The
end of 2010 fast approaches, and I'm thrilled to have been asked by the
editors of Psychology Today to write about the Top 7 psychology
studies of the year. I've focused on studies that I personally feel
stand out, not only as examples of great science, but even more
importantly, as examples of how the science of psychology can improve
our lives.

Each study has a clear "take home" message, offering the reader an insight or a simple strategy they can use to reach their goals, strengthen their relationships, make better decisions, or become happier. If you extract the wisdom from these ten studies and apply them in your own life, 2011 just might be a very good year.

1) How to Break Bad Habits

If you are trying to stop smoking,
swearing, or chewing your nails, you have probably tried the strategy
of distracting yourself - taking your mind off whatever it is you are
trying not to do - to break the habit. You may also have realized by
now that it doesn't work. Distraction is a great way to resist a
passing temptation, but it turns out to be a terrible way to break a
habit that has really taken hold.

That's because habit-behaviors
happen automatically - often, without our awareness. So thinking about
George Clooney isn't going to stop me from biting my nails if I don't
realize I'm doing it in the first place.

What you need to do instead is focus on stopping the behavior before
it starts (or, as psychologists tend to put it, you need to "inhibit"
your bad behavior). According to research by Jeffrey Quinn and his
colleagues, the most effective strategy for breaking a bad habit is vigilant monitoring
- focusing your attention on the unwanted behavior to make sure you
don't engage in it. In other words, thinking to yourself "Don't do it!"
and watching out for slipups - the very opposite of
distraction. If you stick with it, the use of this strategy can
inhibit the behavior completely over time, and you can be free of your
bad habit for good.

J.
Quinn, A. Pascoe, W. Wood, & D. Neal (2010) Can't control yourself?
Monitor those bad habits. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
36, 499-511.

2) How to Make Everything Seem Easier

Most
of us have grown accustomed to the idea that our moods, and even our
judgments, can be influenced by unrelated experiences of sight and sound
- we feel happier on sunny days, more relaxed when listening to certain
kinds of music, and more likely to lose our tempers when it's hot and
humid. But very few of us have even considered the possibility that our tactile experience - the sensations associated with the things we touch, might have this same power.

New
research by Joshua Ackerman, Christopher Nocera, and John Bargh shows
that the weight, texture, and hardness of the things we touch are, in
fact, unconsciously factored into our decisions about things that have nothing to do with what we are touching.

For instance, we associate smoothness and roughness
with ease and difficulty, respectively, as in expressions like "smooth
sailing," and "rough road ahead." In one study, people who completed a
puzzle with pieces that had been covered in sandpaper later described an
interaction between two other individuals as more difficult and awkward
than those whose puzzles had been smooth. (Tip: Never try to buy a car
or negotiate a raise while wearing a wool sweater. Consider satin
underpants instead. Everything seems easy in satin underpants.)

J.
Ackerman, C. Nocera, and J. Bargh (2010) Incidental haptic sensations
influence social judgments and decisions. Science, 328, 1712- 1715.

3) How To Manage Your Time Better

Good time management
starts with figuring out what tasks you need to accomplish, and how
long each will take. The problem is, human beings are generally pretty
lousy when it comes to estimating the time they will need to complete
any task. Psychologists refer to this as the planning fallacy, and it has the very real potential to screw up our plans and keep us from reaching our goals.

New research by Mario Weick and Ana Guinote shows that, somewhat ironically, people in positions of power
are particularly poor planners. That's because feeling powerful tends
to focus us on getting what we want, ignoring the potential obstacles
that stand in our way. The future plans of powerful people often
involve "best-case scenarios," which lead to far shorter time estimates
than more realistic plans that take into account what might go wrong.

The
good news is, you can learn to more accurately predict how long
something will take and become a better planner, if you stop and
consider potential obstacles, along with two other factors: your own
past experiences (i.e., how long did it take last time?), and all the
steps or subcomponents that make up the task (i.e., factoring in the
time you'll need for each part.)

M.
Weick & A. Guinote (2010) How long will it take? Power biases time
predictions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

4) How to Be Happier

Most
of us tend to think that if we just had a bit more money we'd get more
satisfaction out of life, but on the whole, this turns out not to be
true. So why doesn't money make us happier? New research by
Jordi Quoidbach and colleagues suggests that the answer lies, at least
in part, in how wealthier people lose touch with their ability to savor life's pleasures.

Savoring
is a way of increasing and prolonging our positive experiences. Taking
time to experience the subtle flavors in a piece of dark chocolate,
imaging the fun you'll have on an upcoming vacation (and leafing through
your trip photos afterward), telling all your friends on Facebook
about the hilarious movie you saw over the weekend - these are all acts
of savoring, and they help us to squeeze every bit of joy out of the
good things that happen to us.

