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Showing posts from May, 2017

Too Charismatic? It May Hurt You in the Workplace

You spell bind your audiences.  Everyone laughs at your jokes.  You've even received a standing ovation after a speech.  You have charisma . But is that a good -- or bad -- thing? A new study finds that charismatic leaders do better when they're somewhere in the middle -- not too charismatic but not lacking charisma altogether. Those with lower amounts (but not too low) of charisma are more effective, according to newswise.com. Too much may hinder a leader, the website reports, based on research published by the American Psychological Association. “Our findings suggest that organizations may want to consider selecting applicants with mid-range levels of charisma into leadership roles, instead of extremely charismatic leaders,” says Jasmine Vergauwe, a doctoral student at Ghent University and lead author of the study, published in the  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . Vergauwe studied subjects using a charismatic personality test, 56 questions, known a

New Boss in Town? Don't Panic. Well, Maybe.

Who hasn't panicked when there's a new boss? Big duh but whenever there's a change at work , employees tend to feel stress and distrust and may even want to quit. According to newswise.com, almost one-third of U.S. workers are cynical about organizational changes and management's motives. At a time of change and uncertainty across the country, American adults who have been affected by change at work are more likely to report chronic work stress, less likely to trust their employer and more likely to say they plan to leave the organization within the next year compared with those who haven’t been affected by organizational change, according to a survey released by the American Psychological Association, as reported by the website. Half of American workers say they have been affected by organizational changes in the last year, are currently being affected by organizational changes or expect to be affected by organizational changes in the next year, according to 

Like to Help Other People? Be Careful. It Could Be Hazardous to Your Health.

I tend to be a pretty empathetic sort.  In high school my parents used to always criticize me because I was forever taking the side of the forgotten (or bullied) kid and they wanted me in the popular crowd.  Guess they saw how that turned out. But now a new study is saying that walking a mile in another's shoes may wind up being hazardous to your health, according to newswise.com. Huh? A University of Buffalo researcher says it's how we arrive at empathy that counts. When it comes to empathy, the idiom that suggests “walking a mile in their shoes” turns out to be problematic advice, according to new research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. “That’s because there are two routes to empathy and one of them is more personally distressing and upsetting than the other,” says Michael Poulin, an associate professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Psychology and co-author of the study led by University of Pennsylvania psychologist Anneke

Stop Talking About the Election at Work: It's Hurting You

Admit it. You're sick to death of the election.  And yet people at work are still talking about it at the water cooler (and in the lunchroom and the bathrooms and walking in and out of the front doors).  Now a new study says it's hurting workers and causing stress. American workers are more likely to say they are feeling stressed and cynical because of political discussions at work now than before the 2016 presidential election, according to survey results released today by the American Psychological Association, according to newswise.com. The survey found that 26 percent of full-time and part-time employed adults said they felt tense or stressed out as a result of political discussions at work since the election, an increase from 17 percent in September 2016 when they were asked about political discussions at work during the election season. More than one in five (21 percent) said they have felt more cynical and negative during the workday because of political tal

Have a Good Memory? You May Tire of Your Experiences More Quickly

So you're smiling pretty smugly because you just remembered where you saw that woman who said hello to you.  But guess what?  Having a great memory may just make you tire of experiences more quickly. Huh? "People with larger working memory capacities actually encode information more deeply," newswise.com quotes Noelle Nelson, lead author of this research published in the Journal of Consumer Research . "They remember more details about the things they've experienced, and that leads them to feel like they've had it more. That feeling then leads to the large capacity people getting tired of experiences faster." The new study provides a window into how memory could be the key to becoming satiated, especially on products or habits they hope to quit, such as eating unhealthy foods. "Our findings suggest that if they can enhance their memory for the other times they've eaten these foods, they may feel satiated and then not seek out th

Want More Self-Control? It May Zap Your Confidence

I don't know about you but I hate it when I'm not in control, of the world or myself.  I arrive minutes early (it enrages my son) for just about anything, because I like to get the lay of the land.  And I check my email a thousand times (well, maybe more like a hundred) times before I go out because I don't want to miss anything. Now a new study says that wanting more self-control can actually hinder our efforts to obtain it.   Huh? Haven't we all been programmed to strive for self-control? Whether it's wanting that extra piece of chocolate cake (Donald Trump, I'm looking at you) or unwise spending habits (that's me), going after that extra bit of self-control can, well, maybe harm us rather than help us, in the end. Newswise.com reports that new research points out that, ironically, wanting to have more self-control could actually be an obstacle to achieving it (regardless of one’s actual level of self-control). The study, done by Bar-Ilan Universit