Personal Space: Knowing When to Back Off and Come Closer

You can be an enemy or a friend depending on where you stand.

Photo from Bradley Gordon’s flickr

When a stranger came shoulder to shoulder out of a sudden, a person’s natural response is to protect herself and her belongings. Some will cast a hazy stare. Men may push him off without haste. This is because strangers are not welcome to enter our personal space.

Personal space is claimed territory around us. It is described as an “imaginary bubble”; and serves as an extension of our self. We are wary to people coming close to us. In situations where we are forced to crowd, we become uncomfortable. This is the reason co-riders in elevators are quiet.

People whom we have intimate relationships, be it friends or family, are permitted to invade our space. And at certain instances, we allow strangers to enter and shake hands or dip cheeks; but this is a brief contract of consent. A swift kiss from an acquaintance is alright but it’s a violation if it took minutes.

It is rude to strand next to someone and you’re too deep inside his personal space; but it is equally rude to be too away.

Culture defines a difference in personal space. Westerners generally have wider personal space compared to Asians because west people are more individualistic; and thus demand more territory. People from United States, Canada and England require the largest personal space.

Aside from geographical influences, men have broader comfort zones than women. People from the higher class of society expect more personal space. And understandably, victims of abuse need more space.

In social interactions, people should adjust to the demands of each other’s personal space. No matter how sincere your compliments are, it is the emotion you made them feel that they’ll remember. If you’re too far away, you’re aloof. If you’re too close, you’re overwhelming. Make sure you’re in the right ground to grant yourself a better impression.

It is hard to mentally calculate every person’s unique space requirements. We won’t know the history of our acquaintances either. But their behaviors will tell when we’re not at the optimal position. These signs include stepping forward or stepping back, clenching fists, covering the top lip, and leaning. Be aware of how they react.

What are your simple behaviors when people you’re interacting with are too far or too close?

Sources:
Personal Space: Why Two Can Be a Crowd; Excelle
5 Signs you are invading my personal space; Ethical Behavior

The Psychology of 9.99, 10 and 1200

People think an item is way cheaper when priced at $9.99 rather than $10.

Photo from Photoxpress

Price tags ending with .99 rule the stores. They are prevalent wherever you shift your view. Ever wonder why retailers do that? And you can expect certain category of products and services with price ending in 0, like $10 or $400. Even the emission of the comma in 1200 is a result of pricing studies.

9.99s

9 has a pricing power. Any item that ends with .99 speaks out “great value”, “sale” and “discount”. Buyers think that it’s the lowest price it could ever have.

People round $9.99 as $9 instead of $10. Researchers call this the left-digit effect. Everybody that has a brain is susceptible to think that way because that’s just how human minds work. And we are more led to round prices on the left digit because we see .99 innumerable times.

William Poundstone on his book Priceless analyzed eight different studies on .99 prices and found that sales increase by 24% on .99 prices compared to the 10s. Kenneth J. Wisniewski from the University of Chicago conducted another study at a local grocery chain:  sales of margarine increased by 65% when price was dropped from 89 cents to 71 cents; but it increased by 222% when dropped to 69 cents!

People buy more when the price ends with 9. That’s why we see a lot of .99s.

10s

A tipped polo from Neiman Marcus is priced at $150, while a Dolce & Gabbana leopard print bag is priced at 3,425.00. Both prices are ending with 0, and both products are high end. An item whose price ends with 0 communicates premium quality.

People get satisfaction on owning an expensive product. People are convinced that prices ending with 0s are upscaled; and prestige brands love it that way. Companies wanted to keep the reputation on their products so not all can buy it and those who can buy it will love buying it.

1200s

How they write it affects how you buy it. The longer the price appears, the more expensive we perceive. This is the reason why restaurants minimize the price on their menu with 29 rather than $29.99.

Commas and cents make the price longer; hence, increasing the magnitude of the price (at least according to our brain). 1200 seemed to appear cheaper than 1,200.00. There are less words in “twelve hundred” than in “one thousand two hundred”, so we think of 1200 as less.

Did .99s lured you?

Sources:
The Psychology Behind The Sweet Spots Of Pricing; Fast Company
Pricing Psychology: 7 Sneaky Retail Tricks; CBSNews
5 Psychological Studies on Pricing That You Absolutely MUST Read; Kiss Metrics
Party Like It’s 19.99: The Psychology of Pricing; Wise Bread
An Easy Way to Make Your Prices Seem Lower; Neuromarketing

Squeezing a Ball Improves Sports Performance

Audience screams, cheers, and reacts to athletes’ performance; and athletes make mistakes when they think about it.

