Psychology
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360-Degree Feedback: When It Helps and When It Backfires
360 degree feedback improves performance only slightly on average, and it backfires when tied to pay or promotions. An I/O psychologist unpacks...
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Why You Keep Paying for Things You Should Quit
In 1985, Arkes and Blumer showed that $15 theatre tickets made people attend more plays than $8 ones — for the same...
Assessment Centres: Do They Work? What the Research Actually Says
Assessment centres predict job performance at .37 — among the strongest validities in selection science — but their dimension scores mostly reflect...
The Framing Effect: 7 Real Examples of How Wording Changes Decisions
How the same choice feels like a different decision depending on how it is worded: Tversky & Kahneman's 1981 Asian disease experiment...
The Four-Day Work Week: What the Trials Actually Found
Do four-day work weeks actually work? The UK trial of 61 companies found 71% less burnout and 92% of firms kept the...
Social Proof: When It Works and When It Backfires — What the Research Actually Shows
Does social proof actually work? Yes — the hotel towel experiment lifted reuse from 35.1% to 44.1%, and a one-star Yelp bump...
Personality Tests at Work: MBTI vs the Big Five — What Actually Predicts Job Performance
Do personality tests at work predict job performance? The Big Five predicts modestly (conscientiousness around .20), the MBTI not at all —...
Reciprocity in Marketing: The Science of Why Free Samples Sell
Why does a free mint lift restaurant tips by 21%? The psychology of reciprocity in marketing: Regan's 1971 Coke experiment, the mints...
Structured Interviews: Why They Beat Unstructured Ones (And What the Research Really Says)
Structured interviews predict job performance at .51 versus .38 for unstructured ones (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998) — and the gap survives even...
Loss Aversion in Marketing: Why the Fear of Losing Sells More Than the Promise of Winning
Why do free trials convert so well? An I/O psychologist explains loss aversion in marketing: the 1979 prospect theory research, the famous...
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