Artikelen & Interviews

An article published in The Journal of Positive Psychology has researchers suggesting that humble people are more likely to be helpful than those with less humility.

Lead author Jordan LaBouff, Ph.D., a lecturer in psychology at the University of Maine said:

“The findings are surprising because in nearly 30 years of research on helping behavior, very few studies have shown any effect of personality variables on helping … The only other personality trait that has shown any effect is agreeableness, but we found that humility predicted helping over and above that.”

Wade Rowatt Ph.D. professor of neuroscience at Baylor University, who led and co-authored the study, said that a decision to help someone out, was mainly influenced by circumstantial issues, such as time pressure, number of bystanders, momentary feelings of empathy, or a person’s own distress. 

The research was carried out with three studies of college students. First the student were asked to evaluate themselves, and those that reported being humble also reported being more helpful. The researchers statistically controlled other factors such as agreeableness to balance the results. 

However people are prone to exaggerate and over or under report their own personal traits. So the later research attempted to balance out this problem in the data collection. The second study had the students listen to a recording that was later meant for broadcast on the campus radio station. It recited the story of a student with a leg injury who was unable to attend class regularly. Students were asked how many hours over the next few weeks they could meet with the student to give him assistance. Those that reported being humble generally offered more time than the less humble. 

The last study used key words and association in quick succession to have the students analyze themselves. Stimulus words in the humble section included modest, tolerant, down to earth, respectful, and open-minded. Stimulus words in the arrogance portion included immodest, egotistical and conceited. 

Rowatt concluded that: 

“Our discovery here is that the understudied trait of humility predicts helpfulness … Important next steps will be to figure out whether humility can be cultivated and if humility is beneficial in other contexts, such as scientific and medical advancements or leadership development.” (laatste twee woorden door mij vetgedrukt, JS)

Original Source: “Humble persons are more helpful than less humble persons: Evidence from three studies” The Journal of Positive Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2011.626787

MLA

APA

Paulissen, die zelf als succesvol beleggingsexpert bij ABN Amro enorme bonussen opstreek:

,,Ik verdiende heel veel geld. De helft van mijn salariss bestond uit bonussen”

Zij doet nu een boekje open over diezelfde bank waar graaien heel normaal was.

,,Ik ging bij ABN Amro werken en het eerste wat je leerde was: wij zijn de beste. ING? Rabobank? Allemaal niks. Extreem was dat. En iedereen was alleen maar met zichzelf bezig. Zit jij al in schaal x? Hoe is het met jullie bonus?”

Ze verbaasde zich over de landje-pikcultuur.

,,Dan werden er drie units samengevoegd en moesten de klanten verdeeld worden. Brak er een enorm gevecht uit om de klanten die de grootste marges opleverden, want die zorgden voor de bonus.”

Ook opzienbarend in het interview in NRC zoals geciteerd op Maastricht.dichtbij.nl is de passage over de kennelijke organisatiecultuur / houding ten aanzien van de marges die klanten van ABN Amro de bank betaalden. Het gaat er medewerkers van de bank volgens Paulissen alleen maar om, om op zo kort mogelijke termijn zo veel mogelijk te verdienen aan klanten.

,,De marges werden zo verschmertz dat niemand ze zag. En dan heb ik het over miljoenen. De bonussen waren erop gebaseerd, dus iedereen deed eraan mee. Ons werd ingeprent: het gaat om de bonussen. Banken verdienen zich rot en keren de extra winsten uit als bonussen. Als het misgaat kan de overheid bijspringen. Bankiers weten niet meer wat normaal is.”

Omdat mensen die zich erg machtig voelen naar niemand luisteren:

“Four experiments test the prediction that feelings of power lead individuals to discount advice received from both experts and novices.

Experiment 1 documents a negative relationship between subjective feelings of power and use of advice.

Experiments 2 and 3 further show that individuals experiencing neutral and low levels of power weigh advice from experts and experienced advisors more heavily than advice from novices, but individuals experiencing high levels of power discount both novice and expert advice.

Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrate that this tendency of individuals experiencing high levels of power to discount advice from experts and novices equally is mediated by feelings of competitiveness (Experiment 3) and confidence (Experiments 3 and 4).

Finally, Experiment 4 shows that inducing high-power individuals to feel cooperative with their advisors can mitigate this tendency, leading them to weigh expert advice more heavily than advice from novices. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.“

Sources:

• “Power, Competitiveness, and Advice Taking: Why the Powerful Don’t Listen” from L.P. Tost, F. Gino, and R. Larrick, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (forthcoming)
  
• https://www.bakadesuyo.com/
• Picture on top of the page => Woodcut titled: ‘Hear Grass Grow’. Manufacturer: Katerina Coufalova Woodcut-picture for sale at: https://www.grafiekart.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=78

Emotional differences between the rich and poor, as depicted in such Charles Dickens classics as “A Christmas Carol” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” may have a scientific basis. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that people in the lower socio-economic classes are more physiologically attuned to suffering, and quicker to express compassion than their more affluent counterparts.

