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People with low self-esteem post more negative updates, which makes them less likeable. On the surface, Facebook would seem to offer important benefits to people who have low self-esteem. Sharing is easy and feels safe on Facebook, and sharing is an important way to improve friendships. Having a stable network of social connections helps to improve self-esteem. In reality, though, it may not work out that way. A new study conducted by Amanda Forest and Joanne Wood of the University of Waterloo found that people with low self-esteem tend to post too many negative updates, causing friends to see them as less likeable. The study will be published in the journal Psychological Science . Initially, the researchers, who have a special focus on self-esteem and how it impacts which emotions people express, thought that Facebook would be an ideal venue for people to go to learn social skills and improve friendships. People who have lower self-esteem typically find it hard to share their feelings in a one-on-one setting. However, Facebook allows users to share and have social interactions without the need for face-to-face contact. The researchers found that participants with low self-esteem often view Facebook as a chance to connect and interact with others in a safe setting without the awkwardness they often feel in live, in-person social settings. Participants were also asked to provide the ten most recent updates about their life that they posted for their Facebook friends to see. The updates were rated for negativity, then an undergraduate research assistant went through the updates and indicated how likeable they found the person who made the statements from the updates. Participants who had low self-esteem tended to post updates that were more negative on average. In turn, the assistants who rated their updates tended to find them less likeable than people with higher self-esteem. Although the raters did not know the people who posted the updates, according to Forest, a previous study showed that almost half of the friends people list on Facebook are strangers or mere acquaintances, rather than close friends. The study found that when participants with low self-esteem placed very positive messages on their pages, they received more responses from members of their actual Facebook friends list than they did when they placed negative or neutral messages on Facebook. However, participants who had high self-esteem got more responses from their friends when they posted negative messages. Forest and Wood speculate that this may be because, in both cases, these types of posts are more unusual for these users. The investigators concluded that, while people who have low self-esteem may be more willing to share on Facebook, they might not receive the same benefits from doing so that they would get from face-to-face encounters. This is because people may not be as willing to provide feedback on Facebook the way they might in person. According to Forest, in a live social setting, people may be able to pick up on a friend’s negative reaction to to something they said. “On Facebook, you don’t see most of the reactions.” Related posts: Facebook positively influences education, study says Facebook’s Effect on Interpersonal Relationships [Infographic] Almost Half of Facebook Users Have Profanity on Their Wall

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Don’t Use Facebook If You Have Low Self-Esteem [Study]

How different are we? The issue of whether the differences between men and women are real or imaginary has been a matter of much debate. Now a new study conducted by the University of Turin in Italy and published in the journal PLoS ONE claims to have uncovered evidence that large differences in personality exist between men and women. Previous research has lent little credence to the popular school of thought that men and women are so different that they may as well live on different planets. However, lead author Marco Del Giudice claims to have developed a more accurate method to measure and analyze what he says are significant personality differences between men and women. Under Del Giudice, investigators took personality measurements from more than 5,000 men and 5,000 women. They measured 15 different traits, including warmth and sensitivity. Unlike previous studies, Del Giudice’s project compared comprehensive personality profiles that considered many different traits, rather than focusing upon differences in the incidence of individual traits between the sexes. When the data is looked at this way, very large differences between men and women are seen. Del Giudice admits that these individual differences, taken separately, do appear much less significant. He contends, however, that previous researchers not only neglected to correct for measurement errors, but that their practice of looking at one trait at a time obscured the big picture. As a result, according to Del Giudice, previous investigators failed to recognize the full extent of personality differences between men and women. Related posts: Beautiful people convey personality traits better during first impressions Study Finds Surprising Gender Differences Related to Sexual Harassment Evidence Says Women Are Better Multitaskers Than Men [Study]

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Significant Personality Differences Between Men And Women Found [Study]

