recent research

Catching up with Kevin Lewis picks:

• Showing a picture makes any fact seem more truthy. (Eryn Newman)
• Seeing red makes us more aggressive bidders and negotiators. (Rajesh Bagchi)
• The endowment effect (the increased value we give to things we possess) is usually explained by "loss aversion." But it could be we value items more once we identify them with ourselves. (Sara Dommer)
• One way to feel like we have more time: give time away. (Cassie Mogilner)
• A one time incentive to give blood can make life-long blood donors. (Nicola Lacetera)
• Feeling powerful: it accentuates your willingness - or unwillingness - to help others, depending on your initial inclination. (Kenneth DeMarree)
• Reflecting on how much we've received doesn't make us more generous, but thinking about how much we've given does. (Adam Grant)
• Not only do we give more money to lenders who look trustworthy, we're pretty good at telling who, indeed, is trustworthy. (Jefferson Duarte)
• In trust games, giving a full history of players' past actions doesn't instill as much trust as giving a little info an adding in some competition. (Steffen Huck)
• Two-year-olds demonstrating that humans are a nice species. (Robert Hephach)
• Ten-year-olds showing how our nice instincts get enhanced when made public. (Daniel Houser)
• When it comes to cooperation game, the type of network we're playing within doesn't matter - but whether our neighbors cooperated or not in the previous round does. (Carlos Gracia-Lazara)
• Red: the universal color of love. (Andrew Elliot) And tipping. (Nicolas Gueguen)
• When our ideas about morality and facts conflict, we change the facts. (Brittany Liu)
• At least when it comes to game theory games, chimps are better strategists than humans. (Christopher Flynn Martin)
• Money - via its ability to remind us of our power and resources - may also make us more abstract thinkers. (Jochim Hansen)
• And when we're feeling powerful we respond better to abstract arguments. (Echo Wen Wan)
• We seek evidence to support our - even arbitrary - predictions, because it feels so good to be right. (Aaron Scherer)
• We're not completely bull-headed; presenting people with conflicting views makes them less assured of their original views. (Erin Beatty)
• Conservatives might not dislike blacks and gays because they're black and gay - but because they're liberal. (John R. Chambers)
• When it comes to presidential approval, charisma counts. (James Beck)
• Explaining why ruralites seem to vote against their economic interests: it's a class consciousness thing. (Katherine Cramer Walsh)
• A theory of political parties where interest groups - not party elites - call the shots. (Kathleen Bawn)
• And one where issues - not ideology - are at the root of polarization. (Ashley Jochim)
• Is simple rhetoric better at winning elections than complex rhetoric? The answer is not simple. (Lucian Gideon Conway)
• The poor's views are represented less in the GOP, but more so in the Democratic party. In the end, the poor are just as well represented as the rich. (Eric Bunner)
• The power of metaphor in politics. (Todd Hartman)