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THE POWER OF BAD

Name: THE POWER OF BAD
Author: John Tierney
ISBN: 978-1-59420-552-1

HOW THE NEGATIVITY EFFECT RULES US AND HOW WE CAN RULE IT

by John Tierney & Roy F. Baumeister ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 31, 2019

A solid primer on how to put the power of bad to good use.

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Coping strategies for the negativity bias that pervades our daily lives.

For City Journal contributing editor Tierney and social scientist Baumeister (Psychology/Univ. of Queensland), co-authors of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (2011), the power of bad can be filed under the negativity effect, the “universal tendency for negative events and emotions to affect us more strongly than positive ones.” We revel in praise for a much shorter time than we wallow in criticism. We are fed a constant diet of negative imagery because bad sells (if it bleeds, it leads). Regardless, write the authors, “bad can make us stronger in the end.” Though it may be difficult to negate the negativity, the authors show how not to be ruled by it. Their prescriptions have mostly to do with reframing the context of the negative, isolating the rotten apple so it doesn’t contaminate the remainder of the barrel. These specific strategies have a common-sensical tone: Learn to be as creative with your praise as you are with your criticism. Protect yourself, and don’t expect bad apples to change on their own. Focus on making a good first impression. Regarding retail, they write, “no matter how crazy or obnoxious the customer, end on a good note.” (True to the negativity effect, a single one-star review on Yelp will yield more hits than numerous five-star reviews.) Occasionally, the authors venture into less obviously popular areas—e.g., when we advocate penalties over prizes. A case in point is their call for “less carrot and more stick” when it comes to grading students, especially in college. So is their suggestion for doomsayers to “put your money where you doom is.” As they write, “if doomsayers want society to spend large sums dealing with a threat, they should be willing to put their own cash—and reputations—on the line.” That pronouncement may not seem reasonable in the face of something like climate change, but otherwise, the authors’ advice rings true.

A solid primer on how to put the power of bad to good use.

Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-59420-552-1

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019

Categories:

PSYCHOLOGY | SELF-HELP

- BOOK REVIEW
WILLPOWER
by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney

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THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

by Erin Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

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A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.

“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.

These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.

Pub Date: May 27, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

Categories:

BUSINESS | PSYCHOLOGY

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

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A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.