Stock markets tend to rise in the week after a blockbuster movie opens
Blockbuster movie releases were followed by significantly higher US stock market returns the next week, along with lower expected volatility and risk aversion, and the pattern also appeared in international markets.
Environmental activists score higher on Machiavellianism and narcissism, survey finds
In a survey of 839 employed adults in Germany, environmental activism was positively linked to Machiavellianism, narcissism, antihierarchical aggression and anticonventionalism, and most of these links held after controlling for the Big Five traits and political orientation.
Quarterly reporting raised hospital profits, and heart failure deaths rose 8%
After Massachusetts required quarterly financial reports in 2011, its hospitals raised margins by about one point by cutting paid staff 7.2% and equipment, while heart failure and pneumonia deaths each rose about 8% and readmissions climbed.
Americans most sure of their political smarts are the quickest to shun and penalize the other side
In a 2020 survey of 1,000 Americans, the most politically self-confident were nearly five times as likely to have blocked someone over politics (39% vs 8%). Low self-esteem, not high, went with more tolerance of partisan discrimination.
Old-fashioned fonts make products seem safer, even when shoppers are told they are not
Across seven studies, vintage typography made products from bikes to cosmetics seem safer, lifting brand attitudes, purchase intent and willingness to pay; with a vintage font, a product described as having unsafe ingredients was rated as safe as one with no safety information at all.
Readers rated ChatGPT’s advice above professional advice columnists, yet 77% still wanted a human
In two preregistered surveys of about 400 people each, ChatGPT’s answers to real advice-column dilemmas were judged more balanced, complete, empathetic and helpful than the columnists’ own, even at equal length, but most participants still preferred a human to answer their own problems.
Nonprofit hospitals spent $7.8 billion on consultants with no measurable gains
Nonprofit hospitals that hired management consultants paid $15.7 million on average, $7.8 billion in total from 2009 to 2023, yet 306 of them showed no significant change in revenue, margins, operations or patient outcomes against 513 matched hospitals.
A Batman on the Milan metro nearly doubled the share of riders giving up their seat
When a person dressed as Batman boarded a Milan metro car, passengers offered their seat to a seemingly pregnant woman 67% of the time, against 38% without him. Of those who helped while Batman was present, 44% said they had not seen him.
Twenty minutes into a task, our minds are wandering about half the time
Pooling raw data from 68 studies and more than 10,000 people, researchers found the odds of drifting off-task rose about 6% every minute, so that by the 20th minute people were off-task roughly 49% of the time.