Photo from Photoxpress

Several athletes in the Olympics perfect their moves over years but they make mistakes on the day of show. It happens to the most of us. We prepare for a long time but on the exact time we should perform, we gag and choke. We make mistakes we have never committed when we are practicing. This is a familiar feeling to athletes because eyes are on them in every sporting event.

The source of the blunder is when athletes started thinking of their own movements instead of relying on their body’s motor capabilities. Overthinking can intervene with concentration and performance of motor tasks.

For the athletes who aren’t used to the pressure of an audience yet, squeezing a ball or clenching a hand may help. According to the new research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, doing so before the competition will activate certain parts of the brain.

But it has to be the left hand. In the study, right handed athletes who squeezed a ball using the left hand have lower chances of choking than right handed athletes who squeezed a ball using the right hand. This may be due to the system of our brain’s supervision, where the right brain controls the left part of our body – the side of the brain that directs automated and instinctive behaviors.

The idea is to distract athletes from thinking. “Athletes usually perform better when they trust their bodies rather than thinking too much about their own actions or what their coaches told them during practice”, said Juergen Beckmann, PhD, chair of sport psychology at the Technical University of Munich in Germany.

This technique may also be applied outside athletics, especially in pressing situations.

Do you think this will work for you?

Sources:
Squeezing a ball before competition may improve performance, study finds; American Psychological Association
Do You Choke Under Pressure? A Routine That May Help; PsychCentral
Sporting skill improved by just a simple squeeze; drbriffa

 

Breaking Prejudice on Atheists

Atheists are more compassionate, if you compare them to highly religious people.

Photo from Kevin Dooley’s flickr

Atheists and religious people both engage in charitable acts. The difference is what drives them. While religious people refer to the doctrine, atheists rely more on their emotional relevance (if I may say empathy) to another person/s.

People with no belief of God may be thought as self-centered. But a study at the University of California suggests that atheists are more emotionally dependent, that they feel the need of the other person in helping out. I argue that some religious people heed to the teachings without any inkling why. It’s faith and religiosity and that’s a good thing.

Another study surveyed people. Given a scenario: a driver damaged a car and took the money from a found wallet, who was the driver? Teacher, atheist teacher or rapist teacher?

People’s responses reveal that they distrust atheists as much as rapists. This blatant prejudice made atheists an instant suspect.

There are differences. A rapist is called as such because of his wretched crime, and thus the basis of the distrust. An atheist did not commit any crime. They just have a different view. I think that choice should be respected. Yeah, they don’t have morality written on book to guide them, but they have themselves to guide them.

Would you thrash out this prejudice?

Sources:
Studies say atheists, believers both do good, but for different reasons; The Washington Post
Study: Atheists distrusted as much as rapists; USA Today 

Behold: Hands of Men and Women

Men are likely to have the uppermost hand than women when holding hands; but who has the dirtier hand?

Photo from photoXpress

Researcher Mark S. Chapell and his pals took the burden to observe 15,008 couples with holding hand activities. It’s true, men has the uppermost hand. And it may be that men initiate the act of touch.

Touch has a power. In the study of Coan, Schaefer and Davidson,  a woman was given mild electric shocks to observe her experience of pain and fear through MRI. At first, pain and fear was prominent. When a laboratory team member held her hand, the pain is still evident but fear diminishes. When the woman’s partner held her hand, the MRI shows that her brain calmed down remarkably.

Holding a woman’s hand is simple, seemingly vain, but it’s an easy way to make her at ease amidst pain and stress. Plus, it’s a romantic gesture too.

A man to man holding hand would raise brows in many societies; but in Afghanistan, it is expected. It shows affection for the men without the sexual association. And in times that you didn’t do that, it shows aversion as if you’re spacing yourself away from the other man.

Holding hands is dirtier than you thought. Tennessee senators passed a new bill claiming that holding hands and kissing are gateways to intercourse. The bill, which blocks sex education, aims to reduce the tipping numbers of the young engaging the activity – 27% of middle school students in Memphis City have had sex.

People from University of Colorado studied hands of men and women, and women’s hands are dirtier! Women “have a much ‘greater diversity’ of bacteria on their hands than men, and a higher number of innate bacteria living under the skin that can’t be washed away” (Noble, 2008). Interesting.. How did that happen?

What do you feel when you hold hands?

Sources:
Lending a Hand; Psychological Science
Why Arab Men Hold Hands; The New York Times
Men and Women Holding Hands; Ammons Scientific
Holding Hands Is Dirtier Than You Thought; YourTango