NEURAL CORRELATES OF BEHAVIORAL PREFERENCE FOR CULTURALLY FAMILIAR DRINKS Are preferences for culturally familiar drinks such as Coke or Pepsi based solely on the taste or are there other factors involved? A recent article in Neuron discusses how cultural messages may be more influential than taste in the development of such preferences. ABSTRACT “Coca-Cola_ (Coke_) […]
THE NEUROANATOMICAL BASIS OF UNDERSTANDING SARCASM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SOCIAL COGNITION: Detecting sarcasm relies upon the ability to monitor other peoples’ mental states, thoughts and feelings. Detecting sarcasm then is necessary for effective decision making and social cognition. A recent article in Neuropsychology offers findings regarding the neurobiology of comprehension of sarcasm and the […]
CONSUMER COGNITION AND PRICING IN THE 9âS IN OLIGOPOLISTIC MARKETS. Marketing research has confirmed what many know, that a large number of goods are priced to the end in a 9, for example hamburgers for 99 cents or shoes for 49 dollars, what is referred to as odd-pricing or psychological pricing. With a look at […]
IMPROVING LEARNING AT UNIVERSITIES: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? Last Fall, Wharton Marketing professor J. Scott Armstrong wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal about the failure of business schools to teach students to do such fundamental things as give effective oral presentations, write persuasive management reports, listen to others, conduct meetings, and use statistical procedures […]
TRUST BUT VERIFY: MONITORING IN INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS Effective organizations depend upon employees who will rely upon each other even when they do not trust each other. How then can managers promote trustworthy behavior to maintain the effectiveness of their organizations? Managers, employees, and customers routinely rely upon others to choose trustworthy actions. Managers trust that […]
THE DIRT ON COMING CLEAN: PERVERSE EFFECTS OF DISCLOSING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST Conflicts of interest have been at the heart of many business scandals. Investment bankers who get paid more when their clients trade more, or doctors who get paid more when their patients require more care, are both examples of advisors with a conflict […]
SEPERATE NEURAL SYSTEMS VALUE IMMEDIATE AND DELAYED MONETARY REWARDS People seem to alternate between choosing to indulge in what is immediately available and choosing to decide based upon the knowledge that patience often wins in the long run. If you offer someone $10 today and $11 tomorrow, it’s likely they will choose the $10 today. […]
DECISIONS FROM EXPERIENCE AND THE EFECTS OF RARE EVENTS IN RISKY CHOICE Studies of risky choice almost always examaine decisions made from descriptive sources of information, for example pie charts and frequency distributions. Nonetheless, people in the real world usually make decisions without descriptions and rely on personal experience. The studies described here indicate a […]
EXPLAINING PURPORTEDLY IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR BY MODELING SKEPTICISM IN TASK PARAMETERS: Numerous psychological articles have claimed to demonstrate human “irrationality,” but Craig R. M. McKenzie, John T. Wixted, and David C. Noelle suggest that these studies have made one crucial assumption. When subjects demonstrate behavior (predictable or unpredictable), researchers believe that the subjects believe the assumptions […]
MONKEYS REJECT UNEQUAL PAY A juvenile capuchin monkey exhibits cheek-to-cheek begging to an eating adult male, cupping his hand next to the adult’s food in solicitation. This primate is exceptionally tolerant and readily shares food, which may be a precondition for the reported reactions to reward division. Humans judge fairness according to both the distribution […]
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