SJTs vs Assessment Centres: Which Is Better at What?
Situational judgment tests and assessment centres are both widely used in selection. A 2024 head-to-head comparison finds they are not interchangeable: one predicts thinking performance well, the other is needed for interpersonal and leadership performance. The right question is not which is better, but better at predicting what.
The Bright Triad of Mindful Leadership: An Alternative to the Dark Triad
The dark triad of leadership, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, has attracted surprising admiration in some research quarters. A 2022 paper proposes an explicit alternative rooted in Buddhist psychology, and argues the admiration has been measuring success far too narrowly.
General Cognitive Ability and Job Performance: A Contemporary Reassessment
Studies You Should Know: General Cognitive Ability and Job Performance: A Contemporary Reassessment The Question Few findings in industrial and organisational psychology have been treated as more settled than this one: general cognitive ability (GCA) is the single best predictor of job performance. The figure most commonly cited in support of
Why Preregistration Is No Stop to Poor Science
Studies You Should Know Why Preregistration Is No Stop to Poor Science The Question Psychology's replication crisis prompted a wave of proposed remedies. Among the most celebrated has been preregistration: researchers publicly commit to their hypotheses, methods, and analyses before collecting data, making it harder to engage in the questionable practices
Social Media Profiling: How Your Online Life Shapes Hiring Decisions
Most job seekers know their social media is being checked. What a 2024 study reveals is more unsettling: it is your personal posts, not your professional ones, that carry the most weight in how hiring managers rate your suitability for the job.
A Potential Pitfall of Passion: When Enthusiasm Distorts Self-Assessment
Passion at work is almost universally celebrated. A 2024 study tracking nearly 34,000 daily observations finds a less comfortable truth: passion is also associated with overconfidence about how well you are actually performing.
What Is Wisdom? Sternberg’s Tree of Philosophy Theory
Psychology has been studying wisdom for decades, mostly on its own terms. A 2023 paper by Robert Sternberg argues the field has been missing something: two and a half thousand years of philosophical thinking about exactly this question.
Eight Personality Traits That May Help You Live to 100
What personality traits do people who live to 100 tend to share? A Spanish study interviewing 19 centenarians found eight recurring characteristics, and several of them point toward something more actionable than genetics.
Personality Profiles of 263 Occupations
What does the average surgeon, teacher, or software engineer look like in terms of personality? A 2024 study mapping 263 occupations across 68,000 people provides the most comprehensive answer yet and finds that the details matter more than the headlines.
Physical Attractiveness and Personality: Is There a Real Link?
Is there a real connection between physical attractiveness and personality? A 2026 study replicates and extends earlier findings, using longitudinal data to examine whether the two are more meaningfully linked than most people assume.