Posts Tagged ‘research’

Do you know where the wealth is?

Friday, March 25th, 2011

According to new research from Harvard Business School, most Americans have no idea how wealth is distributed in this country.

Here’s a handy chart from the study that pretty clearly illustrates how Americans think wealth is distributed, how they wish it was distributed, and how it’s actually distributed:

wealth-actual-and-perceived.gif
(click chart to download a pdf of the study)

Did you know that there was such a huge difference between the very top and the very bottom of the wealth scale?

  • - The top 1% (about 3 million people out of 300 million) holds 50% of the nation’s total wealth, and the top 20% owns 85%.
  • – The bottom 20% of Americans (about 62 million people) owns less than 5%.

There’s an interesting discussion on the New York Times about why this might be the case, why Americans underestimate income inequality, and whether we should even care.

Are you surprised? What would you have guessed?

Whoa… we always knew TILE could make you prosper, but it might actually make you live longer, too!

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011


(photo credit: Andy Welsher)

A new study on longevity reveals that (shocker) slacking off and not caring about anything will probably make you die faster.

“What characterized the people who thrived is a combination of their own persistence and dependability and the help of other people,” Friedman says. The young adults who were thrifty, persistent, detail-oriented and responsible lived the longest.

Time to work on that financial plan you’ve been putting off, no?

Money is the root of all YUCK!

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Germy currencies from around the world…

“Fun” Fact: Australia had the cleanest currency in the study, and the U.S. dollar had the highest concentration of E. coli – the bacteria that causes food poisoning.

(Don’t be offended by the giant “FOR KIDS” headline at the top of the article. Money is gross no matter how old you are.)

Your parents aren’t going to be happy about this…

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Ouch. According to a new study, college students are spending four (or more) years and thousands of dollars on higher education, but they’re not actually learning anything.


(photo credit: peanutian)

Here’s the short story:

Students are slacking off, colleges are more focused on enrolling and keeping new students than they are on making sure each student gets a quality education, and professors are having trouble keeping up with their increasingly large class sizes as more and more people attend college.

Here are the fun facts:

  • 45 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” during the first two years of college.
  • 36 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” over four years of college.
  • Students who study by themselves for more hours each week gain more knowledge — while those who spend more time studying in peer groups see diminishing gains.
  • Students whose classes reflect high expectations (more than 40 pages of reading a week and more than 20 pages of writing a semester) gained more than other students.
  • Students who spend more time in fraternities and sororities show smaller gains than other students.

Read the whole story here.

Studying You Studying Art

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

In an attempt to improve their offerings, museums have begun a program of patron espionage…

  • Nowadays, museums are supposed to be interactive and engaging. So museums are following their visitors around, trying to figure out which exhibits they like, which placards are confusing, and how useful the museum maps really are.
  • Exhibit evaluation can also be tied to a museum’s public funding, a fact that may be contributing to the visitor observation trend sweeping the nation.
  • In the 1920s, during some of the first observation studies, researchers noted things like length of time spent at each exhibit and the direction they were most likely to turn in upon entering a gallery (right).

Facts & Figures

  • The Detroit Institute of Arts used covert observation (among other feedback collection techniques)  to redesign its galleries in 2007.
  • Museums can dedicate as much as 10% of a program’s budget to the evaluation of its success
  • The Science Museum of Minnesota spends $900,000 each year evaluating programs with its staff of 12.

Best Quote

“Whichever way you do it, a significant portion of your visitors find the map upside down.” – Judy Koke, Deputy Director of Education and Public Programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which is entered from the north side

Vetting is…

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Vetting is the process of looking at and evaluating stocks, businesses, or other potential investments for risks before committing your money to them.  Basically, checking it out.