By comparison, the UC Berkeley study found that individuals in the upper middle and upper classes were less able to detect and respond to the distress signals of others. Overall, the results indicate that socio-economic status correlates with the level of empathy and compassion that people show in the face of emotionally charged situations.”It’s not that the upper classes are coldhearted,” said UC Berkeley social psychologist Jennifer Stellar, lead author of the study published online on Dec. 12 in the journal, Emotion. “They may just not be as adept at recognizing the cues and signals of suffering because they haven’t had to deal with as many obstacles in their lives.”

Stellar and her colleagues’ findings challenge previous studies that have characterized lower-class people as being more prone to anxiety and hostility in the face of adversity.

“These latest results indicate that there’s a culture of compassion and cooperation among lower-class individuals that may be born out of threats to their wellbeing,” Stellar said.

It has not escaped the researchers’ attention that the findings come at a time of rising class tension, expressed in the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Rather than widen the class divide, Stellar said she would like to see the findings promote understanding of different class cultures. For example, the findings suggest that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds may thrive better in cooperative settings than their upper-class counterparts.

“Upper-class individuals appear to be more self-focused, they’ve grown up with more freedom and autonomy,” she said. “They may do better in an individualist, competitive environment.”

More than 300 ethnically diverse young adults were recruited for the UC Berkeley study, which was divided into three experiments that used three separate groups of participants. Because all the volunteers were college undergraduates, their class identification – lower class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class or upper class – was based on parental income and education.

In the first experiment, 148 young adults were rated on how frequently and intensely they experience such emotions as joy, contentment, pride, love, compassion, amusement and awe. In addition, they reported how much they agreed with such statements as “When I see someone hurt or in need, I feel a powerful urge to take care of them,” and “I often notice people who need help.” Compassion was the only positive emotion reported at greater levels by lower-class participants, the study found.

In the second experiment, a new group of 64 participants viewed two videos: an instructional video on construction and an emotionally charged video about families who are coping with the challenges of having a child with cancer. Participants showed no differences while watching the “neutral” instructional video, and all reported feeling sad in response to the video about families of cancer patients. However, members of the lower class reported higher levels of compassion and empathy as distinct from sorrow.

The researchers also monitored the heart rates of participants as they watched the neutral and emotionally charged videos. Lower-class participants showed greater decreases in heart rate as they watched the cancer family video than upper-class participants.

‘[D]uring compassion, the heart rate lowers as if the body is calming itself to take care of another person.’

“One might assume that watching someone suffering would cause stress and raise the heart rate,” Stellar said. “But we have found that, during compassion, the heart rate lowers as if the body is calming itself to take care of another person.”

Finally, a new set of 106 participants was randomly divided into pairs and pitted against one another in mock interviews for a lab manager position. To further raise the stress level in interviews, those who performed best were to win a cash prize. Post-interview reports from the participants showed that the lower-class interviewees perceived their rivals to be feeling greater amounts of stress, anxiety and embarrassment and as a result reported more compassion and sympathy for their competitors. Conversely, upper-class participants were less able to detect emotional distress signals in their rivals.

“Recognizing suffering is the first step to responding compassionately. The results suggest that it’s not that upper classes don’t care, it’s that they just aren’t as good at perceiving stress or anxiety,” Stellar said.

Other coauthors of the study are UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner; Michael Kraus, a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry at UCSF; and Vida Manzo, a researcher in social psychology at Northwestern University. The study was funded by grants from UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and the McNair Scholars Program.

Dat blijkt uit onderzoek in opdracht van het wetenschappelijke bureau van vakcentrale FNV.

Ook voor bedrijven levert flexwerken geen duurzaam economisch voordeel op. Op de korte termijn verlaagt het flexwerken wel de arbeidskosten en wordt de positie tegenover concurrenten versterkt. Op de langere termijn leidt het echter tot minder innovatie en lagere productiviteit.

Het onderzoek is uitgevoerd door onderzoekers van de Universiteit van Amsterdam en de Universiteit van Tilburg.

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Bron: https://www.nu.nl/werk-en-prive/2700173/flexwerken-slecht-werknemers.html
Met dank aan: twitter.com/HenkHogeweg

by Richard Rorty