Great Moments in Research: Psychologists Are Humble

It sounds like some psychologists could use a bit of assertiveness training: At a recent social psychology conference, one of the attendees kept an informal tally of how often presenters made negative statements about their own presentations. Out of 18 presenters, 11 made negative statements like I’ve prepared a gosh-awful overhead This is a gross […]

Footmouth
It sounds like some psychologists could use a bit of assertiveness training:

At a recent social psychology conference, one of the attendees kept an informal tally of how often presenters made negative statements about their own presentations. Out of 18 presenters, 11 made negative statements like

I've prepared a gosh-awful overhead
This is a gross oversimplification, or
We thought this study was pretty lame.

Cognitive Daily is a bit alarmed: "Why would esteemed researchers find it worthwhile to make self-criticalstatements in front of their own colleagues? We're not talking hereabout sandbagging, where a speaker deliberately lowers expectations inorder to make his or her accomplishments appear more impressive. We'realso not talking about supplication or begging for pity. Nor were thesestatements disclaimers, where listeners were asked to disregard oroverlook a flaw."

I'm thinking about adopting the same approach here at Bodyhack, but with a passive-aggressive twist. Look for warnings like "This post was barely worth my time, let alone yours."

When it's positive to make a negative statement [CD]