Left-brain, right-brain profiles. Learning styles. The Mozart effect. The lizard brain. These ideas shape training programmes, coaching frameworks, and leadership development worldwide. A well-referenced 2021 practitioner article examines nine of the most popular brain-based claims and finds that most of them have no credible neuroscientific support whatsoever.
Personality tests are widely used in hiring, with validity evidence drawn largely from low-stakes research settings. A 2025 meta-analysis finds that validity is consistently lower when the stakes are high and candidates have reason to present themselves strategically, raising questions about how well the published evidence base applies to real selection contexts.
Leadership research has long relied on broad personality traits. A 2026 meta-analysis of 203 datasets finds that the facets beneath those traits tell a considerably richer story, and that the personality profile that gets people chosen as leaders is often not the one that makes them effective.
Mindfulness, gratitude, and nature walks are among the most commonly recommended happiness strategies. A 2023 systematic review finds the evidence behind most of them is based on small, poorly designed studies, and the strength of the case is far weaker than their popularity implies.
Executive coaching is widely used but its causal effectiveness has been difficult to establish. A 2023 meta-analysis restricted to randomised controlled trials only finds a moderate and significant effect, while identifying the coaching relationship as the primary driver of outcomes.
Does leader mindfulness matter? A meta-analysis of 54 samples and 9,400 leaders finds it is associated with better leader wellbeing, stronger relationships, and positive outcomes for followers, with mindfulness interventions showing particular promise for reducing leader stress.
Individual differences research underpins personality assessment, psychometrics, and much of selection science. A 2024 paper identifies four major and largely unrecognised problems with how the field measures what it claims to measure, and the implications are uncomfortable.
Has psychology made empirical progress over the past 66 years? A 2022 analysis of 1,565 articles finds that explained variance has remained constant since the 1950s, and argues that much of what psychology measures may reflect the semantic structure of language rather than genuine empirical discovery.
Your digital footprint may reveal more about your personality than you realise. A 2024 meta-analysis of both human perception and machine learning studies finds meaningful but imperfect accuracy, with humans performing at least as well as algorithms on average.
What actually changes what people do? A comprehensive synthesis of meta-analyses finds that the most popular intervention strategies, targeting knowledge and attitudes, are the least effective. The approaches that work best are those that make desired behaviours easier to enact.
