Mood News.

Byline: Lois B. Morris

The Cleavage Myth

Does Cleavage Work at Work?" is the title of a study carried out by a team of researchers at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Their answer to that question is essentiallybut not entirelyno. Led by Peter Glick, a professor of psychology, the investigators showed men and women one of four videos in which a purported saleswoman promoted an allergy medication. She was either buttoned up or revealing cleavage, and she was selling either a clearly effective product or a decidedly weak one. Evidently, dressing sexily did not help pitch the products. Yet when questioned later, the men generally "believed that using cleavage is effective when selling a weak product but counterproductive when selling a strong product," the researchers reportand men's opinion of the cleavage-baring woman's hireability varied accordingly, in contrast to that of female viewers. Despite cleavage's apparent lack of sales influence, "the belief in its power can create a reality in which male managers sometimes give preferential treatment and at other times discriminate against women who dress provocatively," the study authors note.

Missing You

One way to improve mood, surprisingly, may be to imagine not having someone or something you treasure. Minkyung Koo, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, and her team had people write about a cherished individual or objecteither how it became part of their lives or what life would be like without it. The group who explored the effects of ...