behaviour patterns

If I had a dollar for every recent book about how weird the human brain is and how its irrational behavior manifests itself, I wouldn’t be a millionaire, but I could buy a nice lunch somewhere.

Developmental psychologists love to remind us that the frontal lobe isn’t fully developed until humans are in their mid-20s. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for our ability to assess the consequences of our decisions, our ability to understand how what we do will play out into the future. This is often used to explain why teens (and, increasingly, college-aged people) lack the cognitive ability to be wise.

Your brain gets tired, and one fatiguing activity is making choices. Various studies show that as people make more decisions, their subsequent decisions are rushed or they don’t decide at all.

A few weeks ago I saw economist and author Jeremy Rifkin speak on his new book The Empathic Civilization at the RSA. It was a sweeping, provocative but affecting discourse on the nature of empathy.

There’s a neat article by Reuters discussing how workers’ brains and management practices often work at cross-purposes. They cite, among others, Charles Jacobs, author of the book “Management Rewired,” recently reviewed here. An excerpt of the Reuters piece:

by: Roger Dooley

Is it better to know your stuff, or act like you do? If you are in the business of convincing other people, whether as a consultant, salesperson, team member, or almost any other position that requires others to believe you, it pays to be confident. Don Moore from Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Behavioral Decision Research has published new research showing that confidence even trumps past accuracy in earning the trust of others.

by: Jonathan Salem Baskin

For those of you mapping your next branding campaign based on the insights of fMRI imaging, you better make sure that the flashes you're seeing aren't the symptoms of hay fever.

Only you can't.

by: David Armano

Next week I am giving a guest lecture at the Parsons School of Design, specifically an innovation course being taught by BusinessWeek's Bruce Nussbaum. I've been fortunate to establish a relationship with Bruce over the years—ironically all initiated and somewhat sustained by social networks.

by: Roger Dooley

by: Roger Dooley

While our behavior is clearly influenced by our surroundings - most of us act differently in a church vs. a nightclub - new research shows that very subtle differences can have a significant behavioral impact. Specifically, new research shows that environments with “disorder” cues cause people to be less likely to conform to social norms.