http://www.apsense.com/feed/news.xml APSense industry news comes from top blog sites. Tue, 21 May 2013 17:58:31 GMT Mon, 20 May 2013 23:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12578595.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12578595.html How to Pick a Winner: A Psychological Trick to Improve the Odds
Does thinking too specifically about a bet make you more likely to lose? I'm not, as they say, a betting man; but if I were I'd put down the form book and spend my time studying a new paper by Yoon et al. (2013) published in Psychological Science. T... ]]> Thu, 16 May 2013 01:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12576234.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12576234.html The Incredible Dating Power of a Guitar Case
Would you give this man your telephone number? (Don't let the guitar case influence you.) In France there's a psychologist, Professor Nicolas Gueguen, who roams the North-West, asking young women for their telephone numbers—or at least his research ... ]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 15:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12574599.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12574599.html How to Help Other People Change Their Habits
Three pointers on helping someone else change their habits. Having written a book on how to change your own habits, in interviews I was often asked: how can I change another person's habits? Say I want my partner to stop cracking his knuckles or get... ]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 17:02:17 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12572902.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12572902.html Illusory Correlations: When The Mind Makes Connections That Don’t Exist
Why do CEOs who excel at golf get paid more, despite poorer stock market performance? To see how easily the mind jumps to the wrong conclusions, try virtually taking part in a little experiment... ...imagine that you are presented with information a... ]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 21:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12571720.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12571720.html Perform Better Under Stress Using Self-Affirmation
Can thinking about what's important to you improve your problem-solving powers? Have a look at the following list of values and personal characteristics. If you had to pick just one, which most defines who you are and what matters to you? Your fami... ]]> Wed, 01 May 2013 15:02:05 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12568542.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12568542.html Power Up: The Performance Benefits of a Simple Mental Exercise
Can this mental exercise make you more employable? "Have successful professionals always been successful? Take Francesca Gino. An Associate Professor at Harvard, she is considered by many to be a superstar. But things did not always look so bright f... ]]> Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12564977.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12564977.html The Peaceful Mind: 5 Step Guide to Feeling Relaxed Fast
How to fight a psychological scourge of the modern world. We worry about work, money, our health, our partners, children...the list goes on. And let's face it, there are plenty of things to worry about, and that's even before you've turned on the ne... ]]> Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:02:20 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12559755.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12559755.html Can Everyday Hassles Make You Depressed?
Do you sweat the small stuff? When it comes to pinpointing the source of our woes, we tend not to think too much about the little hassles of everyday life; after all they're just little hassles, nothing compared to the big stuff. You're late for a m... ]]> Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:02:15 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12556741.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12556741.html Are Men or Women Better at Multitasking?
Do large, consistent gender differences in multitasking exist? First a confession: I have never understood the popular fascination with whether women (or men) are better at multitasking. That's because multitasking is something that's best avoided f... ]]> Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12553810.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12553810.html Rethinking The Stress Mindset: Can You Find The Upside of Pressure?
Is it true that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or is stress always debilitating? It's striking how much of our emotional experience is down to interpretation. Take the physical feelings you get when you're about to talk in public: the swe... ]]> Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12546935.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12546935.html The Temporal Doppler Effect: Why The Future Feels Closer Than The Past
Like the sound of a passing ambulance siren, our perception of time distorts as it shoots by. Sometimes psychologists come up with such good names for their findings that I'm powerless to resist. Take this newly minted expression: 'the temporal Dopp... ]]> Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:02:05 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12542791.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12542791.html The Endowment Effect: Why It’s Easy to Overvalue Your Stuff
A strange thing happens in the mind when you buy something. No matter what it is—a pair of jeans, a car or even a house—in that moment when an object becomes your property, it undergoes a transformation. Because you chose it and you associate it wit... ]]> Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:02:30 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12541827.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12541827.html “Is the Internet Good/Bad For You?” and Other Dumb Questions
Are we beginning to ask the right questions about the psychological effects of the Internet? Over the last few years we've been bombarded by articles and books about Facebook, social media and the Internet in general. The slant of these tends to go ... ]]> Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:02:19 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12538657.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12538657.html Mental Practice Makes Perfect
Surgeons do it. Tennis players do it. But do the rest of us undervalue the mental rehearsal of challenging activities? If you were to undergo brain surgery, would you care if the surgeon regularly carried out mental practice of the operation? Or, wo... ]]> Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:02:29 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12536142.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12536142.html Twitter: 7 Highly Effective Habits
New research on half-a-million tweets over 15 months reveals the factors which increase follower-count. If you want more Twitter followers, new research provides some easy pointers to the right type of tweeting. This is the first study to examine wh... ]]> Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:02:24 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12535504.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12535504.html The Surprising Power of an Emotional ‘Memory Palace’
Can a 'memory palace' help you recall happier times, even when life is hard? "I'm going to my happy place!" Saying this in moments of stress has become a rather tired joke. And the joke conceals the fact that having a so-called 'happy place', or eve... ]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:02:10 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12534924.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12534924.html How to Create Brand New Solutions From Old Objects and Ideas
Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle are all there in front of you, but you just can't put them together. What psychologists call 'functional fixedness' is a common creativity-blocker. It's when thinking about an object or idea gets stuck in a rut. It... ]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12534393.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12534393.html Can People’s Personalities Change?
