“When we engage with people who have different assumptions about what is right, wrong, good, bad, beautiful, ugly – whose fundamental beliefs and values are different – it challenges our thinking. People stop and think, ‘If they can be right, how can I be right?’ People don’t like that imbalance, so they have to reconcile those differences and those thoughts. It leads to more complex minds, and makes people more cognitively complex.”

Why demographic diversity is key to the fight for the creative class (via curiositycounts)

(via curiositycounts)

High-res Sizing up where men look When men gaze at a picture of, say, former baseball player George Brett, they aren’t just checking out his batting stance. They’re also sneaking quick glances at Brett’s crotch, according to eye-tracking researchers. In a Web site design study, researchers at the Nielsen/Norman Group showed 255 men and women pictures of different people, including Brett and ballet dancers. Technology called “heat maps” helped reveal that men fixate on private parts-breasts and genitalia-more than women. But faces also draw a lot of looks too, said Kara Pernice Coyne, director of research for NN Group, which conducts behavioral research to make Web sites easier to use. “Women still do [look at private parts], but it’s definitely more men,” said Coyne. continue reading… chicagotribune hat tip to ppg for this 2007 link

Sizing up where men look

When men gaze at a picture of, say, former baseball player George Brett, they aren’t just checking out his batting stance. They’re also sneaking quick glances at Brett’s crotch, according to eye-tracking researchers.

In a Web site design study, researchers at the Nielsen/Norman Group showed 255 men and women pictures of different people, including Brett and ballet dancers. Technology called “heat maps” helped reveal that men fixate on private parts-breasts and genitalia-more than women.

But faces also draw a lot of looks too, said Kara Pernice Coyne, director of research for NN Group, which conducts behavioral research to make Web sites easier to use. “Women still do [look at private parts], but it’s definitely more men,” said Coyne.

continue reading… chicagotribune

hat tip to ppg for this 2007 link