MYTHS AND TRUTHS ABOUT AN OFTEN-USED, LITTLE-UNDERSTOOD STATISTICAL PROCEDURE If you go to a consumer research conference, you will hear tales of how experiments have undergone particular statistical rites: the attainment of the elusive crossover interaction, the demonstration of full mediation through Baron and Kenny’s sacred procedure, and so on. DSN has nothing against any […]
HORMONE LINKED TO IN-GROUP GOODNESS, OUT-GROUP BADNESS Who doesn’t like oxytocin? Who could dislike any substance referred to as a cuddle chemical? The answer may be you, if you are not in with the crowd feeling the effects of the hormone. Carsten de Dreu and a super-long list of co-authors (listed below), have administered oxytocin to […]
QUIZ YOUR LOVED ONES ABOUT THEIR PROPENSITY TO PLAN John Lynch, Richard Netemeyer, Stephen Spiller, Alessandra Zammit have recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research this article on the propensity to plan and financial well being ABSTRACT Planning has pronounced effects on consumer behavior and intertemporal choice. We develop a six-item scale measuring individual […]
GUESSING WHAT PEOPLE ARE THINKING ABOUT BASED ON BRAIN ACTIVATION You know how in cheesy 80s movies and TV shows there will be a romantic scene, like two young people on a date, and the guy will say something like “I can read minds, you know” and the girl will say “Ok” and scrunch up […]
USING GRAPHICAL DISPLAYS TO COMMUNICATE TERRORISM RISKS Jon Baron sent over this timely article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8153539.stm I like the way the author suggests visual representations (as above) to make the point. That particular representation seems vaguely familiar. I wonder if the author knows there’s been quite a bit of research done on it. 1) Sedlmeier, P., & Gigerenzer, […]
TIMELY, LIVELY, AND CREATIVE Decision Science News just received the new copy of Marketing Science in the mail and must confess, it is great. Where to start: Timely: It kicks off with an editorial that connects the science of marketing to the financial crisis, addressing a topic that is on the mind of many readers. […]
NEW YORK TIMES STORY ON THE APPEAL OF R (click to view movie) It is no secret that Decision Science News is crazy about the R language for statistical computing. Find out why R is so great in this New York Times article. Then start to teach yourself R with our short series of video […]
INCREASE VOTER TURNOUT AMONG STUDENTS Columbia University’s Eric Johnson and Elke Weber have created Teachers4Turnout, a Web site / classroom activity to encourage voting among students. Check it out at http://www.teachers4turnout.org. Here’s how they describe it: The upcoming election is important to us, but even more important to our students. Decisions made by those officials […]
DOES EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE SUPPORT PARACHUTE USE? In 2003, the characteristically less-than-hilarious BMJ published a satirical article entitled “Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials.” It has its funny parts. The authors’ point is summarized in the abstract’s conclusion: Conclusions: As with many interventions intended […]
THE CENTER OF THE CIRCLE HEURISTIC When a number of crimes, for instance burglaries, can be linked to the same offender, police often plot the locations on a map. The art of finding the location of the criminal’s home based on the crime sites is a key objective in what is known as geographical profiling. […]
Subscribe to Decision Science News by Email (one email per week, easy unsubscribe)