Has one of the oldest questions about personality been answered? For many years personality psychologists gave the same answer as any pessimist: no, people's personalities don't change. This was even more true once they got to 30-years-old. By that ... ]]> Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:02:20 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12532910.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12532910.html The Illusion of Control: Are There Benefits to Being Self-Deluded?
Do people always overestimate how much they control their lives? The 'illusion of control' is this: people tend to overestimate their perceived control over events in their lives. It's well documented and has been tested over-and-over in lots of dif... ]]> Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:02:05 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12530988.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12530988.html Reconstructing the Past: How Recalling Memories Alters Them
The first experiment to show the enhancing and distorting effect of recall. Recently the neurologist and author Oliver Sacks recalled a vivid childhood memory, recounted in his autobiography, Uncle Tungsten. During WWII he lived in London during the... ]]> Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12528495.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12528495.html The Single Most Effective Method for Influencing People Fast
Works like magic: a little-known influence technique that out-guns the usual suspects. Influence techniques vary considerably in how effective, ethical and easy to perform they are. At the easy, more ethical end of the spectrum, is affirming someone... ]]> Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12527817.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12527817.html Cognitive Biases: Why We Make Irrational Decisions
Explore some classic biases in everyday thinking—and how to avoid them. Over the decades psychologists have discovered all kinds of biases in how we think. Some tell us why the incompetent don't know they're incompetent, others why it's difficult to... ]]> Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:02:05 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12527174.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12527174.html Here’s a Quick Way to Fire Up Your Motivation
Why backup plans (sometimes) motivate, even if you never use them. Before reading a new article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I never thought of a backup plan as something that might be motivating in itself. Surely all the ben... ]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12526555.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12526555.html The Brainstorming Tweak: How to Boost Creativity in Groups
Traditional brainstorming is inefficient but the process can be tweaked to produce more high quality ideas. For many years brainstorming has been a very popular way for groups to generate new ideas, especially in business. This is despite the fact t... ]]> Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:02:04 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12525505.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12525505.html How to Recapture the Simple Pleasures of Childhood
Study backs (brief) abstinence as a path to more pleasure from routine activities. One of the great things about being a regular unspoiled kid is that you hardly have any money. While all your basic needs as a human being are met—food, shelter and s... ]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12524965.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12524965.html The One (Really Easy) Persuasion Technique Everyone Should Know
It's supported by 42 studies on 22,000 people and it's the easiest, most practical persuasion technique available. I'll admit it. A few of the techniques for persuasion I've covered here on PsyBlog have been a little outlandish and impractical. Thin... ]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12523977.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12523977.html How to Give The Slip to Persistent Negative Thoughts
New evidence supports a hundred-year-old technique for tackling unwanted thoughts. Have you ever said a word over and over again until it lost its meaning? It's a trick many discover in childhood which can provide the first inkling that words aren't... ]]> Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12523379.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12523379.html Food on the Mind: 20 Surprising Insights From Food Psychology
When low-fat foods are bad, why people eat tuna eyes and fried bat, America's dysfunctional relationship with food and more... We invest food with so much meaning, and rightly so: it changes our mood, it strengthens our relationships when we eat tog... ]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2013 06:02:10 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12521229.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12521229.html Sway: The Psychology of Indecision
Undecided? Moving from side-to-side may be a sign that we're working through the decision. A lot of stuff in life provokes that feeling of ambivalence where we can't quite decide which way to go. Both sides of an argument are persuasive or both plan... ]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:02:10 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12516311.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12516311.html Can Doodling Improve Memory and Concentration?
An experiment suggests doodling may be more than just a pleasant waste of time and paper. All sorts of claims have been made for the power of doodling: from it being an entertaining or relaxing activity, right through to it aiding creativity, or eve... ]]> Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12515160.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12515160.html Boredom Explained (in under 300 words)
What is the best psychological strategy to avoid boredom? There are these weird people who never seem to get bored. "Oh!" say the chronically interested and engaged, "What a fascinating and exciting world we live in. How wonderful it is to be alive.... ]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:02:05 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12511346.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12511346.html Can You Be Addicted to Facebook or is it Just a Bad Habit?
