Hard and brittle plastic

I've been here three days, and I'm not nihilistic anymore. That's good.

From Economist's view.

Saying sorry really does cost nothing, EurekAlert: Economists have finally proved what most of us have suspected for a long time – when it comes to apologizing, talk is cheap.
According to new research, firms that simply say sorry to disgruntled customers fare better than those that offer financial compensation. The ploy works even though the recipient of the apology seldom gets it from the person who made it necessary in the first place.
The ... Nottingham School of Economics' Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics ... set out to show whether customers who have been let down continue to do business after being offered an apology. They found people are more than twice as likely to forgive a company that says sorry than one that instead offers them cash. ...
[C]o-author Dr Johannes Abeler said the results proved apologies were both powerful and cheap. He said: "We know firms often employ professional apologists whose job is to say sorry to customers who have a grievance.
"You might think that if the apology is costless then customers would ignore it as nothing but cheap talk - which is what it is. But this research shows apologies really do influence customers' behavior – surprisingly, much more so than a cash sweetener.
"People don't seem to realize they're dealing with an expert apologist rather than an individual who feels genuine shame.
"It might be that saying sorry triggers in the customer an instinct to forgive – an instinct that's hard to overcome rationally."
Researchers worked with a firm responsible for around 10,000 sales a month on eBay, controlling its reaction to neutral or negative feedback. Some customers were offered an apology in return for withdrawing their comments, while others were offered €2.5 or €5.
The simple apology blamed the manufacturer for a delay in delivery, adding: "We are very sorry and want to apologize for this." Customers offered money were told: "As a goodwill gesture, we can offer you €5 if you would consider withdrawing your evaluation."
Because customers had no idea they were taking part in the experiment, their behavior was completely natural and unaffected. Some 45% of participants withdrew their evaluation in light of the apology, while only 23% agreed in return for compensation.
The study also discovered that a higher purchase price further reduced the number of customers willing to forgive for cash. Yet the size of the initial outlay had no effect on the willingness of participants to settle for simply reading the magic words: "I'm sorry."
Dr Abeler, an expert in behavioral economics, said: "It's interesting to note our setting should have made it hard for an apology to work.
"The apology was delivered by a large, anonymous firm and wasn't face-to-face, and the firm had a clear incentive to apologize.
"All of this meant the apology should have been regarded by the customers as calculated, insincere and just cheap talk. Yet it still yielded much better outcomes than offering cash compensation – and our results might even underestimate its effects."

Apparently, this also works for doctors:

Apology a tool to avoid malpractice suits, by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press: ...Some malpractice-overhaul advocates say an apology can help doctors avoid getting sued, especially when combined with an upfront settlement offer.
The idea defies a long tradition in which doctors cultivated a Godlike image of infallibility and rarely owned up to their mistakes.
The softer approach, now appearing in some medical school courses and hospital policies, is drawing interest as national attention has turned to reducing both medical errors and the high cost of malpractice insurance...
The hospitals in the University of Michigan Health System have been encouraging doctors since 2002 to apologize for mistakes. The system's annual attorney fees have since dropped from $3 million to $1 million, and malpractice lawsuits and notices of intent to sue have fallen from 262 filed in 2001 to about 130 per year...
Dr. Michael Woods, a surgeon in Colorado ... said his research has shown that being upset with a doctor's behavior often plays a bigger role than the error itself in patients' decisions to sue. ...

Accountants have also figured this out.

I did the same thing to Best Buy that is driving bookstores out of business. I went there, looked at the merchandise, played with it, and bought it on Amazon for $60 less. From inside the store, in fact. (iPhones are nice that way.)

Though you don't get the instant gratification that you would if you bought it the traditional way.

Hopefully, I'll be less bored now.

Before I moved to California, I had maybe 2 cups of coffee my entire life.

Now, I'm addicted. Sort of. I only have coffee two or three times a week, so it probably doesn't count as an addiction. And I still don't really like it. But caffeine is so much more necessary.

Fungus turns carpenter ants into ZOMBIES!

And get cable, probably. I get bored a lot and that doesn't help the whole depression thing. Reading is hard. TV is bad, in the sense that I just sit there, but it seems that I don't know how to get out of the house. (Though being bored definitely pushes me in that direction.)

I don't know. Sometimes I think, since I'm destined to be alone for the rest of my life, I should learn how to be alone. But I hate it.

bleah.

A camp for humanists, not bible thumpers.

Just reminding people. My phone number is (617) 519-6874. And I'll try really hard not to forget it this time.

Here

( Seriously,.. )

Not that I had any doubts, but:

Spoiler for Star Trek

I just heard "American Pie" on the radio for the first time in a while, and I started to think about the possibility that Obama would get assassinated and what that would do to the country. I think it would be a more devastating blow than Kennedy's death, but I wonder if that's because I live in the here and now vs. living in the 60's.

I do really like this president, even if I disagree with soMe of his decisions. I like his approach. And hopefully we will have for 7 2/3 more years.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Well worth watching

SNL comes through.

"Juco" meaning "Junior College" is a word in Scrabble. "Ok", meaning "Ok" isn't.

is quarantined.

A professor at Fordham Law School assigned his Information Privacy Law class to compile all the details of Scalia's life. They made a dossier, which included his

home address, his home phone number, the movies he likes, his food preferences, his wife's personal e-mail address, and "photos of his lovely grandchildren.

I just thought it was funny. I believe that privacy amounts to more than Scalia does, and he was clearly discomforted by the dossier.

(And the prof's response.)

Yet another YouTube video. (This one involves sheep, not singers.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

In 2003, a soldier killed herself. Of course, we can never know why, but she refused to torture prisoners, was reprimanded and then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003.

more here