你知道為什麼麥當勞，肯德基以及必勝客等快餐餐飲標誌都是紅色呢?你知道為什麼教育學者認為誇獎小孩做事能力強比本身很有才華更重要呢?你知道為什麼有時候會夢見遊戲世界的情境非常清晰嗎?
1. Colors顏色
You’ve probably noticed companies such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, McDonald’s all use red color in thelogos. Red is a color associated with excitement and youthfulness. It alsostimulates the area of the brain which is responsible for color.
你可能已經注意到，肯德基、必勝客、達美樂以及麥當勞的標誌都是紅色的。紅色使人聯想到興奮和年輕。紅色還能刺激大腦中負責顏色的區域。
Most of the brandshave researched to figure out which color works best to stimulate thatparticular emotion which can drive the sales of their products. The image belowshows few examples.
大部分品牌都研究過什麼樣的顏色最能激發某種情緒，進而促銷他們的產品。以下圖片就是幾個例子。
2. Studies show thatyou should not tell a child the he/she is “so smart” but instead commend their work.研究表明，人們不應誇獎小孩“很聰明”，而應稱讚他們的努力。
According to CarolDweck and her team at Columbia University telling kids they are smart makes themwant to maintain the image of appearing smart. She says, “we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes.” A better complimentwould be “you must have worked very hard for this.”
根據Carol Dweck和她在哥倫比亞大學的團隊研究，誇小孩聰明會使他們努力維持看上去很聰明的模樣。她說：“我們在告訴他們，這個遊戲的名字叫‘看上去聰明’，但不可以犯錯誤。”更明智的稱讚應該是“你一定很努力地去做這件事了吧?”。
3. People who playvideo games often are much more likely to have lucid dreams than non-gamers.玩電子遊戲的人更容易做清晰的夢。
They were also betterable to influence their dream worlds, as if controlling a video-game character.
他們也更擅長控制自己的夢境，就像控制電子遊戲中的人物角色一樣。
Here’s how to lucid dream.
下面就告訴你如何做清晰的夢。
4. Eyes make us honest. 眼睛使我們誠實。
We all know thescene: the departmental coffee room, with the price list for tea and coffee onthe wall and the “honesty box”where you pay for your drinks – or not, because no oneis watching.
我們都熟悉這個場景：在部門咖啡室，牆上列出茶和咖啡的價格，邊上有一個付費的“誠信箱”(也可能沒有)，沒人在盯著收錢。
Researchersdiscovered that merely a picture of watching eyes nearly tripled the amount ofmoney put in the box.
研究人員發現，僅僅多掛了一幅“注視的眼睛”的畫，箱子裡的錢就多了近三倍。
Melissa Bateson andcolleagues at Newcastle University, UK, put up new price lists each week intheir psychology department coffee room. Prices were unchanged, but each weekthere was a photocopied picture at the top of the list of either flowers or theeyes of real faces. The faces varied but the eyes always looked directly at theobserver. In the weeks with eyes on the list, staff paid 2.76 times as much fortheir drinks as in weeks with flowers.
在英國的紐卡斯爾大學，MelissaBateson和同事們每週都更換一次他們心理系咖啡室的飲品價格，總價格並未改變，但每週價格單上會換一幅畫，畫上是鮮花或眼睛。畫上的面孔會改變，但眼睛卻一直盯著看畫的人。在價格單上有眼睛畫的這幾周，員工支付的飲料費要比掛鮮花畫時的費用高出了2.76倍。
5. If you’re in a really heated situation, try to avoid the word “you”.如果你處在非常激動憤怒的狀態，請儘量避免用“你”這個字眼。
The word “you” is accusatory and is not going to help.
因為這個字眼具有指控性，根本幫不上忙。
6. If you wantsomeone to say yes to something you’re asking for, hereare some options: 如果你希望別人答應你請求的事，可以嘗試以下幾個方法：
Nod as you ask. Ourbrains have what are called ‘mirror neurons’ which activate to make us mimic other people’s actions. Sometimes they will also start to nod, which then makesthem then agree with you.
在提出請求時點頭。人的大腦有種所謂的“鏡像神經元”，能夠刺激人們模仿別人的動作。有時，如果你點頭，對方也會跟著點頭，這樣他們就算是答應你啦。
If you have a bigfavor to ask, start by asking smaller ones ahead of time. This is called thefoot in the door phenomenon. If you ask for small things, then work up to bigthings, people are more likely to say yes than if you start off with a hugefavor.
如果你要請對方幫大忙，那就先開口請求幫小忙。這就是所謂的“門檻效應”。如果你先提小事，然後再扯到大問題上，要比一上來就大開口更容易爭取到對方的答應。
Inversely, if youare asking for a small favor but still know that they will probably say no,start by asking them for a huge favor. Then when they say no, ask for thesmaller one. They’re more likely to say yes, especiallyif they feel a bit bad about turning down the first request.
相反，如果你覺得請求幫小忙的話，對方也很可能拒絕，那就乾脆請求幫大忙。這樣當對方拒絕幫大忙時，你就可以要求幫個小忙了。這種情況下，對方一般都會答應你，因為他們會因為拒絕了你的第一次請求而感到不好意思。
7. If you find a co-workerto be completely wrong about something especially in a meeting or worksituation, it’s better to make yourself the point of reference.如果你發現同事在某件事上徹底搞錯了，特別是在會議或工作場合，那麼最好拿自己作參考點。
For example:
舉個例子：
Bad: Dwight, I thinkyou have got it completely wrong!!!!!
反面：Dwight，我覺得你完全搞錯了!!!!
Better: I don’t think I understood it correctly. From what I understand, it saysthis _____. Am I wrong on this point?
正面：我想我可能在理解上有點偏頗。根據我的理解，你的意思是 ，我的理解對嗎?
8. People who havecars with bumper stickers are more likely to exhibit road rage.保險槓後有車貼的人更傾向有馬路殺手行為，所以按喇叭之前還是三思吧。
You may want tothink twice before laying on the horn. A study at Colorado State Universityfound drivers who use decals, dashboard hulas, and vanity plates, are morelikely to be road ragers than others. Researchers say it comes down to the factthat people who mark their territory appear to be a bit more aggressive.
科羅拉多州立大學的一項調查顯示，車貼花裡胡哨、車牌個性虛榮的車主更可能是馬路殺手。研究人員說，事實表明，標記自己領域所有權的人顯得更具有挑釁性。
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