Posted: 20 Oct 2011 06:56 PM PDT

New paper on contagion in sports performance:

Putting Like a Pro: The Role of Positive Contagion in Golf Performance and Perception

Abstract

Many amateur athletes believe that using a professional athletes equipment can improve their performance. Such equipment can be said to be affected with positive contagion, which refers to the belief of transference of beneficial properties between animate persons/objects to previously neutral objects. In this experiment, positive contagion was induced by telling participants in one group that a putter previously belonged to a professional golfer. The effect of positive contagion was examined for perception and performance in a golf putting task. Individuals who believed they were using the professional golfers putter perceived the size of the golf hole to be larger than golfers without such a belief and also had better performance, sinking more putts. These results provide empirical support for anecdotes, which allege that using objects with positive contagion can improve performance, and further suggest perception can be modulated by positive contagion.

via PLoS ONE: Putting Like a Pro: The Role of Positive Contagion in Golf Performance and Perception.

Today in Handshakes

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 05:47 PM PDT

Don’t know the context — a hockey game? — but I’ve been both these guys.

Michael Pettis Talks China

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 05:19 PM PDT

Good talk by China skeptic Michael Pettis:

Twitter Digest: 2011-10-20

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT

More to the ETF volatility debate than meets the eye http://t.co/koZTMomQ #
Tricky. RT @FinancialTimes: Strike shuts Greece before austerity vote http://t.co/WBu3BxMq #
Worth a look if you’re into that sort of thing: A survey of venture capital research http://t.co/QwKGnmdd #
Surprisingly, consumers mostly know what they owe, expect in the case of credit cards, where they’re off by 50% – http://t.co/oRPEqOZ4 #
My friend @MParekh makes this argument all the time: America is underpopulated to its detriment – http://t.co/dzrxbhqE /via @felixsalmon #
Robin Hanson on the future of cities … of simulated humans? – http://t.co/co6bS7Ol #
Blogs are to blame? “[W]hen government focuses on blogs, government is not focusing on how to best prepare the economy” http://t.co/VTsy4auq #
My favorite Meekerism “wha?” quote from her slidefest: “Not intended to discredit Maslow’s hierarchy, which we believe to be accurate.” #
Hagens: The Role of Energy in Economic Growth http://t.co/xyMCM5cj #
Love Dropbox’s original Y-Combinator application. Smart, funny, and Drew just plain got it. http://t.co/X4xejDrF /via @sacca #
Link to text of my colleague Harold Bradley’s ETF testimony in Senate subcommittee earlier today http://t.co/iplCtyS5 #
Michael Winslow does Led Zep. Has to be seen to be believed. And even then. http://t.co/2K5xMUBc /via @stechert #
Shadowy group says it targets Mexico’s Zetta drug cartel – http://t.co/rVrNBL4I #
Will Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight Rises’ occupy Wall Street? – http://t.co/jsESbU8R #
Merkel Risks Own Downfall to Save Greece http://t.co/VV5U5PK0 #