Neuroscience
Update - this paper has been retracted because of research fraud.
It sounds paradoxical, but people we find threatening and who make us feel bad about ourselves can have a positive effect on our performance. The key factor is whether or not their strengths match the challenge before us.
Dozens of students performed a verbal ability test after reading one of four versions of a passage about a prize-winning student called Hans. Hans was portrayed as either younger or older than the participants – the younger version was intended to be more demoralising (and pilot work confirmed a younger Hans was indeed perceived as more threatening). Secondly, Hans was said to have been awarded his prestigious prize either for his astonishing verbal ability, or for his analytical skills.
Among the students who read about an older Hans, it didn't matter whether Hans had won his prize for logic or verbal skills - all performed equally well at their own verbal task.
The crucial finding concerned the students who read about a younger, more threatening Hans. Among these students, those who read that Hans was an analytical wizard tended to outperform not just those who read about a young verbally-adept Hans, but the students who read about an older Hans too. So although he was threatening, reading about a young Hans whose strengths didn't match the verbal task acted as a spur rather than a hindrance. The message is that superior others can inspire us to try harder at tasks outside of their strengths.
The researchers, Camille Johnson and Diederik Stapel, concluded: “This research suggests that those who make us feel best about ourselves...may not be the ones that lead us to perform our best. Ironically, it appears that those colleagues that most demoralise us, and are not in our specific field may provide the greatest long-term benefit”.
__________________________________
Johnson, C.S. & Stapel, D.A. (2007). When different is better: Performance following upward comparison. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 258-275.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Inspired by those who make us feel bad about ourselves
Update - this paper has been retracted because of research fraud.
It sounds paradoxical, but people we find threatening and who make us feel bad about ourselves can have a positive effect on our performance. The key factor is whether or not their strengths match the challenge before us.
Dozens of students performed a verbal ability test after reading one of four versions of a passage about a prize-winning student called Hans. Hans was portrayed as either younger or older than the participants – the younger version was intended to be more demoralising (and pilot work confirmed a younger Hans was indeed perceived as more threatening). Secondly, Hans was said to have been awarded his prestigious prize either for his astonishing verbal ability, or for his analytical skills.
Among the students who read about an older Hans, it didn't matter whether Hans had won his prize for logic or verbal skills - all performed equally well at their own verbal task.
The crucial finding concerned the students who read about a younger, more threatening Hans. Among these students, those who read that Hans was an analytical wizard tended to outperform not just those who read about a young verbally-adept Hans, but the students who read about an older Hans too. So although he was threatening, reading about a young Hans whose strengths didn't match the verbal task acted as a spur rather than a hindrance. The message is that superior others can inspire us to try harder at tasks outside of their strengths.
The researchers, Camille Johnson and Diederik Stapel, concluded: “This research suggests that those who make us feel best about ourselves...may not be the ones that lead us to perform our best. Ironically, it appears that those colleagues that most demoralise us, and are not in our specific field may provide the greatest long-term benefit”.
__________________________________
Johnson, C.S. & Stapel, D.A. (2007). When different is better: Performance following upward comparison. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 258-275.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Pre-schoolers Can Tell Abstract Expressionist Art From Similar Works By Children And Animals
Hans Hofmann's painting 'The Gate' via Wikipedia. Abstract expressionist art in the style of, say, Hans Hofmann or Jackson Pollock, often looks as though it has been thrown at random upon the canvas. It's common to hear sceptics...
- Older People Appear To Be Especially Good At Remembering Things That Interest Them
Our memory abilities begin to diminish in some respects as early as our twenties. But the picture isn't entirely bleak. A new study published in Psychology and Aging explores the possibility that an older person's curiosity or interest in a subject...
- People Who Are Dogmatic Have Poorer Working Memory
People who are narrow-minded and dogmatic have a poorer working memory capacity, which is what makes it harder for them to process new information. That's according to Adam Brown who tested 212 university students on a verbal working memory task....
- We Become More Ambidextrous As We Get Older
We’re unaware of it, but starting in middle-age, our dominant hand gradually loses its superiority, so that we become, in a sense, more ambidextrous as we get older. Tobias Kalisch and colleagues recruited 60 participants who were all strongly right-handed...
- Embryonic Stem Cell Neurological Research
Moving Stem Cells Front and Center By ANDREW POLLACK The New York Times Published: February 23, 2005 IRVINE, Calif. - Hans S. Keirstead might be the Pied Piper of stem cells - and not just because he makes rats walk. He also helped lure Californians...