Saturday, January 01, 2022

New Year: Should I email, text, or call? Researchers have discovered the answer to an age-old question

Whispering Gums


Top 10 most-read (non-covid) wellness stories for 2021




Washington Post: “…This year, we thought everyone needed a little mental break from the pandemic. Below you will find the top 10 most-read non-coronavirus wellness stories. Most of them focus on everyday concerns — but there are a few odd phenomena in there…”



Trust, Faith, and Covid NEJM


Gift Guide 2021: A Few of Your Favorite Things

I’ve been producing gift guides at Daily Nous for several years now—see the ones for 2019 or 2018, for example—but I thought I’d do things a bit differently this year. (more…)


Professional seed hunter completes his mission to find an endangered plant — with barely a day to spare


Australia-China relations continued to sour in 2021. What can we expect in 2022?


NY Times: Christmas Turns The World Upside Down — God's Power Is Made Perfect In Our Weakness


NY Times Op-Ed: Why Jesus Never Stopped Asking Questions


with 'Chinese characteristics'. China's greatest success was the Soviet Union's biggest catastrophe: The economy. In the early days, the USSR ...


Should I email, text, or call? Researchers have discovered the answer to an age-old question

Fast Company: “Whatever you do, don’t email. Or text. That is, if you want someone to actually help you. A new research paper finds that in-person communication is the most successful way to get the assistance you need. Should that not be an option, a phone call or video call are second best. “In-person requests were 67% more effective than audio and video calls in one study,” Cornell University associate professor Vanessa Bohns, who wrote the paper with Ryerson University assistant professor M. Mahdi Roghanizad, explains in an email to Fast Company. “In another study, video and audio requests were 86% more effective than email requests.” In their write-up, they also explain that the participants in their studies underestimate the effectiveness of in-person communication. “We didn’t compare in-person to email in that paper, but did in an earlier paper with requests made of strangers (rather than friends, as in this study),” Bohns added. “In that study, we found in-person requests were 34 times more effective than email requests.” Participants in the new study asked 1,490 respondents for help proofreading a half-page of text. The research was published in the November issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science…”



NY Times Op-Ed: What Do You Say To The Sufferer?