Stats and Curiosities. Harvard Business Review

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      stats

      & curiosities

      from

      HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

      written and edited by

      ANDREW O’CONNELL

       HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

      BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

      Copyright 2013 Harvard Business School Publishing

      All rights reserved

      No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to [email protected], or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      O’Connell, Andrew (Business writer)

      Stats and curiosities : from Harvard business review / written and edited by Andrew O’Connell.

      pages cm

      ISBN 978-1-4221-9631-1 (alk. paper)

      1. Success in business. 2. Selling–Psychological aspects. I. Harvard business review. II. Title.

      HF5386.O248 2013

      650.1–dc23

      2013018855

      contents

      introduction: curiouser and curiouser

      mysteries of the human brain

      bad behavior, good behavior

      to your health

      the working world

      gender gaps

      america the statistical

      economic realities

      the arc of life

      stats you can use

      sources

      acknowledgments

      about the author

      introduction: curiouser and curiouser

      Someone studied that? Someone actually studied the relationship between company performance and the width of the CEO’s face? That was my first response on reading an academic paper on leaders’ facial dimensions. I often react that way when I encounter the more unusual studies in out-of-the-way journals. Someone really estimated my likelihood of dying in the week after I get a bonus? Someone actually studied the effect of organic food on my moral judgments? Someone calculated the percentage of Prius drivers who ignore pedestrians in crosswalks?

      But in four years of writing the Daily Stat, Harvard Business Review’s online digest of reports from the front lines of research in business, economics, and psychology, I’ve come to appreciate the breadth and depth of the topics being examined in laboratories and field studies around the globe.

      For one thing, many of the findings published in the Daily Stat and compiled in this book turn out to be surprisingly useful: Background noise and a glimpse of green can make you more creative. Two-person teams are quicker than four-person teams.

      Other stats are entertainingly odd: A taste of sugar gives people greater self-control. Disgust makes people more receptive to the new.

      Most important, the data tells us a story about who we are: Single male CEOs take bigger financial risks in order to appear more attractive. Better-educated workers are less satisfied with their lives. High-status individuals are more likely to believe that people are smiling at them. There are two main messages in all this: Even in a high-tech age, we integrate our most human foibles and vulnerabilities into our work. And Prius drivers should watch where they’re going.

      —Andrew O’Connell

      mysteries

      of the

      human

      brain

      We start at the source, with an exploration of the nature of the mind. The brain, of course, is responsible for our greatest achievements and oddest behaviors, and, for better or worse, we bring it with us to the office every day. There we let it loose to do all the things it has been doing since we evolved as humans, such as seeking advantage over our coworkers and misinterpreting the world. On a product-safety note, Margaret Neale of Stanford and Scott Wiltermuth of the University of Southern California point out in this chapter that reading too much useless information makes you 46% less likely to think clearly, so as you peruse these stats, please read responsibly.

      high status gives people delusions of approval

      Research subjects who had been primed to think of themselves as having elevated status reported seeing 19% more smiles on the faces of people who had judged their work than subjects who considered themselves to have low status, say Nathan C. Pettit of NYU and Niro Sivanathan of London Business School. That’s because a person’s status colors his or her perceptions of others’ approval. Thus it seems evident that of all the rewards for achievement—recognition, income, promotion—the most valuable is the high-status mind-set, the researchers say.

      powerful people think they’re taller

      People who were asked to summon up memories of being powerful judged themselves to be an average of 6 inches taller, in comparison with a pole, than people who were asked to remember being powerless, say Michelle M. Duguid of Washington University and Jack A. Goncalo of Cornell University. Moreover, being physically elevated makes a person both feel powerful and seem powerful to others, the researchers say.

      men with shaved heads are perceived as bigger and stronger

      Shaven-headed men seen in photographs were perceived as an inch taller and 13% stronger than men with full heads of hair, according to an experiment reported by the Wall Street Journal. Albert Mannes of The Wharton School says he conducted his study after noticing that he was treated with greater deference after shaving off his hair. His research shows that men with shaved heads are seen as more dominant than men with full hair, and men with thinning hair are seen as the least powerful of all.

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