My mom used to give us kids some pretty good advice. In fairness to my younger self, I discounted some of it during my tween and teen years, chalking it up to her being a recently transplanted Canadian raising a family in the United States.
I’m talking about things like:
Say “please” and “thank you.”
“No problem” is not a substitute for “You’re welcome.”
Sit up straight! People notice your posture, and it matters.
Sorry for doubting, Mom.
I’ve written here before about how, over time, I’ve developed the zeal of a convert when it comes to saying “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome.”
And now, I’m happy to have found scientific evidence that my mom may have been onto something about sitting up straight—and even happier to realize that it comes from Canada’s own McGill University.
Writing in the British Journal of Psychology, McGill researchers said they recruited nearly 200 participants to complete a task on a tablet.
For some participants, the tablet was positioned on a stand atop an adjustable table, encouraging them to sit upright. For others, it was placed flat on a lowered desk, prompting them to hunch over.
The researchers didn’t tell participants that posture was part of the experiment, and most never realized it. They also used video software to measure participants’ actual neck angles.
The task involved inflating a virtual balloon. With each pump, participants could accumulate more points, but if the balloon burst before they cashed out, they lost everything they had earned on that round.
Over the course of the experiment, participants in the upright group took greater risks and tended to accumulate more points.
More upright posture, as measured by neck angle, was also associated with greater feelings of pride.
“The findings do not mean that changing posture can dramatically transform a person’s life,” cautioned Jorge Armony, professor in the departments of psychiatry and psychology at McGill and senior author of the study. “But it does raise interesting questions about whether everyday features of our environment—such as workplace ergonomics—can subtly influence mood and behaviour.”
(“Behaviour.” I love it.)
Look, as much as I love and respect my mom and her advice—especially as I’m now more than a bit older and have had time to appreciate it—I’m not going to pretend that posture is the key to success.
But we have seen that salespeople who mimic their customers’ speech and posture wind up selling more products, all other things being equal.
And even though the Superman pose has its critics, I find that striking it before having to, well, act like Superman pays off.
Maybe it’s the placebo effect? But if it works, who am I to argue?
Thanks, Mom. Turns out you were right.
I probably should have listened sooner, eh?
Other things worth knowing …
AP | Reuters: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on AI companies to slow development to give safety measures time to catch up, warning that AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months. OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Google’s Demis Hassabis said they supported a coordinated industry slowdown.
CNBC: Trump pushed back, lashing out at Amodei on Truth Social on Monday: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”
WSJ: Saudi Arabia shut down the East-West oil pipeline that had allowed the kingdom to continue exporting crude oil during the Iran war, after it was attacked multiple times by drones fired from Iraq — eliminating what had been a crucial bypass route for Saudi oil exports.
News Nation via Yahoo: Americans have spent an extra $102 billion on gasoline and diesel due to the Iran war, and the tally is still rising, according to a real-time tracker from Brown University. That’s equivalent to roughly $780 per U.S. household since the conflict began at the end of February.
DW | WSJ: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday he is pursuing unprecedented closeness with the European Union to reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States — but not EU membership. His clarification came after the Wall Street Journal reported he had been exploring whether Canada could become an “associate member” of the bloc, a status the EU would have to create for the occasion.
Reuters: While on a two-day visit to Ireland over the weekend, Trump backed Irish unity, calling for Northern Ireland to break from the United Kingdom and unify with the Republic of Ireland. “I would love to see it sooner rather than later,” he said. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ruled out any such referendum.
NBC News: A second federal judge — a Trump appointee — blocked the administration’s executive order limiting mail-in ballots, saying there is an “increased risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted” if the rule stands. The Supreme Court is still weighing the administration’s request to overturn a separate order blocking the same rule.
Thanks for reading. Photo by Bharathi Kannan on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this at Inc.com. See you in the comments!
Reading today’s other things worth knowing, I’ve noticed a pattern. Virtually everything trump proposes (or the way he proposes doing anything) is counter to the things people value and expect. This pattern applies, for example, to relationships with other countries, domestic policies and the manner in which he wants to name everything about himself. Moreover, he does these things with the attitude of a bully.