Human Behavior – Page 11

Analysis, brains, Human Behavior, Music, Science & Technology News

Study finds listening to music has negative impact on creativity

March 4, 2019

A new study has found that listening to music may have a negative impact on creativity. This is contrary to the popular idea that music and creativity often go hand in hand. According to the researchers, the negative impact was found even in cases where the music had a positive impact on mood and was liked by the person listening to it. However, background noise didn’t have the same effect.

Music is often used for background noise while studying and as a way to help increase someone’s creativity while working on a project. The psychologists behind a new study have found this routine may have the opposite effect, actively impairing — rather than boosting — the individual’s creativity. The findings were based on three experiments.

Continue reading… “Study finds listening to music has negative impact on creativity”

Analysis, Employment, Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Millennial life: How young adulthood today compares with prior generations

February 26, 2019

Over the past 50 years – from the Silent Generation’s young adulthood to that of Millennials today – the United States has undergone large cultural and societal shifts. Now that the youngest Millennials are adults, how do they compare with those who were their age in the generations that came before them?

In general, they’re better educated – a factor tied to employment and financial well-being – but there is a sharp divide between the economic fortunes of those who have a college education and those who don’t.

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Future, Human Behavior, Life Skills, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

Should we retire ‘Retirement’?

February 21, 2019

As our lives have been getting longer and healthier – compared to prior generations – some people advocate doing away with the concept of retirement altogether. In support of that idea, increasing numbers of workers report in surveys that they expect never to retire, and not just because they can’t afford to but often because they like the idea of continuing to work.

While I celebrate people who are trying to break stereotypes, I respectfully disagree with those who advocate eliminating the concept of retirement altogether. Let’s take a look at recent trends that might have inspired the “no retirement” point-of-view and consider an alternative perspective.

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App, Dating, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Online dating isn’t a game. It’s literally changing humanity.

February 20, 2019

Global Thermonuclear War has nothing on Tinder.

In our Love App-tually series, Mashable shines a light into the foggy world of online dating. After all, it’s still cuffing season.

The swipe is about as casual a gesture as it gets.

On Tinder, Bumble and every copycat dating app, choices are made in the blink of an eye. You’re not making definitive decisions about this stream full of faces; it’s more a question “could this person be hot if we match, if they have something interesting to say, if they’re not a creep and we’re a few drinks in?”

You feel so far removed from the process of dating at this stage, let alone a relationship, that swiping is simply a game. (Indeed, the makers of the mobile medieval royalty RPG Reigns intended its simple left-right controls as a Tinder homage.) You’re like Matthew Broderick at the start of the 1983 movie War Games — enamored with technology’s possibilities, gleefully playing around.

When you swipe, the future of the human race is quite literally at your fingertips.

Continue reading… “Online dating isn’t a game. It’s literally changing humanity.”

Human Behavior, Photo Perspectives, Science & Technology News, Social Media

A photographer asked teenagers to edit their photos until they thought they looked ‘social media ready,’ and the results are shocking

February 13, 2019

“Selfie Harm” by Rankin shows how quick and easy it is to transform your appearance for social media. Rankin

A new photo series shows the lengths some people go to to edit their photos for Instagram.
The project, by renowned photographer Rankin, asked 15 British teenagers to take five minutes editing their appearances to make them “social media-ready.”
Most of them made their noses narrower, slimmed their faces, edited out their freckles, enlarged their eyes and lips, and added makeup.
Rankin says the project highlights that “we are living in a world of FOMO, sadness, increased anxiety, and Snapchat dysmorphia.”

Continue reading… “A photographer asked teenagers to edit their photos until they thought they looked ‘social media ready,’ and the results are shocking”

2019 Predictions, City Planning, Human Behavior

New projection : World population will level off, then fall forever

February 12, 2019

The conventional wisdom is that the global population is hurtling toward catastrophe — some project it could hit a staggering 11 billion by the year 2100.

But a new book examines the data and comes to a radically different conclusion: instead of continuing to rise, the population will level out in about 30 years — and then start to decline, possibly forever.

