The Mind

Is it time to bring data to managing?

Trendy office layouts. Performance reviews that crush morale. There’s plenty of evidence on how to get the best out of workers, but businesses often ignore it.

Bad bosses: Dealing with abusive supervisors

From the boardroom to the basketball court, some managers rely on berating and bullying employees. Researchers have learned one thing: It doesn’t work.

The hidden damage of solitary confinement

Meant to punish or protect, social isolation in prison creates a ripple of unintended effects on the psyche

Barista’s burden

The dark side of “service with a smile”

Finland’s bold push to change the heart health of a nation

Beginning in its bleak borderlands, the country launched an official — and broadly influential — effort to improve food and lifestyle choices, using everything from cozy fireside chats and reality TV shows to laws and incentives.

The anti-ads

Countermarketing succeeds by exposing the motives behind the advertising of unhealthy products. It worked for teen smoking — could it do the same for junk food?

Feeling the pressure

How we want to be perceived influences how we act, and that presents persuasion opportunities. But the social factors involved are not easy to unravel.

In promoting health, when to tiptoe — and when to stomp?

Inform, incentivize, legislate: There’s a ladder of escalating approaches for changing citizens’ behavior — and nudges for every rung

Unpersuasive: Why arguing about climate change often doesn’t work

COMIC: In the US, where political parties have increasingly staked claims on one side of the issue or the other, beliefs may be more about belonging than facts

Nudging grows up (and now has a government job)

Ten years after an influential book proposed ways to work with — not against — the irrationalities of human decision-making, practitioners have refined and broadened this gentle tool of persuasion

Peering into the meditating mind

Some people swear by it, but studies of mindfulness have a long way to go

Do yourself a favor

Thinking of others enhances your well-being, while selfishness just adds to stress, studies show

Alzheimer’s holds science at bay

A summary of “Update on Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy and Prevention Strategies” by W. Vallen Graham and coauthors, in the 2017 issue of the Annual Review of Medicine

The imagination effect: A history of placebo power

Rebranding placebos

Harnessing the power of sham therapies for real healing might require a new lexicon

Making the case against memories as evidence

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has shown that our recall can be woefully unreliable. Slowly but surely, the legal system — and more of her peers — are taking her findings into account.

Can marriage make you sick?

In general, it promotes health. But it might not if your relationship is troubled or your partner is ill. Here's why, and what can be done.