Charis Palmer
Publisher, journalist & financial services strategist
Media & Publishing. Art. Social. Philosophy. Financial Services. Humour. Innovative thinking. Banking Review Media. Media Mentions. LAB. Freelancing. Research. Microfinance. Useful Stats. News. Cool stuff. Stuff about Pearltrees. 8 Studies Demonstrating the Power of Simplicity. Psychological research on cognitive fluency shows why easy to understand = more profitable, more pleasurable, more intelligent and safer.
Which of these would you say sounds like the more dangerous food additive: Hnegripitrom or Magnalroxate? The majority of people say Hnegripitrom sounds more dangerous. It turns out that the word ‘Magnalroxate’ is easier to think about than ‘Hnegripitrom’, probably because it’s more pronounceable, and people equate simplicity with safety (actually both words are made up). This is one example of psychological research on meta-cognition: thoughts about other thoughts. Whether or not something is easy to think about—cognitive fluency—is one important type of meta-cognition, with all sorts of benefits accruing to things that are easily processed. Here are 8 of my favourite studies on cognitive fluency, showing just how much can be explained by the feeling that something is easy to think about (or otherwise). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Keep it simple, clever clogs. Citi rolls out contactless payments stickers. JPMorgan Chase hires PayPal's Stephenson to expand mobile and Ne. Partial float of Kiwibank makes sense - business. Last updated 05:00 13/06/2010 Photo: Dominion Post PM John Key and Finance Minister Bill English.
OPINION: The government's failure to create and execute coherent economic policy is vividly demonstrated by John Key's decision to keep Kiwibank 100% government-owned as long as he is prime minister. If he wanted to join the dots, he would understand that the government could retain majority ownership of Kiwibank while helping it to maximise its economic benefit to the country via a partial stockmarket float. Kiwibank deserves the chance. Its customer satisfaction has tracked at 80-85% in Roy Morgan polls over the past eight years, handily ahead of the 70-80% range of the big four. The popularity has paid off. As a result, it has delivered a reasonable financial performance to its parent, NZ Post.
Since 2003, the banking sector's net interest margin has fallen from 2.6 percentage points to about two percentage points, according to Reserve Bank data. The bank downplays the question of capital. Zopa Announces Record Month, Originates £3.81 Million in New Loa. Zopa, a peer-to-peer lending company that operates in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan, announced that they have originated £3.81 million in new peer-to-peer loans during the month of January and are on pace to originate over £50 million in new loans during 2010.
On the company’s blog, Zopa said that, “In January, we disbursed £3.81 million to our borrowers, making it our biggest month ever. We’re pretty chuffed with this, so thanks to all our members for making it possible. And with our table-topping A* rates, we hope to have an even better February!” Zopa is a relatively large peer-to-peer lending company compared to some of its non-United States counterparts. To put things in perspective, Zopa is originating about twice as much in loans per month as Prosper and about 66% of what Lending Club is originating. Zopa is a peer-to-peer lending company based in England.