Do cheaters really prosper? Does the nice guy always finish last?
Recently, a few provocative studies have suggested that these old tropes are true. It seems that those very people we avoid in our personal lives—the shameless self-promoters, the manipulators, the endlessly self-absorbed—are actually rising to the top in the business world. These new studies examine anti-social personality traits (particularly narcissism) in relation to workplace outcomes, and suggest that the so-called "dark traits" can possibly mean a bright future in business.
Here’s the thing: anecdotal evidence is powerful, but if you really want to prove what most of enlightened society already knows to be true, you need to get a scientific study going. So for all of you who’ve been denying the truth about cheating partners, or your cheating self, here’s real science that backs up what most people already knew: cheaters cheat. And if you’ve formed a relationship with a partner you snagged from someone else, just avoid signing any binding documents.
Are men really from Mars and women from Venus? Are the differences between the sexes best explained by their separate planet heritage? Is it really that simple?
We often hear this lament from American conservatives: the majority of our universities are run by liberals, attended by liberals, and turning out more liberals by the thousand. Theories abound as to why this is. Perhaps we're dealing with a vast conspiracy of power-hungry eggheads, masterminding schemes of liberal indoctrination from ivory towers full of pipe smoke.
Perhaps—but we don't think so. We think there's a reasonable explanation for all of it: science. Specifically, personality psychology.
In a study of University of Wisconsin Colleges students, participants with Feeling preferences were more likely to believe in creationism, while students with Thinking preferences favored secular evolution.
According to a study of over 6000 students at Elon University in North Carolina, students with Judging preferences have higher average GPAs than students who prefer Perceiving. In addition, the study’s authors found that Introverted and Feeling types had grades that were higher than average, except in the Business major.
A study conducted among female college students found that women who prefer Intuition and Feeling are significantly more likely to have tendencies toward binge eating. The study was conducted with women who were considered to be at risk for an eating disorder, but not diagnosed with a full-blown disorder such as bulimia.
Extraverts are more likely to perceive themselves as good communicators than are Introverts, a study led by Donald Loffredo at the University of Houston has found. In this survey of communication style and personality type, researchers discovered significant correlations between various aspects of communication and the preference scales of Extraversion/Introversion, as well as Thinking/Feeling and Sensing/Intuition.
A study conducted with Temple University medical students and led by Judith Katz found that personality preferences correlated with the students' choice of medical specialty.
THE FINE PRINT:
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