Blake Snow

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Tagged psychology

I stopped swearing this year to temper my anger. It mostly worked. 😁

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I sometimes yell at my immediate family members when arguments arise. I’m not proud of it.

I’ve talked with other anger “patients” that have road rage or easily yell at strangers or people in public, but never at their own family—something I don’t identify with.

Granted, I believe 99% of outbursts are wrong, regardless of who they are directed at. But I feel extra guilty for having better manners with strangers and fellow drivers than the people I love most.

Because of that, 11 years ago I admitted myself to anger therapy. It was a life-changing experience that didn’t fix the problem, but it definitely improved it and gave me great coping mechanisms.

This January, I had an epiphany. “I wonder what would happen to my temper if I willingly removed swear words from my vocabulary?” To find out, that’s exactly what I did this year.

Here’s how it went. Continue reading…

Psychology study: 99 cent pricing boosts sales by 8%

ShamwowWTFDoes .99 cent pricing really work? Wouldn’t it be easier to round everything to the nearest dollar?

The answer to both those questions is a resounding “yes.” Although it would be easier to round up, stores use so-called psychological pricing because it demonstrably boosts sales by 8%, according to one study of 60,000 mail-order catalogs.

In short, the 30,000 customers that received rounded up pricing spent 8% less than the 30,000 catalog recipients of 99 cent pricing. (Note: The two catalogs were identical except for pricing.)

Granted, this study was performed 20 years ago. But with those kind of gains, the trend is sure to stick around for a long time.

Blame “important” doctors for your cell phone abuse

cell phone rubber bandI wrote on article on cell phone abuse, to be published on GigaOM, and was unable to use the following, which I thought was rather insightful:

“When cell phones were first introduced, they were expensive and obtrusive,” says Dr. Lisa Merlo, professor of psychology at the University of Florida. “As a result, the people who had them and used them did so for ‘important’ reasons. For example, physicians might have a cell phone while on-call. So, people excused the rudeness associated with talking on a cell phone because there was a legitimate reason for doing so. However, cell phones have become ubiquitous, and the rules have not changed to accommodate this.”

Continue reading…