Neuroscience
Over the stretch of my professional years, I'd say my most nagging error has involved an inability to gauge correctly the point at which the next possible undertaking - or even golden opportunity - should be firmly rejected. Whenever I've allowed one-too-many responsibilities onto my plate, everything - including the new item - has suffered from the overcrowding. With that threshold crossed, I've no longer had the time or patience to plan, think, or toil hard enough to be proud of the resultant work. If I had a single piece of advice for young researchers, it would be to create and follow a rule for avoiding this state of affairs. The rule could involve something objective (e.g., never exceeding a specific quota of research involvements) or subjective (e.g., avoiding the feeling of rushing to, from, and through all of one's commitments). The key is to apply the rule ruthlessly. Anything less would be another form of error.
Dr Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist at Arizona State University, is the most widely cited expert on influence and persuasion alive today. His most recent book is Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive.
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Return to menu for One Nagging Thing.
- David Buss: Overcoming Irrationality
One nagging thing that I still don’t understand about myself is why I often succumb to well-documented psychological biases, even though I’m acutely aware of these biases. One example is my failure at affective forecasting, such as believing that...
- Marilyn Davidson: Lost Opportunities
One nagging thing I still don’t understand about myself is why I didn’t ask my grandparents before they died, more about their childhoods? “Grandpa (R), you’re 100 now but what was it like being born in 1900 into a world where man couldn’t fly...
- Alison Gopnik: Parenthood
I’ve had three of my own children and spent my professional life thinking about children. And yet I still find my relation to my children deeply puzzling. Our love for children is so unlike any other human emotion. I fell in love with my babies so quickly...
- Ellen Langer: Optimism
When my dear friend and colleague, Roger Brown, was alive he used to say that to him, I define the edge of the optimism continuum. I think my outlook explains my choice of research topics. Instead of describing what is, most of my work is aimed at exploring...
- Robert Plomin: Nature, Nurture
After forty years doing research on nature and nurture in psychology, there are two crucial (not just nagging) things I want to understand. One is about nature and one is about nurture. About nature: Behavioural genetic research has shown that genetics...
Neuroscience
Robert Cialdini: Taking on too much
Over the stretch of my professional years, I'd say my most nagging error has involved an inability to gauge correctly the point at which the next possible undertaking - or even golden opportunity - should be firmly rejected. Whenever I've allowed one-too-many responsibilities onto my plate, everything - including the new item - has suffered from the overcrowding. With that threshold crossed, I've no longer had the time or patience to plan, think, or toil hard enough to be proud of the resultant work. If I had a single piece of advice for young researchers, it would be to create and follow a rule for avoiding this state of affairs. The rule could involve something objective (e.g., never exceeding a specific quota of research involvements) or subjective (e.g., avoiding the feeling of rushing to, from, and through all of one's commitments). The key is to apply the rule ruthlessly. Anything less would be another form of error.
Dr Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist at Arizona State University, is the most widely cited expert on influence and persuasion alive today. His most recent book is Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive.
--
Return to menu for One Nagging Thing.
- David Buss: Overcoming Irrationality
One nagging thing that I still don’t understand about myself is why I often succumb to well-documented psychological biases, even though I’m acutely aware of these biases. One example is my failure at affective forecasting, such as believing that...
- Marilyn Davidson: Lost Opportunities
One nagging thing I still don’t understand about myself is why I didn’t ask my grandparents before they died, more about their childhoods? “Grandpa (R), you’re 100 now but what was it like being born in 1900 into a world where man couldn’t fly...
- Alison Gopnik: Parenthood
I’ve had three of my own children and spent my professional life thinking about children. And yet I still find my relation to my children deeply puzzling. Our love for children is so unlike any other human emotion. I fell in love with my babies so quickly...
- Ellen Langer: Optimism
When my dear friend and colleague, Roger Brown, was alive he used to say that to him, I define the edge of the optimism continuum. I think my outlook explains my choice of research topics. Instead of describing what is, most of my work is aimed at exploring...
- Robert Plomin: Nature, Nurture
After forty years doing research on nature and nurture in psychology, there are two crucial (not just nagging) things I want to understand. One is about nature and one is about nurture. About nature: Behavioural genetic research has shown that genetics...