Peer pressure can make people, especially young people, do stupid things. New research finds that this includes one’s choice of career. A team of economists tested the hypothesis that peer groups can push college students into the wrong major. The economists analyzed data from a university program that randomly assigned students to classes (and thus classmates) for the first few semesters, after which students chose one of two majors. The data showed that students tend to gravitate to a major chosen by more of their peers. And the students whose choice was driven by their peers were then more likely to end up in lower-paying jobs that they didn’t like.
DeGiorgi, G. et al., “Be as Careful of the Company You Keep as of the Books You Read: Peer Effects in Education and on the Labor Market,” National Bureau of Economic Research (May 2009).
When teams sink to a challenge
Teamwork - including lots of meetings - is an essential characteristic of the modern “knowledge economy.” Of course, not all teams perform well, and some are downright dysfunctional. A professor at Harvard Business School studied the work of dozens of teams in the professional services industry. She found that teams under more pressure to perform tended to defer to their more senior members, rather than those members with the most knowledge of the client. Unfortunately, these teams performed worse in the eyes of the client - which is ironic, since impressing the client was the impetus for pressure in the first place.
Gardner, H., “Feeling the Heat: The Effects of Performance Pressure on Teams’ Knowledge Use and Performance,” Harvard University (April 2009).
Now, where was I?
In most jobs, one needs to be able to switch quickly between tasks, but this is easier said than done. Thought processes from the first task are hard to shut off - “attention residue,” in the words of the author of a new study - and can interfere with the second task. Not only can attention residue impede performance on the second task, but attempting to make the transition when the first task is unfinished - or when the first task did not have a tight deadline - makes the problem worse. The only transition that didn’t suffer from attention residue was when the person believed that the first task had been finished under deadline pressure. In other words, put yourself and your co-workers under the gun, do one task at a time, and then move on.
Leroy, S., “Why Is It So Hard to Do My Work? The Challenge of Attention Residue When Switching Between Work Tasks,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (forthcoming).
Truly old-school feminism
Feminism is generally associated with modern, progressive society. Yet few people know that ancient Sparta - infamous for its militarism - granted women exceptional rights. Spartan women could inherit, own, and bequeath property; they were fed and schooled as much as men; they had complete freedom of movement; they married later and could even get away with adultery. So why would the tough Spartan men allow this to happen? Upon subjugating its neighbors - whose population vastly outnumbered Sparta’s - Sparta needed its males to focus entirely on training for war and its females to focus on managing the subjugated population and estates. To give the women sufficient capability and incentive, especially in the absence of men, the men had to grant the extra rights to women, the authors of a new study argue. However, as in modern times, more autonomy for women was associated with lower fertility, which ultimately led to Sparta being unable to field a large enough army, losing control of its subjugated neighbors, and rescinding the rights of its women.
Fleck, R. & Hanssen, A., “ ‘Rulers Ruled by Women’: An Economic Analysis of the Rise and Fall of Women’s Rights in Ancient Sparta,” Economics of Governance (July 2009).
Money, the new Tylenol
Money may not be able to buy love, but it can buy the strength to endure social rejection and physical pain. In multiple experiments on Chinese university students, psychologists found consistent support for this effect. Perceived social rejection or thoughts relating to pain induced greater desire for money, while the act of counting money - compared to counting pieces of paper - buffered the impact of being rejected or feeling pain. On the other hand, when people thought about how much money they’d spent in the last month, the impact of rejection or pain was intensified.
Zhou, X. et al., “The Symbolic Power of Money: Reminders of Money Alter Social Distress and Physical Pain,” Psychological Science (June 2009).
Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. He can be reached at kevin.lewis.ideas@gmail.com. 
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