A new study has linked employee satisfaction to both management style and corporate attitudes towards employees. In an article published in Springer’s Journal of Business and Psychology , researchers from the Universite Francois Rabelais in Tours, France, revealed new evidence that meeting employees’ basic needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness leads to improved job satisfaction. According to Dr. Nicolas Gillet, when employers use the threat of punishment as motivation and give employees the impression that their contributions are not valued, employee well-being goes down. Past studies have shown that over a fourth of the variation in performance among individual employees is due to differences in their feelings of well-being. As a result, employee well-being has increasingly become the focus of corporate attention as businesses strive to improve performance for economic reasons. For this study, the researchers investigated how employees’ perceptions of their organization as valuing or devaluing worker contributions , as well as supervisors’ management styles affect employees’ feelings of well-being. Employees from French companies of various sizes were surveyed about the management styles of their immediate superiors. They were also asked how supportive their employers were. The researchers found that those employees who had managers who supported their autonomy reported higher levels of satisfaction. In addition, those employees who believed their companies valued their contributions were more satisfied. When supervisors utilized a punitive management style, or when employees felt unappreciated by their organizations, they reported lower levels of satisfaction. The investigators concluded that businesses should consider the needs of employees in order to improve productivity. According to Gillet, “We have shown, for the first time, that the fulfillment and frustration of these needs plays a central role in the improvement or reduction of well-being at work. Therefore, to satisfy employees’ needs, supervisors should provide subordinates with options rather than use threats and deadlines.” Related posts: Workers with freedom report higher employee satisfaction Teleworkers more satisfied than office-based employees Generation Gaps at Work Not Just About Age, Study Says

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Job Dissatisfaction Stems From Unmet Employee Needs [Study]

A new study conducted by researchers from the Alberta School of Business in cooperation with the University of Calgary suggests that, in many cases, people are willing to lie in order to help a close friend avoid embarrassment in a social situation. According to Jennifer Argo, most people will step in to help preserve or even enhance a friend’s social image or to save a friend from social embarrassment. The investigators set out to determine which conditions would be necessary for most people to tell a direct lie in order to protect another person’s reputation. They discovered that it is very common for people to be willing to lie to keep a friend from looking foolish. The researchers dubbed their discovery the wingman theory, or the Barney Stinson principle, after the character portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother . Like Harris’s character, many people are willing to wait in the wings and step forward with so-called white lies designed to help a friend look good. According to Argo, “This is an instance when you don’t have the opportunity to make yourself look good, so somebody else does it for you.” The study involved setting up a scenario in which a person is present when a friend comes face to face with an individual who paid less for the same new car. The researchers discovered that, even if the price difference was small, people were eager to lie to help a friend save face. Perhaps even more surprising, when the price difference was large, people were often willing to lie to help a stranger avoid looking foolish. According to Argo, participants reported that they identified with the person on the hot seat and lied because they would want someone to lie for them under the same circumstances. The rule only held true when the chagrined friend was actually present, however. If the conversation occurred away from the friend, people were likely to lie for them only when the price difference was very large. Argo noted that a person’s willingness to dissemble on behalf of a friend was proportionate to the depth of the friendship involved. “If it’s the best friend, I think most people would lie, even at the risk of possibly being found out.” Argo says that she believes that her findings can be generalized to apply to any situation in which a person perceives that a friend is in danger of being cast in a bad light. She speculates that the same principle may be behind the common practice of playing up a friend’s qualifications on a job recommendation or exaggerating a friend’s good points to a potential date. Argo suggests that further study could shed light on the social cost to the friend who steps forth to take on the wingman role. For example, Argo wonders what effect the telling of the lie might have upon the beneficiary of the lie, speculating that the friend whose reputation was saved might later question the veracity and overall character of the wingman. Related posts: ‘The Friend of My Enemy Is My Enemy’: Virtual Universe Study Proves 80-Year-Old Theory on How Humans Interact Study Supports Theory That Violent Video Games Contribute To Desensitization and Increased Aggression

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The Wingman Theory: Most Lie to Help Friends Save Face [Study]

Kenneth W. Freeman, Dean of the School of Management at Boston University, discusses the role ethics plays in business education.

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Dean’s Corner: Kenneth W. Freeman on Ethics in Business Education

Fotoshop by Adobé is a video which takes a hard look at the media’s beauty standards through a humorous fake commercial advertising Adobe’s Photoshop as Fotoshop by Adobé, a new beauty regimen. We have all observed the unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards that modern media highlights. Through the commercials like those of Dove and other documentaries we have come to realize that those levels of beauty are only made possible by vast amounts of makeup and computer editing. In this video, we get a chance to laugh at these processes with concepts like the healing brush being cleverly wrapped in a tangible store-bought box available to women everywhere. Take this time to sit back and laugh at yourself and your love handles. Related posts: Body Image and the Media [Videographic] Video Gaming Magazines Influence Muscularity Among Boys Violent Video Games Increase Aggression Just By Thinking About Them

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Fotoshop by Adobé Makes Fun of Media Beauty Standards [Video]