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You've had a hard day at work and now it's couch potato time.  You turn on the TV and there's that commercial for that car you've been eyeing for some time. You're really into the show but wait, here comes that commercial again.  And you know what?  The more you focus on it, the more you want it, at least, according to a new study, as reported by newswise.com. The relationship between desire and attention was long thought to only work in one direction: When a person desires something, they focus their attention on it.  Now, new research reveals this relationship works the other way, too: increasing a person’s focus on a desirable object makes them want the object even more—a finding with important implications for marketers and clinicians seeking to influence behavior. “People will block out distraction and narrow their attention on something they want,” says Anne Kotynski, author of the study and a PhD student in psychological sciences at Case Western Re...

Do you want to be cool ? If you're reading this, you're probably not! Newswise.com says c oolness, by its nature, is ephemeral, elusive and ever-evolving. In the marketplace, coolness excites consumers, steers purchase behaviors and dictates trends. Coolness is something wanted by most and valued by consumers and marketers alike, but understood by few. But a new study says that coolness is a merger of autonomy, authenticity, attitude, and a fourth trait, association, which is helpful but not essential, according to the web site. In the study, autonomy referred to lack of conformity, unconventionality, rebellion, individuality and independence. In other words, people or brands high in autonomy are those who do their own thing, which often goes against the expectations of others. It's important to note that a “cool” product does not necessarily mean a “good” product, and having a cool product, or marketing a product as it will not work for every product categ...

Do you find it hard to make d ecisions ? I don't.  I make them quickly.  But sometimes, I regret them. Now a new study says penny-wise, pound-foolish ones are explained by neurons' firing in our brains, according to newswise.com. Spending decisions are influenced by adaptation in neural circuits. Say what? It's all trying to say that the  study suggests that being penny wise and pound foolish is not so much a failure of judgment as it is a function of how our brains tally the value of objects that vary widely in worth. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that when monkeys are faced with a choice between two options, the firing of neurons activated in the brain adjusts to reflect the enormity of the decision. Such an approach would explain why the same person can see 20 cents as a lot one moment and $5,000 as a little the next, the researchers said. “Everybody recognizes this behavior, because everybody does ...

This will make my son happy. A new study says that a virtual soccer management game   yields real-life lessons in human behavior, according to newswise.com. A study using a soccer management game to explore more than a half-million participants' monetary choices confirmed it's possible to use a virtual world to mimic real-world behavior on a grand scale, the web site reports. The results open the door to the predictive use of game worlds in policymaking, commercial and other real-life applications, newswise.com quotes co-author  Edward Castronova , a professor in  The Media School  at Indiana University. The study  confirmed the viability of conducting controlled research using "big data" on a scale many times larger than the typical social science experiment. "Our work shows that huge social experiments with game worlds and their thousands of players are not only feasible but also relevant for real-world society," Castronova reports. "We could...

I suppose it makes sense that getting the support of your supervisor would make you a better worker. But a new study says that it's critical to employee well-being and workforce readiness, according to newswise.com. Also, not surprisingly, fewer women than men report opportunities to develop skills needed for career growth. Nearly half of American workers are concerned about the changing nature of work, and although most report that they have the skills they need to perform their current job well, those without supervisor support for career development are more likely to distrust their employer and plan on leaving within the next year, according to a new survey released by the American Psychological Association, newswise.com reports. “Employee growth and development is a key element of a psychologically healthy workplace, but it’s often overlooked in employers’ workplace well-being efforts,” says David Ballard, PsyD, MBA, head of APA’s Center for Organizational Excellenc...

Having trouble getting your team to work well together?  Maybe, call a friend. A new study has found that teams work better with a little help from your friends, according to newswise.com. Workplace teams are better when they include your friends.  Researchers analyzed the results of 26 different studies and found that teams composed of friends performed better on some tasks than groups of acquaintances or strangers. Teams with friends were particularly effective when the groups were larger and when their focus was on maximizing output. “Working with friends is not just something that makes us feel good – it can actually produce better results,” says  Robert Lount , co-author of the study and associate professor of  management and human resources  at The Ohio State University’s  Fisher College of Business , at newswise.com. The researchers analyzed studies about teams that used participants with established friendships and that included teams ...

Did you know that relying on social media for news can . . .cause you more stress? Exposure to high rates of conflicting information, which you find on social media, during an emergency is linked to increased levels of stress, and those who rely on text messages or social media reports from unofficial sources are more frequently exposed to rumors and experience greater distress, according to research led by the University of California, Irvine, newswise.com reports.  “During a crisis situation, like a school shooting or lock-down, people often seek to stay informed about what’s happening. However, when announcements and updates from official channels are lacking or irregular, there’s a high risk that rumors will fill the void,” says principal investigator Roxane Cohen Silver, UCI professor of psychology & social behavior. “We wanted to explore how people coped with ambiguity during a campus lockdown and how a communications vacuum could lead to rumor generation, rumor tran...