Silicon Canals

Psychology says people who over-explain themselves in ordinary conversations aren't insecure or needy — they often grew up with adults who required exhaustive justific…

Exhaustive explanations for minor things aren't a sign of insecurity but often a learned survival strategy from childhoods ...
Silicon Canals

In a field experiment at a car wash, 300 customers received loyalty cards requiring 8 paid visits for a free wash — 34% finished when the card had 10 spaces with 2 alrea…

Two loyalty cards required the same eight purchases, but customers followed through at different rates. The endowed progress ...
Silicon Canals

The folly of debt

The folly of debt sounds like the opening of a sermon, and taken too broadly it is simply wrong. Plenty of debt is sensible: ...
Silicon Canals

At Harvard, men paid to assemble Lego Bionicle models built an average of 10.6 when their finished work stayed on the desk — but only 7.2 when the experimenter dismantled it ...

A small Harvard experiment found that men built more Lego models when their finished work remained intact. The result raises a precise question about effort and visible progress.
Silicon Canals

Across 355 cities in 40 countries, researchers handed in 17,303 supposedly lost wallets — and adding cash raised the share of recipients who contacted the owner from 40% to ...

A 17,303-wallet field experiment found that adding cash increased owner-contact rates. The study measured emails and explored the role of self-image and concern for others.