People are talking more about bullying these days. It can happen at school, in the workplace, or online. How do you combat it? Educator and author Natasha Deen offers these three tips. [More]
psychology
Instead Of Returning Stuff That Doesn't Fit In, We Buy More
By 4.11.11
We’ve all been there. That purple end table that looked so fetch in the store is woefully out of place when you bring it back to your abode. The rational thing to do would be to return the item. According to a new study, instead, what we do is go out and buy more things like it to make it fit in. [More]
Psychologists: Comfort Food Is Bad For Your Body But Good For Your Soul
By 3.28.11
High-calorie foods such as meatloaf, macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes can be harmful to your diet and overall health, but psychologists suggest they can partially counteract negative effects by making eaters feel better. [More]
Psychological Tricks Warehouse Stores Play On You
By 2.23.11
Warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club attract an unqualified devotion of hardcore devotees, myself included. They provide havens that sap away your frugality and coax you to happily part with large sums of money and buy more food and supplies than you’ll logically go through in any imaginable length of time. [More]
Prof: IKEAs Are Designed Like Pac-Man Mazes To Trick You Into Spending More
By 1.24.11
If you’ve ever strolled through IKEA, you’ve probably gotten the sense that you were in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory — enjoying yourself well enough and fascinated by the sights, but clueless as to how to get the hell out of there. [More]
How To Talk Yourself Out Of Unnecessary Buys
By 7.26.10
The moment before you make the final decision on whether or not to make a questionable purchase, your money makes one last plea to stay in your wallet rather than be traded for something superfluous. [More]
Hands Off: If You Touch It, You're More Likely To Buy It
By 7.23.10
Yahoo! has a piece from Women’s Day that lists 12 tricks that stores play on us in order to get us to spend more. One of them, putting nice fuzzy sweaters on tables, is a trick to get you to touch them. Once you touch them, you’re hooked! [More]
Researchers: Violent Games Make Some Teens More Hostile
By 6.8.10
If your teenager is quick to anger and depression, disagreeable and likes to break rules, video games may not just be letting him blow off steam, but may actually accentuate his dark tendencies, a study by professors from Villanova and Rutgers concluded. [More]
10 Ways To Save Money In Spite Of Yourself
By 2.24.10
If you’d like to save more money but find yourself unable to set anything aside after you pay your bills and buy such necessities such as MAD Magazine and lottery tickets, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance editor Janet Bodnar is out to help you. She put together 10 ways to trick yourself into saving. [More]
What To Consider Before Buying An Extended Warranty
By 11.9.09
The New York Times has an article about why consumers buy extended warranties for electronic products and other appliances, especially since we rarely have enough information at the moment of sale to make an informed decision. Here are three things to watch out for the next time you’re buying some fun electronic device.
Learn The Secret Language Of Money
By 9.28.09
Think that just because you know what a credit default swap is, you can speak the secret language of money? Think again. Psychiatrist/executive coach David Krueger has studied how we relate to our cash, and has put his research into a new book, “The Secret Language of Money: How to Make Smarter Financial Decisions and Live a Richer Life.” Lesson one from Dr. Krueger: “Money speaks to us and we speak with money. It’s kind of a Rorschach; we imbue it with whatever values or meanings we want.” Uh, okay.
Why Costco Taunts You With High-End Luxury Items
By 9.18.09
Heather at The Greenest Dollar read How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer earlier this summer, and it made her see Costco in an entirely new way. The point behind all that crazy luxury stuff for sale at Costco isn’t just to sell it, she says; it’s to prime your brain with feel-good dopamine so that you’re far more likely to splurge on the more affordable items deeper in the store.
Take A Coffee Break Before Your Next Job Interview
By 7.28.09
Sure, we all know that it’s as disastrous to arrive late for a job interview as it is to submit your resume written in crayon. But have you ever thought about what happens if you arrive early? According to resume consultant Adam Sterling, arriving early disrupts your interviewers’ schedules and creates tension.
Use Psychological Trick Of "Reciprocity" To Get Better Customer Service
By 7.27.09
It’s one of those customer service calls you get in battle mode for. You set out all your papers and documents, you know exactly what you’re going to ask for, you have a glass of water ready, you take a deep breath, annnnnd – but wait. What if you had one more thing, just a little more edge that might tip the scales in your favor? An article in Pyschology Today talks about the classic customer service technique of “reciprocity.” At the call’s outset,
Academic Publisher Pays Professors For Shill Amazon Reviews
By 7.13.09
This story is a little old, but was just brought to our attention this weekend. Elsevier, which is sort of the Death Star of academic publishing, was caught offering $25 Amazon gift cards to professors who gave the book five-star reviews on Amazon.
Don't Put These Items On Your Credit Card If You Can Help It
By 7.9.09
A few months ago, we reminded you that your credit card company is building a psychological profile of you. But what about a short, convenient list of things that get credit card companies‘ notice? Marketplace has you covered.
Men Go Mad In Herds
By 6.25.09
Men…think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Take Currency Symbols Off The Menu, Restaurant Patrons Spend More
By 6.10.09
Have you ever noticed that the menus in nice restaurants leave the currency signs off prices, or spell them out in words rather than Arabic numerals? The intended effect is pretty much what you would assume – to remove the association between prices on the menu and actual money. Now, there’s actual academic research showing that half of this theory is true.