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Automobiles, Electric Automobile, Electric Vehicles, Human Behavior, Transportation

The 4 lingering obstacles to electric vehicle adoption (and what might overcome them)

February 8, 2019

Electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity, though not as quickly as electricity providers would like. EVs represented only 2.4 percent of sales in the U.S. in August, according to Auto Alliance, and a Chinese study published that month found that only 18 percent of motorists in China are willing to consider an EV.

So one of Exelon’s internal startups has set out to identify and hurdle the barriers to EV adoption.

“We’ve done a lot of testing and experimentation in this space,” said Caroline Quazzo, a manager for EZ-EV, an Exelon subsidiary that offers software and services to utilities to help them promote EV adoption. The utilities stand to gain from supplying the fuel.

As with the 5 obstacles to selling a solar home, most of Quazzo’s obstacles are rooted in ignorance (my word, not hers). At the Smart Cities Symposium in Chicago last week, Quazzo described the following obstacles:

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China, government, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

China reportedly made an app to show people if they’re standing near someone in debt — a new part of its intrusive ‘social credit’ policy

January 31, 2019

A province in northern China developed an app to tell users whether they are within a 500-meter radius of someone in debt, state media said.

It’s called a “map of deadbeat debtors,” the China Daily state-run newspaper reported.
It hopes to get citizens to monitor the so-called debtors and report them to authorities if they seem “capable of paying their debts.”

It’s part of China’s invasive “social credit” system, designed to judge a person’s trustworthiness. People have already been punished by it.

Continue reading… “China reportedly made an app to show people if they’re standing near someone in debt — a new part of its intrusive ‘social credit’ policy”

Architecture, Housing, Human Behavior

Designing homes that appeal to Millenials

January 22, 2019

Millennials are more accustomed to an apartment lifestyle than previous generations, spending time in rented properties before making the decision to own a home of their own. In fact, young adults are buying homes an average of five years later in life than they did a decade ago. As a result, their idea of a dream home is different than it was for those purchasing homes before them.

Tapping into the kind of layout and design that appeals to a young homebuyer is a measure of success for architects, builders and developers that want to cater to the current market. Considering the number of young people relocating from an apartment, it’s critical to design a home they’re comfortable in and that gives them a setting they’re familiar with. By pulling elements from multi-family designs and studying ways to apply them to duplexes, townhomes and even single-family houses, the apartment effect can become part of the design and provide young homebuyers with the lifestyle they’re seeking in smaller, more attainably priced homes.

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Analysis, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

America’s most & least trusted professions

January 20, 2019

When it comes to honesty in the workplace, some professions have a better reputation than others. For example, some people might question a doctor’s honesty or ethics when it comes to a diagnosis or blame the salesperson when a newly purchased used car breaks down after 20 miles on the road. That begs the question: what professions do American trust the most and the least today? Gallup delved into the issue and released an interesting poll about honesty and ethical standards in the workplace in late December. Once again, nurses are top of the honesty league and they have been there for 17 years in succession.

Continue reading… “America’s most & least trusted professions”

Employment, Human Behavior, Latest Trend

The crazy unfortunate rise of ‘Vacation Shaming’

January 20, 2019

Hope this nice couple isn’t feeling too guilty about taking their vacation.

About a month ago I got a call from a journalist named Leslie Stevens-Huffman wanting to interview me about vacations and management. She’d noticed I’d written on the subject before (“Why America Has Become ‘The No-Vacation Nation'”) and that I’d been critical that large numbers of U.S. employees (47% in one survey) were not using all their vacation time.

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Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Parenting

Only two US states are making enough babies to maintain their populations

January 15, 2019

But some demographers think it’s a good thing.

Populations of humans around the world are generally on the rise, but the United States is an exception. The US birth rate is at a historic low, and on Thursday, the CDC reported that the fertility rate has plunged in tandem with it. As it stands, there are only two states in the country where there are enough babies being born to keep the population steady.

“There are likely a number of factors behind the drop, including the decline in the birth rates to women under 30 years of age over that last 10 years, particularly the decline in birth rates for teens.”

Continue reading… “Only two US states are making enough babies to maintain their populations”