Six questions that indicate when a Facebook habit (or any other habit) is getting out of control. From my new book: "We don't know her name, but her problem illustrates a new fear. According to a short case report in an academic journal, a 24-year-o... ]]> Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12509341.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12509341.html How to Stop Biting Your Nails
Up to 50% of adults habitually bite their nails, so how can it be changed? The bad habit of nail-biting is much more common than you might think. Some studies have found about one-quarter of children bite their nails habitually (Ghanizadeh & She... ]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12507396.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12507396.html Get the First Chapter of ‘Making Habits, Breaking Habits’ for Free
Extract: This book started with an apparently simple question that seemed to have a simple answer: How long does it take to form a new habit? Say you want to go to the gym regularly, eat more fruit, learn a new language, make new friends, practice a... ]]> Mon, 31 Dec 2012 22:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12504490.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12504490.html 10 Step Guide for Making Your New Year’s Resolutions
Are you tortoise or hare? For New Year's resolutions it pays to go slow and make sure you get there. One of the main reasons that New Year's resolutions are so often forgotten before January is out is that they frequently require habit change. And h... ]]> Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:02:27 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12499113.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12499113.html PsyBlog’s 10 Most Popular Psychological Insights From 2012
How the mind works, the dark side of creativity and how to be a great leader: these and more... Here's my review of the psychological insights covered here on PsyBlog in 2012 that have proved most popular with you, the readers. 1. How the mind works... ]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12497334.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12497334.html Making Habits, Breaking Habits: How to Make Changes that Stick
New book about habits forthcoming from PsyBlog's author, Jeremy Dean. I'm very pleased to announce that I have a new book coming out in a few weeks time called Making Habits, Breaking Habits: How to Make Changes that Stick. The book will be publishe... ]]> Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:02:28 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12491809.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12491809.html Why People Believe Weird Things and 8 Ways to Change Their Minds
Some people believe all kinds of weird stuff including... ...no, actually, for a very good psychological reason I'm not going to repeat any of it here. Let's just say that some people believe weird stuff and leave it at that. It turns out that just ... ]]> Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12485244.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12485244.html Mind Pops: Memories That Come From Nowhere
Cheese grater. Why do odd images suddenly pop into your head for no reason? You're walking down the street, just like any other day, when suddenly a memory pops into your head from years ago. It's about a person you haven't thought of for years. Jus... ]]> Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:02:17 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12474096.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12474096.html How Memory Works: 10 Things Most People Get Wrong
"If we remembered everything we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing." ~William James It's often said that a person is the sum of their memories. Your experience is what makes you who you are. Memory, then, shapes the v... ]]> Fri, 26 Oct 2012 01:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12471328.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12471328.html How Does The Cleanliness of Money Affect Our Spending?
New study shows when dirty money is more likely to stay in your pocket. With the rise of credit cards, PayPal and other ways of transferring cash electronically, real cash-money is in decline. Like CDs and books before it, the folding stuff looks ce... ]]> Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12466802.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12466802.html Happy Habits: How to Fix Bad Moods
Which do you prefer to get first: the good news or the bad news? "Imagine that you have two letters in your mailbox. One notifies you that you were caught on camera speeding and must pay a fine. Another is a nice handwritten letter from your best fr... ]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:02:08 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12462790.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12462790.html The Illusion of Transparency
Other people can't read your mental state as well as you think. Most people hate public speaking. The very idea starts the palms sweating and the stomach churning. It makes sense: with everyone's eyes on you, the potential for embarrassment is huge.... ]]> Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12458835.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12458835.html 8 Ways to Defeat Persistent Unwanted Thoughts
Research shows that thought suppression doesn't work, so how can you cast out irritating repetitive thoughts? It's one of the irritations of having a mind that sometimes bad thoughts get stuck going around in it. It could be a mistake at work, money... ]]> Thu, 20 Sep 2012 01:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12450883.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12450883.html A Counter-Intuitive Remedy to Feeling Short of Time
Psychological research shows that, paradoxically, giving away your time can make you feel you have more of it. Have you got enough time for everything you want to do? If this survey is correct then about half of us are 'time-poor', as the expression... ]]> Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12445829.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12445829.html The Surprising Motivational Power of Self-Compassion
We all make mistakes, but should you beat yourself up or show a little mercy? We all have a kind of virtual policeman living inside us. Amongst other things he's the guy that helps us work towards our goals, whether personal or professional. When th... ]]> Tue, 28 Aug 2012 17:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12437385.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12437385.html Memory Enhanced by a Simple Break After Reading
If you find it difficult to remember what you've read, try giving the memory time to consolidate. I have a great memory for books I've read on trains. I always thought this had something to do with the nature of train travel: the rocking of the carr... ]]> Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12432572.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12432572.html How TV Can Boost Your Self-Control
"Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover."  ~Homer Simpson After a long hard day's work it feels good to flop down and enjoy your favourite TV show. Is that so wrong? Or should we be doing something more challenging or creative with our time? Perh... ]]> Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:02:06 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12424641.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12424641.html The Availability Bias: Why People Buy Lottery Tickets
Shark attacks, murders and lottery wins: vivid events are more likely to affect judgement. If people really understood their chances of winning the lottery, they would never buy a ticket. Yet tickets are bought so frequently that well-run lotteries ... ]]> Fri, 27 Jul 2012 03:02:07 GMT http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12419092.html http://www.apsense.com/news/1073-12419092.html Why Society Doesn’t Change: The System Justification Bias
"Society's tendency is to maintain what has been. Rebellion is only an occasional reaction to suffering in human history: we have infinitely more instances of forbearance to exploitation, and submission to authority, than we have examples of revolt... ]]>