Productivity

Early success in winning research funding encourages scientists to apply more often for funding later. Scientists who won funding early in their career were more likely to apply for and win additional funding over the next eight years than similarly ranked peers who didn't win early funding.

Drawing improves the ability to remember words compared with writing them down. This effect is greater for older adults and people with dementia than for younger participants.

Employees who regularly used a smartphone app to perform mindfulness meditation for 10 minutes or more per week experienced greater well-being and less perceived job strain (workload and intensity) than employees who received education about stress reduction. Those who meditated more often perceived greater benefits.

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Dim lighting can promote creativity by eliciting a feeling of being more free from constraints on creative thought.

Journal of Environmental Psychology

People were more creative when they were made to think of their multiple social identities, such as race, gender, family, or group identities.

Social Psychological and Personality Science

Cooperation in the operating room was better if the surgeon's gender was different from the majority of the team. The likelihood of cooperation was higher when there were mostly females in the room.

Stronger work culture (teamwork, shared values, responsiveness to employees and customers, goals and action plans) at car dealerships led to increased sales and customer satisfaction, but sales did not affect work culture.

In the U.S., patients hospitalized for cardiac emergencies in cities during an ongoing marathon are more likely to die within 30 days than patients who are hospitalized during non-marathon days or in areas unaffected by marathons. Ambulance transport times are also increased by 4.4 minutes before noon during marathons.

In a study of mostly women workers, those who either walked in parks or did relaxation exercises (mindfulness, breathing, and muscle relaxation) during their lunch break had better concentration and less strain (stress and tension) in the afternoon, compared to workers who did neither. Those who did relaxation exercises also had less afternoon fatigue.

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Promoting feelings of value and worth in employees as well as opportunities to discuss tasks increases creative thinking.

Human Relations

Productivity