An analysis of 38 million US obituaries found tradition appears in 80% and benevolence in 76%, while power and stimulation are rare; men are remembered more for achievement and power, women for benevolence, and benevolence has not recovered since COVID-19.
An analysis of 20 million research papers and 4 million patents over half a century found that teams spread across cities are consistently less likely to produce disruptive discoveries, because distant members rarely conceive ideas together.
Across eight studies with 6,147 participants, people who moved more often, and residents of places with heavy population outflow, scored higher on the Dark Triad traits. A mobile mindset nudged people toward those traits, and people high in them preferred a mobile life.
Societies exposed to more total solar eclipses were denser and more technologically complex, and among 150,260 historical figures, those who could see a total eclipse between ages 5 and 15 were about 4% to 7% more likely to work in science.
In 2,095 real applications in China, applicants whose looks and university prestige matched got 11.7% callbacks versus 6.8% for mismatched ones, and a survey of 2,020 US hiring staff showed the same pattern.
Across 9,248 Airbnb hosts in seven US cities, a smile in the host's profile photo raised bookings by 3.5% on average, worth about $673 a year for a typical property. The boost was biggest for male hosts, new hosts and riskier neighbourhoods.
In nine experiments, describing a missed goal as "didn't make time" rather than "didn't have time" made people feel more in control of their time, which raised their motivation to reengage and improved their views of goal-related products.
Across three studies, being good at perceiving negative emotions at work worsened attitudes toward coworkers and jobs and increased withdrawal, through emotional contagion. Skill at perceiving positive emotions brought no measurable benefit.
Across 10 studies with 4,110 US adults, about 75% reported concealing an infectious illness from others, mostly for social or work reasons, and people who were actually sick concealed it regardless of how harmful it was.
Surveys of more than 6,600 people in up to 17 countries, plus a daily diary study, found that members of individualist cultures were more motivated to make others feel better, more likely to express care, and less likely to tell others to suppress emotions.