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She hot, me dumb

Uncommon Knowledge

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 15, 2012|By Kevin Lewis

(Page 2 of 2)

Logel, C. & Cohen, G., “The Role of the Self in Physical Health: Testing the Effect of a Values-Affirmation Intervention on Weight Loss,” Psychological Science (January 2012).

Who fakes it, and why

Over the years, economists have tried to apply their methods to affairs normally considered outside the scope of economics. An economics professor at Emory University has taken this to the next level. In an intensely mathematical analysis, he developed “a rational expectations signaling model of lovemaking” that makes predictions about the likelihood of faking orgasm. Specifically, he predicted that middle-aged women are less likely to fake than older and younger women, and that love makes people more likely to fake. Testing the model against survey data, he found that middle-aged women are indeed less likely to fake, but only if they’re in love. He also found an unexpected result: Educated men and women are more likely to fake. He speculates that this reflects their higher opportunity cost of time.

Mialon, H., “The Economics of Faking Ecstasy,” Economic Inquiry (January 2012).

Kind words that lower performance

You have talents, but maybe X isn’t one of them. For many people, X just doesn’t come naturally. Develop your talents, and don’t worry too much about X. If you’ve ever heard statements like these, or said them yourself, you might want to rethink your attitude: New research suggests that such statements create a self-fulfilling prophecy. People who endorsed the view--either on their own or after reading an article supporting it--that math intelligence was relatively fixed were more apt to attribute a student’s low score on a math test to lower math intelligence. As a result, they were more inclined to offer the kind of comfort and subtle discouragement exemplified above. This feedback, in turn, caused students to be less motivated and have lower expectations for future performance.

Rattan, A. et al., “‘It’s OK--Not Everyone Can Be Good at Math’: Instructors with an Entity Theory Comfort (and Demotivate) Students,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).