Why, then, don't wealthier people
savor, if it feels so good? It's obviously not for a lack of things to
savor. The basic idea is that when you have the money to eat at fancy
restaurants every night and buy designer clothes from chic boutiques,
those experiences diminish the enjoyment you get out of the simpler,
more everyday pleasures, like the smell of a steak sizzling on your
backyard grill, or the bargain you got on the sweet little sundress from
Target.

Create plans for how to inject more savoring into each day, and you will increase your happiness
and well-being much more than (or even despite) your growing riches.
And if you're riches aren't actually growing, then savoring is still a
great way to truly appreciate what you do have.

J.
Quoidbach, E. Dunn, K. Petrides, & M. Mikolajczak (2010) Money
giveth, money taketh away: The dual effect of wealth on happiness.
Psychological Science, 21, 759-763.

5) How to Have More Willpower

Do
you have the willpower to get the job done, or have you found yourself
giving in to temptations, distractions, and inaction when trying to
reach your own goals? If it's the latter, you're not alone. But more
importantly, you can do something about it. New research by Mark
Muraven shows that our capacity for self-control is surprisingly like a
muscle that can be strengthened by regular exercise.

Do you have a
sweet tooth? Try giving up candy, even if weight-loss and
cavity-prevention are not your goals. Hate exerting yourself
physically? Go out and buy one of those handgrips you see the muscle
men with at the gym - even if your goal is to pay your bills on time.
In one study, after two weeks of sweets-abstinence and handgripping,
Muraven found that participants had significantly improved on a
difficult concentration task that required lots of self-control.

Just
by working your willpower muscle regularly, engaging in simple actions
that require small amounts of self-control - like sitting up straight or
making your bed each day - you can develop the self-control strength
you'll need to tackle all of your goals.

6) How to Feel More Powerful

In the animal
kingdom, alphas signal their dominance through body movement and
posture. Human beings are no different. The most powerful guy in the
room is usually the one whose physical movements are most expansive -
legs apart, leaning forward, arms spread wide while he gestures. He's
the CEO who isn't afraid to swing his feet up onto the conference room
table, hands behind his head and elbows jutting outward, confident in
his power to spread himself out however he damn well pleases.

The
nervous, powerless person holds himself very differently - he makes
himself physically as small as possible: shoulders hunched, feet
together, hands in his lap or arms wrapped protectively across his
chest. He's the guy in the corner who is hoping he won't be called on,
and often is barely noticed.

We adopt these poses unconsciously,
and they are perceived (also unconsciously) by others as indictors of
our status. But a new set of studies by Dana Carney, Amy Cuddy, and
Andy Yap reveals that the relationship between power and posing works in
both directions. In other words, holding powerful poses can actually make you more powerful.

In their studies, posing in "high power" positions not only created psychological and behavioral changes typically associated with powerful people, it created physiological
changes characteristic of the powerful as well. High power posers
felt more powerful, were more willing to take risks, and experienced
significant increases in testosterone along with decreases in cortisol (the body's chemical response to stress.)

If you want more power - not just the appearance of power, but the genuine feeling
of power - then spread your limbs wide, stand up straight, and lean
into the conversation. Carry yourself like the guy in charge, and in a
matter of minutes your body will start to feel it, and you will start to believe it.

D.
Carney, A. Cuddy, and A. Yap (2010) Power posing: Brief nonverbal
displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance. Psychological
Science, 21, 1363-1368.

7) How to Make It Easier to Cut Your Losses

Sometimes,
we don't know when to throw in the towel. As a project unfolds, it
becomes clear that things aren't working out as planned, that it will
cost too much or take too long, or that someone else will beat you to
the punch. But instead of moving on to new opportunities, we continue
to devote our time, energy, and money to doomed projects (or even doomed
relationships), digging a deeper hole rather than trying to climb our
way out of it.

Why? The most likely culprit is our overwhelming aversion to sunk costs
- the resources that we've put into an endeavor that we can't get back
out. We worry far too much about what we'll lose if we just move on, and
not nearly enough about the costs of not moving on - more wasted time and effort, and more missed opportunities.

But
thanks to recent research by Daniel Molden and Chin Ming Hui, there is a
simple way to be sure you are making the best decisions when your
endeavor goes awry: focus on what you have to gain, rather than what you have to lose.

Psychologists call this adopting a promotion focus. When Molden and Hui had participants think about their goals
in terms of potential gains, they became more comfortable with
accepting the losses they had to incur along the way. When they adopted
a prevention focus, on the other hand, and thought about their goals in terms of what they could lose if they didn't succeed, they were much more sensitive to sunk costs.

If
you make a deliberate effort to refocus yourself prior to making your
decision, reflecting on what you have to gain by cutting your losses
now, you'll find it much easier to make the right choice.

D.
Molden & C. Hui (2010) Promoting de-escalation of commitment: A
regulatory focus perspective on sunk costs. Psychological Science.