circumstances or just luck and chance and people will find out soon. New research shows that even under real-life conditions the phenomenon can appear regardless of age, gender, and intelligence. In short: The Impostor Phenomenon… Read More New – depressing – research on the Impostor Phenomenon
A new study by Brucks and Levav published in Nature examined the effects of meeting online versus in person in relation to creative idea generation. They did both a lab and a field experiment. In the laboratory experiment, we randomly assigned half of the pairs to work together in person and the other half to… Read More Maybe we should meet IRL: Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation
How pleasant is cognitive effort? This is a difficult question to answer. People like doing puzzles, but at the same time, my students sometimes sigh if I make them think. It looks like people like to take the path of least resistance when it comes to cognitive effort. Researchers have now come to a different… Read More How pleasant is cognitive effort?
You’ve been in school almost your whole life and now you want to take a year off before going to college. Maybe this sounds like a good idea – if you can afford it – but new research by Evan Riehl, assistant professor in the ILR School, and co-author Nicolás de Roux of the Universidad… Read More Maybe that gap year isn’t such a good idea after all?
Wait, is blogging working or not? If so, I could be in trouble as working a nontraditional schedule, and checking in at all hours of the day, night and weekends, is not necessarily a good thing. No shit, Sherlock: Working during non-standard (vs. standard) work time harms intrinsic motivation. This is driven by upward counterfactual… Read More Depressing find: Working, studying in ‘off’ hours can harm motivation
“Changing your daily schedule to better suit your biological clock may help you become more productive. Discover when your peak times might be.” I found this claim here, but there is much, much more. But is this correct? New research says ‘probably not’, although the amount of test persons is not that big, to be fair. From the… Read More Productivity gurus are probably incorrect when they talk about doing tasks and the biological clock
Ok, sorry for the clickbait title, but the answer did surprise me: it may be whatever skill you think you’re best at! When I thought a bit further it became a No shirt, Sherlock-example. From the press release: Think you’re good at mindfulness techniques? Then that may work best for you. Or do you believe… Read More What’s the best way to improve a sad mood? The answer may surprise you…
Maybe we tell the biggest lies to ourselves? Ok, that’s maybe too harsh, but still. Deceiving yourself is normal and can be useful in the short term; but not in the long term. This new study by a team of philosophers examined self-deception and found four strategies we use to keep a positive self-image. From… Read More Four strategies how we deceive ourselves to keep a positive self-image
Well, it depends on your job tells a meta-meta-analysis of multiple meta-analyses of the five big personality traits and examined their effect on job performance. The study in short: Occupational characteristics moderate relations of personality and performance in major occupational groups. Personality–occupational performance relations differ considerably across nine major occupational groups. Traits show higher criterion-related… Read More Can your personality affect your job performance?
There is a new Best Evidence in Brief and this time I picked this study from this biweekly newsletter written up by Justin Hill: A recent meta-analysis and narrative synthesis on the association between psychosocial factors during adolescence and participation in education and employment as a young adult was conducted by Sumeyra N. Tayfur and colleagues.… Read More Adolescent behaviors and outcomes in early adulthood (Best Evidence in Brief)
From experience to meaning... 