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Study: People Unlikely to Change Their Mind, Even When Facts Contradict Their Views

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A fresh study has confirmed that people are reluctant to change their minds and adapt their views, even when new information has been presented. This holds true even if they stand to lose money.

The research from the University of Iowa is based on previous studies indicating that people are particularly likely to stick to their original viewpoint when they’ve had to write their beliefs down– a phenomenon known as the ‘explanation effect’, which also affects future actions.

In the study, Tom Gruca, a professor of marketing at the Tippie College of Business, tried to find evidence of something called ‘confirmation bias’ – the tendency to give preference to existing information or beliefs, rather than considering alternative possibilities. He says equity analysts working on financial markets are particularly prone to this bias, with those who issue written forecasts being especially vulnerable to falling into the trap, despite having access to new data to influence them . . .

The study took place over a 10-year period, between 1998 and 2008, and focused on the Iowa Electronic Markets, an online futures market at the college, where payoffs are contingent upon real life events. In that time frame, Gruca had the students analyze the movie market. The students had to predict four-week opening box office totals for 18 movies, while also buying and selling contracts with real money.

It was discovered that, despite the initial box office figures giving a good indication of potential success, the student traders ignored the stocks and stuck to their original predictions. As a result, nobody was buying or selling – confirmation bias prevented the prices from becoming unstable. (Read more from “Study: People Unlikely to Change Their Mind, Even When Facts Contradict Their Views” HERE)

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Sex Doesn’t Sell After All, Study Says

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1200x-1Maybe sex doesn’t sell after all.

Commercials that feature sex and violence — or appear on programs with that kind of content — are less effective than those with neutral themes, according to a study published by the academic journal Psychological Bulletin.

Violent and sexual television programming impairs viewers’ memory because it diverts attention from the advertising, said Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University and co-author of the study, which analyzed the results of 53 previous experiments . . .

The study concluded that “brands advertised in violent contexts will be remembered less often, evaluated less favorably, and less likely to be purchased than brands advertised in nonviolent media. We also suggest that advertising in sexual media may not be as detrimental as advertising in violent media, but does not appear to be a successful strategy either.”

Bushman said his own earlier research didn’t find a significant difference in how men and women reacted to the different types of advertising. But the broader compilation of studies showed that violence and sex had a larger effect on males, he said. (Read more from “Sex Doesn’t Sell After All, Study Says” HERE)

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Ludicrous Federal Study Spends Hundreds of Thousands Examining Duck’s Private Parts

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Photo Credit: US Wildlife Service

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $384,949 grant to Yale University for a study on “Sexual Conflict, Social Behavior and the Evolution of Waterfowl Genitalia”, according to the recovery.gov website.

The grant description says,“The project examines how reproductive morphology covaries with season, age, and social environment in a diverse sample of duck species that differ in ecology, territoriality and breeding system.”

The grant was made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus package.

The project has been receiving money from the NSF since 2009 and is slated for funding through July of this year.

“In the last quarter, we have prepared a manuscript for submission on the results of the first two years of experiments on social phenotypic plasticity in duck penis length in Lesser Scaup and Ruddy Duck. Experiments continued on genital social phenotypic plasticity in Mandarin Duck and Laysan Teal,” a 2010 fourth quarter recovery.gov update on the study says.

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Study: 83% of Retirees Believe They’ll Lose Their Social Security

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photo credit: 401(K) 2012A recent survey by BMO Retirement Institute found 83 percent of retirees were influenced to start their benefits because they were concerned about the viability of the program.

But for Americans nearing retirement age, knowing when to pull the trigger on government retirement benefits is more complicated—or should be.

“People believe that Social Security is something they get when they turn 65. They think there’s only one calculation: I’ll apply when I stop working,” said Rebecca Hall, a private wealth adviser with Ameriprise Financial in Reston, Va., in a recent interview.

How and when you take your benefits, however, can make a difference of thousands of dollars in how much money you draw from the system over the course of your retirement.

And for many Americans, that difference can be crucial. Some 60 percent of Americans 65 and older depend on Social Security for the majority of income, according to an Economic Policy Institute study published last year.

Read more from this story HERE.