Research Publications

Most of my publications fall into three areas:

Time and the pace of life

I’ve been especially interested in how different cultures view and use their time, which cities and countries are fastest and slowest and, ultimately, how these differences bear on the quality of the lives of the people who live in these places. For the best single overview of my writings and research on these topics, I recommend looking at my book, A Geography of Time. You can also find my other publications on these topics in my full list of publications.

Helping and Kindness Toward Strangers

In these studies, my students and I have traveled across the United States and much of the world to observe where passersby are most likely to help a stranger. In each city, we have conducted five different field experiments. Our studies have focused on simple acts of assistance: Is an “unnoticed” dropped pen retrieved by a passing pedestrian? Does a man with a hurt leg receive assistance picking up a dropped magazine? Will a blind person be helped across a busy intersection? Will a stranger try to make change for a quarter (or its foreign equivalent)? Do people take the time to mail a stamped and addressed “lost” letter? For an overview of these studies, you can download a PDF version of my recent article, “The Kindness of Strangers,” from The American Scientist.

Persuasion and Manipulation

I’ve conducted various types of field research, ranging from interviews to going undercover as a participant observer, to understand the methods of persuasion and manipulation that get people to buy and do things they never intended. My students and I have, for example, deliberately thrown ourselves in the paths of hucksters selling everything from cars and tupperware to health and religion. We’ve observed the heavyweights--people who use their skills to control lives--exert their powers, individuals ranging from politicians and psychotherapists to religious and cult leaders. I’ve studied magicians and mentalists and assorted flim-flam men. Most educational of all, I’ve taken jobs selling used and new cars and as a door-to-door cutlery salesman. The results of this research are published in my recent book, The Power of Persuasion: How We’re Bought and Sold.

You can read a complete list of my publications in my VITA

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