Does hybrid working damage performance? A six-month randomised controlled trial with 1,600 employees finds it does not, while reducing quit rates by a third. The managers in the study revised their own views after seeing the evidence.
Personality feedback is one of the most common tools in leadership development and coaching. A systematic review finds only 12 studies examining whether it actually improves performance, and the evidence for causal benefit remains unestablished.
Conscientiousness is one of the most trusted predictors in personnel selection. A 2023 meta-analytic review finds that barely 12 percent of the supporting research was conducted under realistic hiring conditions, leaving the real-world validity of the measure more uncertain than its reputation suggests.
The Question In 1902, French colonial officials in Hanoi offered a bounty for rat tails to combat a plague-driven infestation. Residents duly
Game-based assessments promise to make hiring more engaging while measuring the same things as traditional tests. A 2024 study finds the validity case is reasonable, but the engagement promise is not: applicants actually reacted more negatively to the game format, especially those without much gaming experience.
Attention is widely assumed to decline with age. A 2024 study testing older and younger adults across 11 attention tasks finds the reality is far more complicated, and that the general decline narrative does not hold up under careful scrutiny.
Studies You Should Know Why Preregistration Is No Stop to Poor Science The Question Psychology's replication crisis prompted a wave of proposed remedies.
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 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.
What is the best way to measure how cognitively demanding a job is? A 2023 study argues the answer might be simpler than we thought: just look at the average intelligence of the people doing it.
