The 2009 annual survey on absenteeism done by the Web site CareerBuilder found that 34% of workers played hooky. Among those, 30% wanted to relax; 22% wanted to sleep; and 9% wanted to skip a meeting, spend time working on an overdue project or avoid an angry boss or colleague. When it comes to employers, 31% checked up on employees who called in sick and 18% fired workers who missed work without a legitimate reason. The good news is that 65% of employers thought a mental health day was a legitimate reason. Maybe the other 35% of employers need a mental health day.
Scientists at the University of British Columbia studied more than 600 people as they performed tasks on computers. When the screen’s background was red, people did up to 31% better at tasks like proofreading. When the background was blue, they did better at tasks like designing a child’s toy. Because we associate red with danger and mistakes, it leads to avoidance motivation. Red makes us more cautious and we focus on details. Because blue encourages approach motivation, we relax and become more open to new ideas and creative solutions. Obviously, we should lead more colorful lives.
In a study done at Ohio State University participants were given an inexpensive coffee mug to hold for either 10 or 30 seconds. Then they were asked to bid on the mug in an auction. On average, the people who held the mug longer bid more for it. In fact, those who held the mug for 30 seconds bid more than the known retail price 57% of the time. It seems that just touching an object can make people feel it is theirs and they are willing to go to greater lengths to keep it. That’s a touching thought for retailers.
Researchers at Indiana University showed videos of 24 German speed dates to volunteers and asked if they could tell if the couples were interested in each other. The volunteers’ responses were compared to those of the speed daters. Although both the male and female volunteers were able to gauge the men’s interest in the women, they weren’t able to gauge the women’s interest in the men. According to the researchers, the biological drive behind dating for women is to find an optimal mate for reproduction. Women act elusive to get more information – which makes speed dating a kind of infotainment.
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