Latest Science News

An analysis of Final Jeopardy wagers from 1,669 recent episodes and 492 episodes from the 1980s found no sign that female contestants are more risk averse than male ones, in either era.

In four experiments, narcissistic job seekers rated postings full of "Rule-Bender" phrases such as "thinks outside the box" and "results-oriented" as a better fit, and professional recruiters reached for that language more for high-growth firms and when aggressive financial reporting would pay off.

Tracking tens of millions of Americans in census records from 1850 to 1940, economists found that 72% of the top 1% fell out of it within ten years, and 93% of grandchildren of top 1% grandfathers never reached it themselves.

Pooling 32 studies with 256 effect sizes, a meta-analysis found vacations have a large effect on employee well-being that fades more slowly than earlier work suggested; switching off from work and staying physically active helped most.

Using Facebook data, researchers found that boys who are relatively old for their school cohort make 11% more friends in high school, are 42% more likely to become class president, and as men have bigger networks and more often go into management and entrepreneurship.

Across four studies of 10,211 people, lower-class workers were less likely to negotiate pay and promotions. A fifth experiment with 1,133 HR professionals found an identical salary request made a lower-class candidate seem less cooperative than a higher-class one, hurting his hiring chances.

When brands adopt the nicknames customers give them, people see them as less powerful and value them less. Participants priced the same BMW $6,556 lower when it was called Beemer, and a Rolex nearly $4,900 lower as a Rollie.

In a field experiment with 10,718 job seekers, adding an autonomy pitch to a startup's recruiting email raised clicks from people without degrees by 69% but cut clicks from graduate degree holders by 25% and their applications by 35%.

579 Americans rated face photos of Hadza and Tsimane foragers. Their ratings of men tracked peer-rated hunting ability (r = 0.25), but their ratings of women ran opposite to peer-rated gathering skill.

In a taste-test experiment with 114 college students, people ate about 164 calories of chips and candy while watching a Netflix episode versus 132 undistracted. Using a smartphone made no significant difference to how much they ate.