PsychWorld

It is way too easy to trust experts without ever questioning them. In fact, according to the below talk by financial expert Noreena Hertz, when we listen to experts, the independent decision making part of our brain turns off. Although experts are great most of the time, too often, they make mistakes. After all, experts are humans. It is therefore in our interest to challenge and even disagree with them.

Over the past few years in the working world, I have met a lot of people who are just miserable at their job. Most of the time, this is a result of having a really bad manager, which is generally a result of a higher level organizational flaw.

Most of these unsatisfied people continue to stay at their job, day in and day out, as it keeps eating away at their mental health. I had one manager tell me I should keep a job I don’t particularly like just so I can earn money to do stuff I do like during my free time. However, considering I spent way over 8 hours a day at this job, and sometimes weekends, I didn’t think that was a fair trade-off. Now, in a surprising new research study, scientists show that, income nonwithstanding, an unstable thanksless job takes as much or more toll on your mental health as having no job at all.

In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell points out that CEOs are not only mostly white men, they are tall white men.

“I found that on average CEOs were just a shade under six feet. Given that the average American male is 5’9″ that means that CEOs, as a group, have about three inches on the rest of their sex. But this statistic actually understates matters. In the U.S. population, about 14.5 percent of all men are six feet or over. Among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, that number is 58 percent. Even more strikingly, in the general American population, 3.9 percent of adult men are 6’2″ or taller. Among my CEO sample, 30 percent were 6’2″ or taller,” writes Gladwell.

So what makes us bow to these tall men? According to new research from Harvard University, it is something we’re born with!

Drinking coffee in a stressful meeting has become the standard of the American business. But is that such a good idea? It is now time to re-consider coffee if you’re a man and add it to the meeting mix if you’re a woman according to some surprising research from the University of Bristol.

It’s a known fact that only a minority of today’s world leaders are women. Sheryl Sandberg is one of these leaders. Sandberg left Google in 2008, where she built and managed Google’s successful online sales and operations program, to join Facebook as the Chief Operating Officer. Before that, Sandberg served as an economist for the World Bank and Chief of Staff at the US Treasury Department.  On top of that, Sandberg is juggling the tough job of being a mom to two small kids. What is her secret to success? Check out the below TED talk as Sandberg gives advise to the next generation of female leaders.

As the “glass ceiling” continues to disappear with women increasingly holding traditionally male jobs such as CEOs, Police Chiefs, and Politicians, while some men become nurses, nannys, or Presidents of Women’s Colleges, our traditional mindsets continue to put these revolutionary individuals in danger of falling off the “glass cliff” once in a position of power according to new research published by the Association for Psychological Science.

As you continue on your journey of finding perfect holiday gifts for your family and friends (and let’s be honest, yourself too of course), keep in mind that marketers will use psychological tactics to get you to buy their product. The most obvious factor that attracts us to an object is color. Check out the amazing infographic below from KISSmetrics on how colors affect purchases.

Where do you go when you really really need to get work done? Chances are, it’s not the office. Companies spend thousands of dollars each year to make sure all employees gather together to work. However, an environment full of interruptions from co-workers, manager, and meetings actually decreases employee productivity. Watch the TED talk below as work productivity expert Jason Fried discusses the office environment.

Brands such as Coca-Cola and Lululemon are popular with consumers not simply because of their products (who can say no to the corn-syrupy taste of Coca-Cola), but also because of their name according to research from the University of Alberta.

As Black Friday is quickly approaching, some shoppers will no doubt end up angry as they wait in lines and try to fight the crowd before they’re even awake. And the angrier they become, the more they will want what they came for according to research published by the Association for Psychological Science.