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.
Replying just 5 to 10 minutes later sharply cuts a freelancer’s chance of getting hired
In 11.66 million Fiverr transactions, longer reply delays meant a lower chance of winning the contract, and even 5 to 10 minute delays dramatically reduced hiring; experiments with 3,603 people showed fast replies signal future responsiveness.
Nostalgia boosts connection and meaning across 28 countries, but its triggers differ
A study of 2,606 young adults in 28 countries and Hong Kong found that recalling a nostalgic memory increased social connectedness, self-continuity and meaning in life across cultures, while its triggers varied with national wealth and climate.
Where your eyes wander can identify you, in up to 63% of cases
Gaze patterns across 700 photos identified individuals 52% to 63% of the time, against 1% to 2% by chance, and people whose gaze on social scenes was more distinctive reported fewer autistic traits.
China’s tutoring ban raised parents’ plans for more children by 7 to 8%
Surveys of Chinese parents show the 2021 ban on for-profit private tutoring raised expected total fertility by 7 to 8%, mainly because parents saw less educational competition. Birth rates also fell less in cities hit harder by the ban.
ChatGPT’s jokes beat up to 87% of human writers and matched The Onion in blind ratings
In blind tests, raters found ChatGPT 3.5’s jokes funnier than those of 63% to 87% of laypeople, and its satirical headlines scored 2.37 out of 6 against 2.49 for real Onion headlines, a gap too small to be significant.
Repeating a claim makes the person who said it seem more credible too
Across four preregistered experiments with 770 participants, people rated sources as more credible when their statements had been repeated, and that boost carried over to new statements from the same sources.
Denser languages speed up talk but keep conversations on narrower ground
Across about 1,000 languages, those that pack more information into each word were spoken faster, and their conversations covered a conceptually narrower range of topics, discussed in greater depth.
Hard thinking barely raises the brain’s energy bill, review finds
A review of brain imaging and whole-body measurements in mammals finds that solving cognitive tasks usually adds little or nothing to overall energy use, because keeping the resting brain running is already about as costly.